Feb 11, 2025 3 min read

The Agency of Access: Contemporary Disability Art & Institutional Critique

A grand stone interior with an abundance of natural light. Placed strategically in tidy clusters across the wooden planked floor are steel stanchions. Most of the stanchions are left unadorned; however, there are pairs of stanchions connected by a horizontal steel cable placed at the top of the pole. Cover credit: Temple University Press

Oh man, I love anything about disabled artists, disability art, and museums. Several years ago I had the pleasure of interviewing disabled curator and educator Amanda Cachia for my podcast and it was a really good conversation. Today I am pleased to offer 3 print or e-book copies of Dr. Cachia's new book, The Agency of Access: Contemporary Disability Art & Institutional Critique. Details below.

About the book

The Agency of Access examines how access can be employed as a methodology for curating art exhibitions using a multi-sensorial approach. Crip curator and art historian Amanda Cachia illustrates how bodies take in information and process stimuli, making the inequities in museums and galleries more transparent. She also argues that, as contemporary disabled artists move away from representations of disability, they create an art of access, or access aesthetics, through works that center translation, sensory expansion, touch, and movement for audiences and offer an experience of “being with” disability.

Showcasing artwork by contemporary disabled artists Corban Walker, Christine Sun Kim, and Carmen Papalia, among others, The Agency of Access inscribes contemporary disability art in the broad canon of contemporary art, where the artistic past is regarded differently.

Cachia is an outspoken advocate for artists living with sensory disabilities. She understands disabled artists’ experiences in both the world and the gallery. The artists she has curated make bold, astonishing, and compelling statements about interdependency, care, and the ways in which our environment affects disabled, ill, and immunocompromised bodies.

About the author

A color portrait of a white woman with brown curly hair and brown eyes smiling at the viewer. She wears a white shirt and a blue linen jacket. In the background are glimpses of a red public art sculpture. Photo credit: Bauman Photographers

Amanda Cachia is Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of Arts Leadership in the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts at the University of Houston. She is the editor of Curating Access: Disability Art Activism and Creative Accommodation, and a recipient of the 2023 Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant.

Details

1) Any disabled person in the US is eligible to receive a paperback. Anyone around the world is eligible to receive an ebook. You do not need to disclose any details about your disability.

If you already received a book from one of my previous giveaways, please consider letting other people have a chance.

2) If you do not receive a reply that means the books have been claimed or you did not include all the required information.

3) Send an email to DisabilityVisibilityProject@gmail.com with 'Amanda Cachia Giveaway’ in the title of the message. Do not reply to this post!!

4) Include the following information in your message:

First and last name
Mailing address
Format (paperback or e-book) pick one only!

Please note: I will send this information along with your email address to the publisher. They are responsible for confirming your details and sending you the book. Please be patient!

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