Grounding Practice: Access Capacity with Iarlaith Ní Fheorais

Curator and writer Iarlaith Ní Fheorais shares tangible approaches to how access can shape artistic practice, collaboration and sustainability. What can artists learn from access methodologies? Curator and writer Iarlaith Ní Fheorais draws on her experience working with artists and developing the Access Toolkit for Art Workers to share practical approaches to building access into practice, from planning and budgeting to collaborating with support workers, building teams and support structures. Rather than treating access as something added to a project at the end, the session will consider what happens when access and support become part of an ongoing practice. We’ll consider how some of these approaches might be useful to artists more broadly, regardless of their career stage or artistic discipline, or whether access is a specific concern within their work. Through case studies from previous projects, Iarlaith will reveal how these approaches have worked in practice, including what was involved, what worked well and what she might do differently. The session will also offer practical guidance around how to resource access costs. Leaving artists who attend with practical ideas they can apply to their own ways of working, as well as a broader understanding of how access can shape artistic practice, collaboration and sustainability.