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The pandemic, however, brought these face-to-face sessions to a halt. The meetings transitioned to video calls, but Bell wanted a space to showcase and share the work many of the participants were creating.
She thought of hosting a podcast.
“The intention was to share projects from the VOICE Lab and also connect to other people in other places across Saskatchewan or Canada that could speak to disability or art and were interested in sharing,” Bell said.
“The podcast I think is also a way to have conversations about disability, art and access.”
Often when people think of people with disabilities creating art, they think of it as a therapeutic activity, said Kathleen Irwin, a theatre professor at the U of R and one of the faculty representatives with the VOICE Lab. She emphasized that art is much more than a therapy.
“We’re not just looking at art-making as a therapeutic endeavour, we’re looking at it as a real form of expression and conceptualizing and thinking important thoughts and disseminating important thoughts,” said Irwin.
By viewing art through that lens, Irwin said supporting people with disabilities as they explore creative self-expression helps them to build confidence in their skills and to advocate for themselves.
“We have given them an opportunity to do podcasts, to express themselves musically, to express themselves artistically using creative apps that are readily available,” she said.
“We’re really just trying to expand the scope of their expression.”
