Inclusivity and Accessibility statement
Be open, mindful, and practice reflection in our community-engaged spaces
The Italian Cultural Centre (Il Centro) Museum and Gallery serves and supports our community in all arts-engaged practices. Our intention is to cultivate a safe, brave, and more equitable space in encouraging dialogue and action; to gather, connect, and learn without judgement, prejudice and/or discrimination. This is to support the growth of our artists and represent their experiences and intersectionality.
ICC Gallery understands that as a privileged institution, we will work towards building an inclusive environment which is safe and comfortable for all communities. We ask that members of the ICC community to be respectful, open, supportive, and considerate of our cohorts and with one another. We also ask them to hold us and everyone accountable and responsible to their roles and actions.
We are all learning - TOGETHER!
Guiding Principles
1Be Mindful of Everyone’s Journey.
Everyone has their own individual experiences and upbringings. Understand that not everyone will share the same perspective and education as you.
Be mindful that everyone is at different stages in their lives and are on different paths. Take into consideration that everyone comes from different lived experiences, and has different access to education and limited resources. Recognize that not everyone shares the same vocabulary as you into radical thinking and academic expression. Respect the spaces you take up.
2 Encourage Dialogue and Action.
Have conversations with BIPOC and folks with disabilities. Listen to their stories. Create an action plan together to ensure greater success for all bodies.
This is an opportunity to brainstorm and investigate the barriers marginalized people oftentimes face. Challenge those ableist ways of thinking, unlearn colonial thoughts and the institutional systems that fail us and are not set up for us. Encourage those diverse conversations.
Work together to uplift the voices of folks who fight for BIPOC liberation and who are often silenced. Continue the conversation towards more and better BIPOC and Disability representation.
3 Be Supportive and Take Care of
One Another.
Support each other in their wins and failures. Don’t be afraid to get messy and make mistakes.
Support one another in their learning and creative journeys. Work together collaboratively in shared spaces and share joy in each other’s wins and failures. Be free and be messy. We all make mistakes sometimes and that is okay. Mistakes ultimately help us grow to become better humans.
— Name, Title
4 Be Creative and Intuitive.
Value process over product. Be creative without fear of consequence and judgement. Treat others with the same regard. Respect the knowledge and tools you are given.
This is a creative space to be vulnerable. There are no limits to creativity, art has no bounds in visual and nonvisual spaces. Be creative in the tools you are given, respect where it comes from; from the ancestral lands we reside on and the people who continue to take care of them, and support each other in everyone’s processes.
5 Make and Maintain Connections.
Reach out to your community stakeholders and grow your circle. Pay them for their labour and time.
Connect with one another and reach out. Take care of the community you are with and avoid exploitation and tokenism.
Include underrepresented folks to lead in decision making at the table. Expand your circles and maintain those relationships. Trust that there are many qualified and capable individuals who can do the work. In the end, connecting helps everyone.
6 Acknowledge and Celebrate BIPOC Leadership.
Celebrate the work of BIPOC people. Recognize the trauma and barriers that has been passed down from generations.
Racialized BIPOC leadership are rarely seen in institutionalized spaces, especially in Disability spaces. Acknowledge the invisible labour and efforts underrepresented folks continue to shoulder and navigate through. Consider forms of compensation to support the works of the community, and always consider what you are taking. Also acknowledge generational trauma that has been carried on through millennium by the events of colonization and deep oppression. Celebrate them in their highs and lows.
— Name, Title
Who are we?
Shanna Cheng (she/her) is a Canadian-Chinese, Hard of Hearing emerging curator and printmaker. She has her BFA from ECUAD and Cultural Resource Management certification from UVIC. She currently works out of so-called Vancouver on the unceded lands of the Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish),
and Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.
Her past curations include Inscapes: Our Landscape Within’ and Amplified Voices exhibitions, both which celebrates and liberates the voices and stories of marginalized artists in our communities. Shanna’s curatorial practice involves collaborating with BIPOC and disability communities on transformative and critical models within exhibition accessibility design and inclusive curation for all bodies. She continues to advocate for underrepresented artists through the disability justice lens of comfort and care practices.
Dr. Angela Clarke (she/her) has been the Museum Director and Curator at the Italian Cultural Centre Museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada since 2012. She holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Columbia, where she specialized in women, religion and decorative art of the Italian Renaissance as well as museology. Her primary research focus has been the material culture of Renaissance Italy, specifically, a social historical approach to Deruta maiolica ceramics 1500-1550, as they pertain to the lives of middle-class Umbrian women in the domestic space. However, since the completion of her dissertation she has expanded her research to include other domestic decorative arts such as textiles, mirrors, devotional items, costume, jewelry, liturgical objects and mosaics as well as gender studies. Her book: Ideal Brides: Deruta Bella Donna Plates, c. 1500-1550 (Roma: Aracne Editrice) was published in 2020.