grunt’s Accessible Exhibitions, Public Programming and Events project (AEPE) supports a radical development prototype, exploring access and accessible planning, community care and public programming, Disability Justice and non-hierarchical approaches to knowledge sharing and decision making. The cross departmental initiative provides leadership and labour to the grunt team as we explore access, justice, and care as an artist-run centre. The AEPE project is led by grunt’s Exhibitions and Accessibility Manager, Kay Slater, and our Accessibility and Events Manager, Keimi Nakashima-Ochoa, alongside the work of grunt’s accessibility committee which is composed of grunt staff across departments and is informed by the vision and priorities of the AEPE project. Check out this video introduction to the AEPE with English captions (click here to access the transcript):

Since the inception of the AEPE in 2021, programming and initiatives have included:

Low-Sensory and Voice-Off visiting hours hosted every Thursday, which prioritizes access to our exhibitions for folks who require a more quiet or non-verbal experience and are often excluded from spaces due to allergies and sensory challenges. Building upon our learnings, the AEPE has offered a workshop exploring the hows and whys of low-sensory and voice-off hosting for other arts organizations interested in this model.

The AEPE has similarly offered asynchronous, online workshops designed for artist-run centres, galleries, presentation spaces and artists to take tangible first steps towards building accessibility into their practices. In 2021, the Non-Auditory Access workshop series was launched, inviting participants to learn the basics of captioning and transcription for live and pre-recorded material. Check out the Non-Auditory Access workshop here. In 2022, the AEPE launched the Hosting and Contemporary Care workshop, which walks participants through the who, why and how of designing events with multiple access points. Check out the Hosting and Contemporary Care workshop here.

In 2023, the AEPE concluded its grant-funded programming with two workshops: Stimming Co-Learning Program and the Non-Visual Participation Workshop. The Stimming Co-Learning program was an initiative between artist Veto Monteiro and the aepe which culminated in programming specifically for arts workers who both engage with the public and who identify as neurodivergent. An additional public workshop to celebrate stimming and to create stimming objects and toys is in development. The Non-Visual Participation workshop concludes three years of free, evergreen workshops developed by the AEPE designed to help Artists, Artist-Run Centres, and Presentation Spaces take tangible first steps in developing accessible programs and services. The Non-Visual Participation Workshop was developed by the two non-visual artists, Johnny and Jen, from the 2022 Tactile Co-Learning program. The workshop is being captioned in English, French, Spanish, and Traditional Chinese and will be available online shortly.

To prioritize non-visual access to grunt’s exhibitions, the AEPE has been working alongside artists to develop visual descriptions of their work. Working with these descriptions and further insights from the artists, the AEPE has offered creative access audio tours of each exhibition presented at grunt since winter 2022, made available in-gallery via handheld audio devices, on our website and via SoundCloud. Check out the creative access audio tour for Syncretic Birthrights by Odera Igbokwe here. This on-going work has not only augmented access to our exhibitions, but has additionally allowed for grunt’s archive to become more rich and robust, documenting accessible practices, Disability inclusion, and examples for our artists to carry forward to other institutions.

grunt’s exhibitions have been additionally enhanced with the AEPE’s introduction of 360° virtual tours — explore Alison Bremner’s exhibition here; accessible PDF versions of our exhibition catalogs — check out the the accessible catalog doc for Cheyenne Rain LeGrande’s exhibition here; and tactile objects designed to evoke key elements of each exhibition.

In the winter of 2022, the AEPE piloted a Tactile Residency, providing space for participants to explore non-visual and tactile (touch) responses to works in the grunt gallery exhibition space and archives. The residency is a co-learning opportunity for grunt’s staff and community to explore how tactility can exist and play-out within predominantly visual spaces where touching and interacting with work is discouraged, forbidden, or not considered. For this prototype year,  we welcomed two local artists, Johnny “Tiger” Tai and Jen Yakamovich, as tactile artists-in-residence to engage with us in conversation around what it means to be non-visual within a visual arts community. We continued this program in 2023, renamed as the Tactile Co-Learning Program, with artist Monique Francis who shared her tactile weaving and paper spinning process. An archive video from Monique’s residency will be available shortly.

Also added in the winter of 2023 was the introduction of our Voice-Off Co-Learning program, a residency which mirrored the tactile learning program for non-verbal, Deaf/deaf/Hard of hearing, or neurodivergent artists who engaged in a non-verbal or “voice-off” practice. During the month-long program, both the program staff (Kay) and artist were non-verbal in their meetings, when participating in grunt programs and staff meetings, and in their responses for the archives. An archive video from 2023 Voice-Off artist Kelsie Frazier will be available shortly.

The AEPE is in conversation with artists from the local Host Nations, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh, about Indigenous welcomes, protocols, and access. This began with hosting Manuel Axel Strain to talk about their families and histories on Musqueam land, about the adjacent waters to grunt and the waters that no longer exist where we work as uninvited guests, and about ways that we could engage with Strain’s family when we were gathering. This year, the AEPE and grunt have been working with Squamish artist and public art consultant Salia Joseph from Host Consulting, exploring both how to bring understanding of Indigenous sovereignty on these lands to non-MST/Indigenous Disabled folks, and how to make accessibility initiatives more present and reflective of ancestral teachings in this region.

The AEPE’s C-CARE initiative provides supplies and supports on-site at grunt that allow people to show up to events more fully and to meet a variety of needs. The supplies offered via C-CARE are regularly assessed according to the needs of staff and visitors, with staples including diapers and sanitary napkins, bandaids, sun screen, condoms, apple sauce and a hot water dispenser. These offerings help to make our facility more warm and welcoming, and responsive to the needs of those sharing the space at grunt.

The AEPE’s initiatives continue to develop and expand in response to grunt’s evolving communities and the learnings we engage in with them. Please reach out anytime with questions or feedback via access@grunt.ca.

If you would like to book a presentation of any of the AEPE workshops live for your organization or community – please contact us. You are also welcome to use the materials under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The AEPE project has been made possible through funding from the Canada Council for the Arts and British Columbia Arts Council, thank you!

Syncretic Birthrights brings together a series of both new and previous work from painter and illustrator Odera Igbokwe. Central to Igbokwe’s work is the idea of possibility and transformation, especially for QTBIPOC communities. These works are part of a continuing collection that blend together Nigerian and afro-diasporic folklore and traditions, reclaiming and recontextualizing them into a series of syncretized paintings reflecting the many ways culture becomes harmonized within one’s identity while still responding to communal needs of storytelling and connection within art. Their paintings celebrate sexuality and gender variance in the face of postcolonial homophobia through vibrant colours, and mythological figures presented with striking grace and speaking towards an unwavering spirit of Black resilience, joy and magic.

Odera Igbokwe (they/them) is an illustrator and painter located on the unceded and traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Odera was born of Igbo parents who immigrated to the lands of the Lenape people. As a result they are constantly excavating, responding, and envisioning in spite of the fractures that occur via diaspora. Their artwork is an exploration of storytelling through Afro-diasporic spiritualism, Black resilience, magical girl transformation sequences, and redefining the archetypal hero’s journey. More specifically, they are intrigued by Nigerian spiritualism, folklore, and sacred practices, and how that relates to contemporary communities across the Americas.

Their artwork weaves together ancient narratives with Afrofuturist visions to explore present day embodiment. It explores the magic of the Black Queer imagination, and questions how to build a home from an intersectional lens. Ultimately these works are a gateway to healing from collective and generational traumas, and assert that healing can be a celebration of joy, mundanity, pain, and fantasy coexisting. As an artist, Odera works with clients and galleries to create work that is deeply personal, soulful, and intersectional. They have created personal works and commissions for Beyoncé, Solange Knowles, Oumou Sangaré, and Dawn Richard. Odera’s work has been exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Museum of Anthropology at UBC, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, grunt gallery, Burrard Arts Foundation, The James Black Gallery and SUM Gallery.

Image: The Volcano by Odera Igbokwe. Courtesy of the artist.

This exhibition is curated by Whess Harman.

Digitized Programming:

Publication catalogue:

PDF
A companion catalogue for the exhibition with curatorial text by Whess Harmon, and exhibition response by Nya Lewis.
Visual description available: Plain Text, Audio.
A free printed copy is available in gallery while supplies last.

Artist Talk:

Odera Igbokwe’s artist talk. Link opens on vimeo with English captions and transcript via google docs.
Summary: Artist talk with Odera at the opening of their solo exhibition on May 12th, 2023.

Creative Access Audio Tour:

Creative Access Audio Tour of the exhibition. Link opens on SoundCloud (external link).
Listen to a visually described tour of Syncretic Birthrights, written by Kay Slater and Keimi Nakashima-Ochoa, and Christina Kim. It is narrated by Kay Slater.
English transcript available: Google Doc, Plain Text, PDF

Site Map and Didactics:

A PDF containing the didactic information and layout of the works in the show. This didactic information is also contained within the audio tour and virtual walkthroughs.

Virtual Walkthrough:

We captured a 360 of the exhibition, but only have the rights to share 5 active shows at a time. Here are stills that were pulled from the 360. If you would like to experience our 360 capture, please contact archives@grunt.ca

You are invited to grunt gallery’s memorial for Hillary Wood (December 25, 1948 – March 2, 2023), a dear friend, founding member, and beloved presence in the Vancouver arts community. All are welcome.  

The memorial will take place at grunt gallery located at 350 East 2nd Ave, Unit 116 in Vancouver (street parking available) on Sunday April 30th, 2023, from 1pm – 4pm. Remarks at 1:30pm, open to all. Drinks and light refreshments provided.

There will be a virtual gathering option as well. Please click here to join via Zoom, and enter the passcode 156732 for access.

grunt will prepare a slideshow presentation with images of Hillary and her artwork. If you have any digital images you would like to contribute please email them to Dan Pon, dan@grunt.ca. If you have any hard copy images you would like digitized and included please email Dan to make arrangements as soon as possible. You are also welcome to send quotes, memories, or other written tributes which will be included as text slides to the email above.

Masks are encouraged and provided on request.

Image: Hillary Wood with Joe Haag, Aiyyana Maracle, Edmund Melynchuk, Kempton Dexter, Barbara Seamon, Polly Bak, Phillip Beeman, and Glenn Alteen, For the Life of Art March/Arts Awareness Day, 1993. Photo by Pat Beaton.

In the exhibition Ladykiller the Maneater, Tlingit artist Alison Bremner brings forward the experiences of an imagined deity who has existed in a dream-state for a very long time—so long that no one is certain even of what she was the deity of anymore. The eel in Tlingit culture was considered too “lowly” a creature to eat and therefore largely ignored. But eventually, Ladykiller could not ignore the world of men, and was awoken from her subterranean slumber and emerged to traverse and experience this new world around her.

For Bremner, culture is not stagnant. Through contact and technological revolution, Tlingit culture is constantly adapting, observing and searching for its place in the world, just as any other. Ladykiller the Maneater is both a manifestation of trauma and a means of processing it; Bremner envisions her as loving and gentle in her most natural state but highly carnivorous when agitated. Bremner’s paintings demonstrate both the love and bite of the artist’s humour and her penchant to draw from all aspects of contemporary Indigenous identity without assigning much attention to the discourse of traditional vs contemporary. Bremner’s work is not exotic but lived in, felt and able to weave through the cacophony of abrupt awakenings and disruption.

Alison O. Bremner is a Tlingit artist born and raised in Southeast Alaska. Bremner is believed to be the first Tlingit woman to carve and raise a totem pole. She has studied under master artists David R. Boxley and David A. Boxley in Kingston, Washington. Painting, woodcarving, regalia and digital collage are a few of the mediums the artist employs. In addition to her contemporary art practice, Bremner is committed to the revitalization of the Tlingit language and creating works for traditional and ceremonial use.

Her work is included in the permanent collections of, among others, the Burke Museum, Seattle; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Château Musée Boulogne-sur-Mer, France; Frye Art Museum, Seattle; and the British Museum in London.

Image: Courtesy of the artist.

This exhibition is curated by Whess Harman.

Digitized Programming:

Publication catalogue:

PDF
A companion catalogue for the exhibition with curatorial text by Whess Harmon.
Visual description available: Plain Text, Audio.
A free printed copy is available in gallery while supplies last.

Artist Talk:

Alison Bremner’s artist talk. Link opens on vimeo with English captions and transcript via google docs.
Summary: Artist talk with Alison on April 19th, 2023, recorded on Zoom.

Creative Access Audio Tour:

Creative Access Audio Tour of the exhibition. Audio currently unavailable.
A visually described tour of Ladykiller the Maneater, written by Keimi Nakashima-Ochoa, with assistance from Kay Slater.
English transcript available: Google Doc, Plain Text, PDF

Site Map and Didactics:

A PDF containing the didactic information and layout of the works in the show. This didactic information is also contained within the audio tour and virtual walkthroughs.

Virtual Walkthrough:

We captured a 360 of the exhibition, but only have the rights to share 5 active shows at a time. Here are stills that were pulled from the 360. If you would like to experience our 360 capture, please contact archives@grunt.ca

grunt gallery Tactile Residency 2022-2023

The tactile residency is a dynamic opportunity that provides space for participants to explore non-visual and tactile (touch) responses to works in the grunt gallery exhibition space and archives. grunt gallery offers the tactile artist residency as a co-learning opportunity for its staff and community to explore how tactility can exist and play-out within predominantly visual spaces where touching and interacting with work is discouraged, forbidden, or not considered. For this prototype year,  we welcomed two local artists, Johnny “Tiger” Tai and Jen Yakamovich, as tactile artists-in-residence to engage with us in conversation around what it means to be non-visual within a visual arts community.

For the past season, we have been in conversation about the artists’ practices, what it means to be paid to work behind the scenes, and how to share knowledge without it being extractive; something that is common when institutions reach out for insight from the Disabled community. This program was designed to encourage artist growth and confidence, while being in conversation about the real barriers facing non-visual artists within visual arts spaces. We have benefitted as much, if not more, in having access to working Disabled artist, and hope to continue this program next year. In particular, inviting our residency artists to our accessibility committee and programming meetings has allowed us both to have candid conversations about access, but also provides artists a behind-the-scenes look at the structures within artist run centres so as to inform artists of what happens when they apply or submit work to exhibition spaces.

In April 2023, grunt gallery will be hosting a closed conversation, facilitate and lead by Carmen Papalia, around navigating the visual arts world non-visually. Invited participants from the Blind, Non-Visual, partially sighted, and low-vision communities will gather to discuss. Following this closed event, an edited transcript will be provided to the participants, and should we receive consent, the transcript may be shared more widely.

Building on the knowledge that has been shared by Jen and Johnny in this inaugural year, we hope to continue to support the growth of local Disabled and Blind, DeafBlind, Low Vision, and Partially Sighted artists and community members in an inclusive and supportive way.

Johnny Tai  (1982) is a Blind, partially deaf, emerging artist, musician and martial artist currently living in Richmond, British Columbia. He was born in Taiwan and immigrated to Canada in 1989. He went blind due to Steven Johnson syndrome at the age of three and lost hearing in his right ear shortly thereafter. His first foray into art was at a young age, recreating everyday objects (vacuums, tables, animals, etc) out of Lego, clay and other materials. In adolescence, he branched out with aluminum etchings and three-dimensional works in clay, wood and soapstone, leading to a scholarship from the Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design (ECU) in 2000. He studied Psychology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) and received a Social Work degree from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 2006. Due to his visual and hearing impairment, tactility is a core function of how he navigates the world. His current artistic practice focuses on tactile drawings on metal, and in making music. You may visit his website at johnnytiger.com

Jen Yakamovich (1993) is a drummer, composer, and improviser currently living and working on Coast Salish territories (Vancouver). Drawing from creative music and movement lineages and the environmental humanities, she  explores the relationship between sound, embodiment, and social ecology. She performs under the solo moniker “Troll Dolly.” She regularly plays drums for Niloo Farahzadeh, Walgrin (Tegan Wahlgrin), and Miguel Maravilla.  You may visit her website at jenyakamovich.com

This solo exhibition by Cheyenne Rain LeGrande ᑭᒥᐊᐧᐣ , Mullyanne Nîmito, showcases several previous video performance works, as well as a new piece developed for this exhibition. LeGrande’s oeuvre presents striking, difficult-to-resist-for-the-‘Gram moments but is held tightly with her love for the hybrid space between both traditional and contemporary Indigenous culture. In this exhibition, LeGrande brings together language, pull tabs and the transference of familial craft knowledges to deliver visceral performances across grief and into reclamation. Striking somewhere between fashion glam and land-based practices, LeGrande, a recent alumni of ECUAD, returns to the coast in high-style, ever sick and standing always at least three-inches taller in her signature platforms.

Cheyenne Rain LeGrande ᑭᒥᐊᐧᐣ is a Nehiyaw Isko artist, from Bigstone Cree Nation. She currently resides in Amiskwaciy Waskahikan also known as Edmonton, Alberta. Cheyenne graduated from Emily Carr University with her BFA in Visual Arts in 2019. Her work often explores history, knowledge and traditional practices. Through the use of her body and language, she speaks to the past, present and future. Cheyenne’s work is rooted in the strength to feel, express and heal. Bringing her ancestors with her, she moves through installation, photography, video, sound, and performance art.

This exhibition is curated by Whess Harman.

Events:

Saturday, September 17th at grunt gallery, 7-9 PM: Exhibition opening.

Wednesday, September 21st at Western Front, 7:30 PM: Maskisin ᒪᐢᑭᓯᐣ and Rinse: An evening of performance with Cheyenne Rain LeGrande and Amrita Hepi.

Digitized Programming:

Publication catalogue:

PDF
A companion catalogue for the exhibition with curatorial text by Whess Harmon, and exhibition response by Justin Ducharme.
Visual description available: Plain Text, Audio.
A free printed copy is available in gallery while supplies last.

Creative Access Audio Tour:

Creative Access Audio Tour of the exhibition. Link opens on SoundCloud (external link).
Listen to a visually described tour of Mullyanne Nimito, written By Kay Slater and Keimi Nakashima-Ochoa, narrated by Keimi Nakashima-Ochoa. Edited by Dustyn Krasowski-Olmstead.
English transcript available: Google Doc, Plain Text, PDF

Site Map and Didactics:

A PDF containing the didactic information and layout of the works in the show. This didactic information is also contained within the audio tour and virtual walkthroughs.

Virtual Walkthrough:

In 2022, we provided our visitors with the opportunity to walkthrough this exhibition via a 360° experience. While no longer available or interactive, this is a short video of the experience so visual audiences can experience the layout of the space.

Image: Grieving with the Land (still) by Cheyenne Rain LeGrande, 2021. Courtesy of the artist.

Pagbalik sa Takipsilim (Return to Twilight) 
Miko Revereza and Kidlat Tahimik
Thursday, July 25th, 2024
6:30 PM and 8 PM
The Cinematheque
(1131 Howe Street)

Four Short Films (2014-2023) by Miko Revereza and Kidlat Tahimik’s Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III (2015) will be screened in this double bill that explores personal, fictional and historical stories of Filipino migrants, expatriates and balikbayans. Presented in partnership with the Cinematheque.

Click here for tickets to the 6:30 PM screening of Four Films by Miko Revereza.

Click here for tickets to the 8:00 PM screening of Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III by Kidlat Tahimik.

Catch you there!

Community Screenprinting and Nourishing Event
Saturday, July 27 | 3 PM to 6 PM | at grunt gallery

You’re invited to gather, eat and screenprint with us in celebration of grunt’s 40th anniversary! To mark this milestone and celebrate the artist communities who have made grunt what it is today, we commissioned designs by local artists Marlene Yuen and Cole Pauls. This is a special opportunity to screen print their designs on an item of your choice (give new life to an old shirt? Apron? Pillow case? So many possibilities!).

This is a casual gathering hosted by grunt staff with Marlene Yuen and Cole Pauls, featuring abundant food (vegetarian/vegan/gluten free options) and a DIY screen printing station. We will have professionally printed shirts and tote bags featuring the custom designs for sale as well.

Like a secret recipe simmering on our proverbial stove for four decades, both artist designs play with what we’ve come to call the “grunt sauce” — at times sweet, at times spicy, a concoction reduced and extended over the years, with a pinch or dash from too many cooks to thank, a secret recipe we’d love to share with you.

Cole Pauls is a Champagne and Aishihik Citizen and Tahltan comic artist, illustrator, and printmaker hailing from Haines Junction (Yukon Territory). He holds a BFA in Illustration from Emily Carr University. Residing in Vancouver, Pauls has created three graphic novels: Dakwäkãda Warriors (2019), Pizza Punks (2021) and Kwändür (2022). In 2017, Pauls won Broken Pencil Magazine’s Best Comic and Best Zine of the Year Award for Dakwäkãda Warriors II. In 2020, Dakwäkãda Warriors won Best Work in an Indigenous Language from the Indigenous Voices Awards and was nominated for the Doug Wright Award categories The Egghead & The Nipper. In 2022, Artspeak gallery, Vancouver, held the first solo exhibition of Pauls’ work, Dazhän Kwändür ch’e (This is a Story). In 2023, Kwändür won the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize from the BC & Yukon Book Prize.

Marlene Yuen (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works on the unceded and ancestral home territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Her current focus is on illustrations, comics, zines and handmade books. In 2021, her short-run book co-published by grunt gallery, Ho Sun Hing Printers, received an honourable mention from the City of Vancouver Book Awards program. It is about Canada’s first Chinese-English letterpress print shop. She has also created artworks about Vancouver’s historic Chinatown and Chinese Canadian workers for museums and galleries (including grunt!).

Accessibility:

grunt gallery is accessed from the sidewalk via a 106” long, 64” wide concrete ramp that rises 12”. The slope is 1 : 8.75. There are no rails on the ramp. The front entrance is an outward-swinging double door with a total width of 64”, and with hand and foot height buttons for automated opening. Entry to the Media Lab behind the gallery space is via a 42” wide passage and entry to the neighbouring amenity space is through a manually operated outward swinging double door with a total width of 70”. No stairs, inclines, or elevators are necessary to access the public areas once inside the gallery.

grunt gallery has a single gender neutral washroom that is accessed via a 31” wide doorway with an automated swinging door with a door handle that is 40” high. The toilet has a 10” clearance on the left side and a 21” clearance in front, with a support bar on the left side. The sink height is 34”.

grunt has immunocompromised guests and staff. Masks are strongly encouraged and are provided at the door.

Please contact us via access@grunt.ca with any questions, feedback or to discuss access needs.
 

To stay in the loop, follow us on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.

Check out past event documentation on our Vimeo page.

Images: An Exploration of Resilience and Resistance by Kali Spitzer, opening reception, 2019; a sentimental dissidence by Gabi Dao, opening reception, 2019; Together Apart Queer Indigeneities Symposium, artist talk by Jas M. Nixon, 2019.

One part fairy tale, one part cooking show and one part Cantonese school, Ho Tak Kee by Leung Yiksea 梁亦詩 and Karin Lee 李嘉慈 is an assembly of fragmented memories and imagined conversations of a local wonton house that was lost to fire one Christmas day. The Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen is located on the site of the former Ho Tak Kee Wonton House, and many elements of this project were inspired by conversations with the Ho Tak Kee family and artists in the area who frequented the eatery. This settler story is emblematic of many newcomer/family-run eateries. Click here for details about this new work on the MPCAS.

On Saturday May 28th, join us online for an artist talk with Leung Yiksea 梁亦詩 and Karin Lee 李嘉慈 in conversation with Vanessa Kwan regarding Ho Tak Kee, commissioned by grunt gallery for the Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen. For this presentation we will be screening the work online before the discussion, but if you have the opportunity, please go see the work on the screen at Kingsway and Broadway, as intended! Ho Tak Kee screens throughout the week—click here and scroll down for the MPCAS programming schedule—and will be screening for the full day on Saturdays and Sundays in May and every Sunday in June.

This event will be presented on Zoom, with auto-captioning and a live transcript by otter.ai.

Click here to join the event.

[Image description: a family-sized bowl of wor wontons topped with vibrant green bok choy is centred on a glass lazy susan, on a red-and-white gingham tablecloth. To the left of the bowl is a tray of condiments: soy sauce, chili oil and an diner-style ketchup bottle. To the right are four empty rice bowls and a ladle.]

We are offering and experimenting with low-sensory and voice-off exhibition visiting hours.

On Thursdays from 12-7 pm (newly extended!), our exhibition Manager, Kay Slater, will offer a low-sensory and/or voice-off experience to visitors wishing to visit the space and our exhibitions.

What this will mean:

• We will ask visitors to come scent-free on Thursdays (no perfume or scented body products—paint your nails a few days before visiting!)
• You can choose to be voice-off and not converse with our gallery staff. You will not be approached unless you approach us (or if you are in need of assistance). Kay is hard of hearing and will require mask-wearing (mandatory) visitors to communicate by writing, ASL, English sign, or to step outside and remove masks so they can lip read (English or French).
• Any sound or media pieces will be sound off or low-volume for visitors. Transcripts and captions will be available for all works.
• Overhead, exhibition lights will be dimmed, still providing safe passage through the space.

If you have any suggestions, additional requests for a low-sensory day, or would like us to anticipate your visit with additional consideration, please email us at access@grunt.ca – we welcome your feedback!