According to numerous self-advocates, Autism and ADHD representation in film leaves much to be desired. The host, multimedia artist and neurodiversity*-affirming therapist Kat Singer brings together fellow neurodivergent** artists to share their work, explore their relationships with diagnosis and speak to the representation they would like to see on screens.

We will be sharing a virtual “living room” and drinking non-alcoholic beverages of our choice – join us for 90 minutes of insightful and authentic conversation in a relaxed, gently facilitated space. *\

Individual human brains naturally differ in how they are built and how they function; this biological fact is referred to as “neurodiversity.” Autism and ADHD are examples of diagnostic labels for people whose brains look and function differently from what is considered typical or “normal”. These individuals sometimes choose to self-identify as neurodivergent. Self-advocates have begun to reclaim these medical terms that have been used to oppress them, transforming stigma into pride and creating communities of like-minded people. To learn more about key terms, see  Nick Walker’s seminal essay:

https://neuroqueer.com/neurodiversity-terms-and-definitions/

Our special guests at Neurodivergent Creator Cozy Tea Time will be announced soon

Accessibility:

ASL and live captioning will be provided. For all accessibility inquiries please contact Raine Laurent-Eugene at raine_laurenteugene@workmanarts.com.

Put Thursday, December 16 in your calendar –The Workman Arts staff would love to invite all members to our year-end Holiday Gathering on Thursday, Dec 16th at 6-8PM to celebrate the year 2021 and welcome a new year filled with infinite possibilities and opportunities. 

The night will consist of hands-on zine-making activity, some musical performances, a possible carolling sing-along, and the night will end with a raffle, click the RSVP button to register and receive the link to join. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Creating autobiographical work or artwork that draws from personal experience can be a powerful and evocative process for an artist and any collaborators. Sharing examples from his own work, filmmaker and photographer Rick Miller offers insights on supporting your mental health through the process of creating autobiographical work, in conversation with friend, collaborator and former Workman Arts Membership Manager, Justina Zatzman.

For one hour, Participants are invited into a conversation about how to support creative work with personal material, not only in caring for yourself, but also to create healthy and supportive creative environments for collaborators. As lifting restrictions allow artists to re-engage more openly with collaborative work, we have an opportunity to envision collective growth in how we care for the artists we work with (including ourselves).

At the end of the conversation, Rick and Justina will share a draft tool that they’re co-creating to offer suggestions for creating trauma-informed creative environments with a focus on filmmaking, but which could be useful for artists practicing collaboratively in any artistic discipline.

The structured discussion will end after an hour, but interested participants are welcome to stay for an additional 30 minutes to share or ask questions.

Free Workshops,

Professional Development Events and

Development Series for Artists and Filmmakers

This year Rendezvous with Madness Festival is thrilled to present a range of workshops and professional development events for the public, arts professionals, artists and filmmakers!

Most events will be hosted virtually, though some activities will happen in person.

See the full scope of events below!

Applying for an arts grant can be confusing or overwhelming. Join Ontario Arts Council (OAC) officers for detailed information about grant opportunities for Ontario-based artists and arts groups with a special focus on accessibility and Deaf and disability-related granting opportunities.

Join this informative session about what film distribution means for independent media artists and how to make your works as accessible to as many audiences as possible.

Creating autobiographical work or artwork that draws from personal experience can be a powerful and evocative process for an artist and any collaborators. Sharing examples from his own work, filmmaker and photographer Rick Miller offers insights on supporting your mental health through the process of creating autobiographical work, in conversation with friend, collaborator and former Workman Arts Membership Manager, Justina Zatzman.

For one hour, Participants are invited into a conversation about how to support creative work with personal material, not only in caring for yourself, but also to create healthy and supportive creative environments for collaborators. As lifting restrictions allow artists to re-engage more openly with collaborative work, we have an opportunity to envision collective growth in how we care for the artists we work with (including ourselves).

At the end of the conversation, Rick and Justina will share a draft tool that they’re co-creating to offer suggestions for creating trauma-informed creative environments with a focus on filmmaking, but which could be useful for artists practicing collaboratively in any artistic discipline.

The structured discussion will end after an hour, but interested participants are welcome to stay for an additional 30 minutes to share or ask questions.

Join us for a creative animation workshop led by Gil Goletski, a multimedia doer from Vancouver Island. They make animation, illustration and music. Their unique experience as an Autistic transgender person informs most of their work; odd impossible proportioned bodies, ugly porous faces and strange wobbly lines. Recently they have been exploring the idea of identity by using proxies and micro-narratives to explore different aspects of flawed personalities.

Workshop Outline 

1. Introduction /about Gil
2. Pros and cons of professional training: “art school” and learning the “right” away to animate 
3. How to unlearn professional tactics: become a beginner again with an emphasis on having fun: “work VS “play”
4. become a beginner again, emphasis on having fun, animation “work” vs “play”
5. “Show & Tell” brief explanation of a quickly drawn animation by Gil
6. Explanation of different mediums and techniques that are helpful when animating quickly (examples: Crosshair technique and simply tricks on your smartphone)
7. A conversation about different 2D and 3D resources and software for quick animations. 
8. Q &A

The Infernal Grove Study Group

DRUGS, FREEDOM AND THE TYRANNY OF REPRESENTATION

Friday Nov. 5, 5:00-6:30pm EST

Featuring: Margaret Sadovsky, Dani ReStack, Liz Roberts, Mikiki, Cooper Battersby and Emily Vey Duke

Reading: excerpts from Maggie Nelson’s On Freedom (2021) (pdf)

Video: The Infernal Grove

Reading the text and watching the video are not required for participation in the discussion.

The study group brings into dialogue a group of artists from across the continent who have lived experience with substance-use, and who represent a range of current relationships to sobriety and its alternatives. They will discuss Maggie Nelson’s On Freedom. The book is an interrogation of the concept of freedom and the way it is deployed in philosophical, literary and political discourses. We will read a section of Chapter 3 Drug Fugue she describes the frame put around drug use and addiction by ideas of freedom and confinement.

In recovery programs, perhaps by necessity and certainly by design, there is a push to accept received wisdom. But for addict-intellectuals, it’s hard to forfeit critical thinking to recovery. In addiction, connection to the intellectual can become tenuous. It’s easy to lose the relationships and identities that support rigorous critical thinking. Recovery can mean recovering those relationships and identities.

This first session of the Study Group explores the notion of drug-taking as an adaptive strategy in a world stripped of ritual and connection to land.

The Infernal Grove Project exposes the disproportionate effects of public trauma (including the COVID pandemic) on drug users, especially addicts of color. It’s become an organizing principle in our thinking about this work: we need to show the connections between addiction and the socioeconomic forces that create and exploit it.

ig: @the_infernal_grove

The Infernal Grove Project takes place mostly on stolen Mi’kmaq and Onondaga land.

The festival hosting this version, Rendezvous with Madness, is located on the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

To those who have allowed us to stay, we humbly extend gratitude and honour.

Join Sarah Trad via Zoom for a glitch art workshop on November 1 6:30-7:30 PM ET

Using the open-source, free and multidisciplinary software Audacity, Sarah Trad will be teaching an introductory workshop on how to glitch still images. Glitch art experimentation uses Sonification as a process within audio software that disturbs the file data of images to create a new visual effect. In this workshop, Sarah will give a step-by-step tutorial on how to glitch an image. As well as provide historical context for glitch art; how it fits into the history of found art and collage including, artists that have inspired her artistic practice.

ABOUT SARAH

Sarah Trad, a Philadelphia-based video artist and curator who explores the relationship between subjective and objective emotionality, navigating daily life and relationships while faced with mental illness and breaking down stereotypes of gender and narrative. Her work also highlights how mental illness and coming from marginalized backgrounds intersect with internal emotional worlds.

This workshop is limited to 12 participants.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing a link to download Audacity, workshop materials and information about joining the meeting.