2026 Interpretive Tour Training Cohort

Fall 2026 update:

We have now completed training of all 7 participants in the tour training program. We are proud to announce that Gagan Kaur, Johnny Tai, Amy Amantea, Karl Christie, Theo Blue, Jen Yakamovich, and Ryan Ollis have all completed the program and will be hosting interpretive tours at grunt gallery this winter as well as external tours with our partner organizations through the winter and spring 2027.

This program is funded by Disability Alliance BC, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Interpretive Tour with Theo Blue, grunt gallery

Friday, November 13th, 1 to 2PM. Interpretive Tour, Free. Open to the Public.

Join Interpretive Guide Theo Blue for a unique response to Naomi Watkin’s exhibition, Resonant Bodies. Drawing on their interest in bringing the sounds of nature into the gallery, Theo will explore the exhibition through music, offering new ways to listen, connect, and engage with the work.

Interpretive Tour with Gagan Kaur, grunt gallery

Tuesday, November 17th, 4 to 5PM. Interpretive, Non-Verbal Tour, Free. Open to the public.

Join Interpretive Guide Gagan Kaur for a unique, non-verbal response to Naomi Watkin’s exhibition, Resonant Bodies. Exploring the relationships between trees and the people who encounter them, Gagan invites visitors to consider how trees communicate, interact with us, and exist as living beings, even without spoken language. This event is a special, unique response and is not to be missed!

Gagan also provides the weekly Blind-Led tours at grunt gallery every Friday from 4-5PM as part of our regular programming.

PRIVATE EVENT: Interpretive Tour with Ryan Ollis, grunt gallery

Friday, November 20th, 12 to 2PM. Interpretive, DeafBlind Tour, Free. By Invitation

On Friday, November 20th, we will be closed to the public as Interpretive Guide Ryan Ollis hosts a special tour for local DeafBlind community members. If you are a DeafBlind community member and would like to attend, please email access@grunt.ca.

The gallery will be open again from 2-5 PM to the public with our weekly Blind-Led tours by Gagan Kaur from 4-5PM

Interpretive Tour with Karl Christie, grunt gallery

Saturday, November 21st, 3 to 4 PM. Interpretive Tour, Free. Open to the public.

Join Interpretive Guide Karl Christie for a unique exploration of Naomi Watkin’s exhibition, Resonant Bodies. Bringing his own perspectives and experiences to the exhibition, Karl invites visitors to engage with the artworks through conversation, curiosity, and shared discovery.

Interpretive Tour with Johnny Tai, Richmond Art Gallery

Saturday, November 21st, Interpretive Tours in English and Mandarin, Free. Open to the public. RSVP.

Learn more about the Richmond Art Gallery’s exhibition with a blind-led tour facilitated by Johnny (Tiger) Tai, a Richmond-based artist with sight loss and partial deafness. These unique tours allow visitors to experience contemporary art through visual and non-visual perspectives, challenging traditional ways of engaging with gallery spaces. Registration is recommended.

English tour: 10 to 11 am

Mandarin tour: 11 to Noon.

Forthcoming Events:

Stay tuned for more events coming soon! We will be co-hosting tours at the Libby Leshgold, Burnaby Museum and Museum of Vancouver, as well as more interpretive tours at grunt gallery in February 2027.

Past Events:

August 2026 – Karl Christie hosted interpretive tours with the Beaty Biodiversity Museum where he continues to work as a volunteer tour guide.

Image Description: Several adults sit and stand around a long white table during a training session in a white-walled media room. One adult stands at the front of the room beside a large screen displaying presentation slides while another participant raises both hands while speaking. Water bottles, mugs, bowls of snacks, and papers are spread across the tabletop.

Photo Credit: Keimi Nakashima-Ochoa (KNO), 2026.

In spring 2026, with support from the Disability Alliance BC (DABC), grunt gallery launched a new interpretive tour training cohort with four blind and low-vision artists and cultural workers. Across two full days of classroom training, participants explore interpretive theory, storytelling, audience engagement, and practical approaches to delivering meaningful guided experiences within galleries and museums.

In the summer, we were further supported by funds from the Canada Council for the Arts to extend the program and add another cohort of 3 low-vision and DeafBlind participants.

The two cohorts will develop and deliver their own interpretive tours at grunt gallery alongside our regularly scheduled blind-led tours programming guide, emerging artist and writer, Gagan Kaur.

This fall, participants will also host programming with partner organizations, including the Libby Leshgold Gallery, Museum of Vancouver, Burnaby Art Gallery, and Richmond Art Gallery, building experience across different institutional contexts and overall expanding access to arts and culture in the Lower Mainland.

The program is designed to centre blind and low-vision lived experience not as a barrier to interpretation, but as valuable expertise that deepens audience connection and expands ways of experiencing contemporary visual art.

If your organization is interested in partnering with us, or if you would like to help sustain and grow this work through donations, we would love to hear from you.

Here are some photographs from our late April training sessions: