ACCESSIBILITY

ACCESSIBILITY

Year after year, we at Vines Art Festival have been working on bringing art to communities in Vancouver that have historically been left behind by arts organizations. In line with our mission to support underrepresented voices, we are working to support community members who are disabled, Blind, have low vision, are Deaf, hard of hearing, neurodivergent, immunocompromised, and prioritizing those who are Black, Indigenous, of colour, migrants, houseless, queer, and trans within these communities. There are many things that we are yet to do to reduce barriers for these communities in accessing our programming, but we are committed to growing our relationships more and more every year. 

We recognize the time it is taking to build relationships and make accessible spaces with Blind, low vision, Deaf, and hard of hearing communities. Right now, we are working on building our knowledge and capacity to create relationships that will allow us to support and uplift artists and audiences alike. We do not intend to find quick solutions for the historic exclusion of these communities from art spaces, and plan on ensuring that our relationships and accommodations are deeply rooted in our foundations. We know that initiating these relationships is our work, and any research and partnership that we maintain will be built on equitable measures. 

In years past, we have reached out to the Vancouver Parks Board for accessibility audits of Vancouver parks, but have received no response on whether these have been made. We have thought of the possibility of funding these audits, and will make them public when we are able to do so.

We are open to receiving feedback regarding the accessibility of our work, and to creating opportunities for paid community consultation. If you would like to reach out to us with comments, requests, or to offer consultation, please reach out to Marcelo at marcelo@vinesartfestival.com. They will connect with you and work to meet your needs.

 

ACCESSIBILITY DETAILS

That being said, these are some things that we have done in the past to reduce some barriers: 

  • Vines Art Festival and other Vines programming is completely free of cost
  • We are constantly working to meet the needs of our artists by distributing emergency funds and wellness programming
  • Every year, select festival programming is ASL interpreted
  • Vines Art Festival 2020 online was fully closed captioned
  • In 2020, we worked with Adriana Contreras in making illustrated maps of the parks we work in. The maps included an audio description for blind and low vision folks
  • We have made ‘visual stories’ of parks and events for our neurodivergent audience. Thanks to Anika Vervecken and PuSh Festival for their templates
  •  We have used colour coded tags during performances that artists and audience can use to indicate whether they are comfortable with social interaction
  • Every year we make a Festival Accessibility page available highlighting accommodations, bus routes, parking, washrooms, and more

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Vines Art Festival takes place on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.

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CONTACT US

info@vinesartfestival.com


Pandora Fieldhouse
2325 Franklin Street
Vancouver, BC
V5L 1S2

778.918.4081