Job Opportunity: Artistic Producer
Bodies in Translation (BIT) is seeking an artistic producer who will lead and support our partners in their artistic and research creation activities and contribute to the arts-based knowledge mobilization activities on our project. Key to this role is enacting reciprocal relationships at the nexus of this project’s dual commitment to cultivate activist arts within and beyond Ontario by working with and through the arts and research. Therefore, we are looking for an artistic producer who is deeply situated in one or more activist arts communities in the focus of this grant (disability, Deaf, and mad art; aging art; fat art; and Indigenous art).
BIT is a seven-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)-funded partnership community-engaged research project co-directed by Dr. Carla Rice (University of Guelph) and Dr. Eliza Chandler (X University). In this project, ‘activist art’ refers to disability art, Deaf art, mad art, aging and e/Elder art, fat art, through a decolonizing and cripped lens. We, the researchers, artists, curators, practitioners, and community members on this grant, explore the relationship between cultivating activist art and achieving social and political justice using arts-based and studio-based research methods. Now in its sixth year, BIT is mobilizing a creative and intellectual wave of leading-edge artistic creation research, critical accessibility for the arts, technological innovation, and critical inquiry within and beyond Ontario through collaborations with more than 70 university and community partners from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. To read more about our project, please visit: https://bodiesintranslation.ca
We are seeking an artist, curator, or cultural producer to join our research project Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology, and Access to Life (BIT) as our project’s Artistic Producer in a flexible part-time capacity. This position will be situated in the School of Disability Studies at X* University and supervised by Dr. Eliza Chandler.
Responsibilities
Working with Dr. Chandler and the BIT management team, the artistic producer will be responsible for*:
Working with and developing BITs ‘vital practices’ for accessibility in the arts. This includes enacting critical access practices across all the artistic producer’s work, e.g., working with artists and disseminating knowledge through our knowledge platform (website) and updating our open-access, iterative, and community-generated vital practices resources, such as the Know Access digital collage and the Vital Practices in the Arts document.
Updating BIT’s Activist Artist Directory through promoting this resource to activist artists across the world and working with them to create an artist profile.
Working with artists and curators to produce digital exhibition catalogues.
Coordinating documentation of exhibits and events, including the production of short documentaries.
Working with researchers to produce research-creation elements of their BIT-funded research projects.
Working with community partners to facilitate BIT partnerships on an ongoing basis (e.g., consulting with cultural organizations on their access plans; promoting accessible cultural events from our community partners; coordinating the documentation of a cultural event).
Working with BIT researchers to develop content for and integrate existing content into BIT’s knowledge platform (website).
Maintaining BIT’s social media presence across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter by promoting BIT and BIT-affiliated events.
Regularly updating the BIT website, ensuring that it reflects updated progress of projects.
Meeting regularly with BIT’s academic and community partners.
Meeting regularly with BIT’s Management Team, which oversees the overall management and governance of our research project and plans for upcoming projects.
Working with the grant’s research project manager to coordinate project budgets, timelines, memorandums of understandings, and contracts.
Establishing and committing to a regular process of checking in and reporting to Dr. Chandler on ongoing projects.
*Please note, the above descriptions of tasks represent the scope of tasks the artistic producer could be responsible for. The artistic producer will work with Dr. Chandler to determine achievable work plans that balances the needs of the project, the artistic producer’s skills and interests, and their capacity within a three-day work week. It is not our expectation that the artistic producer will lead on all of the activities listed above.
Qualifications
We are interested in hearing from masters or doctoral graduate students (or equivalent artistic/educational experience) who are either currently enrolled in or have graduated from arts or design related critical theory or practice-based program and who are artists, curators, and cultural producers who work with and belong to disability, Deaf, and mad arts, aging arts, fat arts, and/or Indigenous arts communities. The ideal candidate is comfortable working in a community-based, interdisciplinary environment with a demonstrated commitment to critical analysis of disability/non-normativity as it intersects with race/ethnicity, Indigeneity, gender, social class, sexuality, and more. In particular, we are looking for someone who has experience with social media content and website management as well as the design of tool kits, reports, newsletters, etc. The candidate must have strong organizational skills, written and/or oral communication skills, and be comfortable working independently. Track record of artistic production is highly desirable. Demonstrated ability to collaborate in a community-based research context would be strong assets.
This is a one-year contract. This position requires an average of 24 hours/week with flexibility to accommodate a candidate’s availability, and reflect nature shifts in the project’s demands starting in Fall 2021 (negotiable). We are hiring at a salary range of $30-35 an hour, depending on the candidate's experience. This position can be done virtually and, if and when it is safe to return to work, by the candidate’s discretion and pending public health regulations, they will have an office in the School of Disability Studies at X University in downtown Toronto. If the candidate is working outside of Toronto or Guelph, they may have to travel to in-person meetings or events at their own expense.
How to Apply
Interested applicants should submit a cover letter to Marnie Eves at revision@uoguelph.ca outlining their interests/suitability for the position, include CVs and/or portfolio if they are available, and contact information for two references by August 25, 2021.
If you have any questions about the position, including the pay rate, please send an email to Eliza Chandler at eliza.chandler@ryerson.ca.
Bodies in Translation encourages applications from disabled, mad, Black, Indigenous, racialized, and LGBTQI, fat, and aging/ aged people and all people who are marginalized in the workplace. We commit to making the interview process accessible on the candidate’s terms and welcome expressions of interest outlining access requirements for the application process including the written submissions and the interview. Pleaseindicate your access requirements for the interview when you submit your application. For questions about how the interview could be made accessible to you, please contact Eliza at eliza.chandler@ryerson.ca.