On Tuesday, Charles Eppley presented a lecture about disability, inclusion and accessibility in modern art.
The lecture was held in the Art Lecture Hall on San José State’s campus.
Eppley, who identifies with they/he pronouns, is an interdisciplinary art historian who focuses on sound art, disability studies and digital culture, according to Yale University’s website.
They also teach several courses at Arizona State University, covering different topics such as diversity, and history in art and media.
The presentation mainly focused on making museums and art galleries accessible to those who are disabled.
“I don’t mean exclusively physically accessible — though that is vital,” Eppley said. “I also mean socially and culturally accessible, where disabled people can become key stakeholders in the operation and culture of museum spaces.”
Eppley said what museums need to do in order to make their spaces accessible for all.
“To do this — to be accessible — museums, firstly, need to hire disabled people. They need to exhibit disabled artists, whether or not their work is about disability,” Eppley said. “Secondly, they need to cultivate a culture of access and inclusion that is formed around disability community perspectives.”
Throughout his presentation, Eppley stressed the importance of being inclusive to all audiences when both are creating and experiencing art.
“A sound installation without a sound description, it disappears as an immaterial vapor, remaining inaccessible to the hard of hearing or deaf guests, but available to hearing patrons. In other words, some people are prioritized and privileged more than others,” they said.
Eppley also said art accessibility is important in order to have every person able to experience artworks.
They said inaccessible art can feel nonexistent for those with different disabilities.
Eppley explained the terminology discussing disability accessibility and about methods of activism throughout his presentation.
“We need a model of disability driven access,” they said. “We can call this and people do call this access artistry. Disability arts scholar and curator Amanda Cachia calls this curatorial activism access, created by artists and informed by disability culture.”
Art in preparation for teaching freshman Ellie Montes went to the event as a requirement for her Topics in Fabricated Sculptures class at SJSU.
“It was really informative about different ways to make galleries accessible to different people with different disabilities,” Montes said.
Gallery director, collections manager and organizer of the event, Alena Sauzade, expressed her thoughts about the presentation.
“I think the topic is super important for our students (and) super interesting for (them), but we don’t currently have a full course on (it). Maybe someday in the future,” Sauzade said.
