Who We Are

Abilities Arts Festival is a charitable organization dedicated to enhancing opportunities for artists with disabilities to contribute to the cultural fabric of our society by:

• Showcasing and promoting artists with disabilities from visual, performing, media arts, film and integrated art forms;
• Engaging and inspiring young people with disabilities to explore and embrace their own creative talent;
• Fostering partnerships and collaborations that enhance opportunities for artists with disabilities to practice and share their work with a wider public;
• Providing accessible professional development and networking opportunities;
• Building an inclusive arts and culture sector so that everyone can appreciate the abundance of art our society has to offer.

Dance. Photography. Theatre. Comedy. Music. Film. Storytelling. Painting. Performance.

Since 2003, Abilities Arts Festival has produced nine annual festivals, employing hundreds of artists with disabilities and welcoming audiences in the tens of thousands.

In 2011, we responded to the growing demand for professional development with a new series of workshops, master classes and seminars. We plan to launch our second decade, in 2012, with Canada’s first artist-in-residence programme for artists with disabilities.

We offer the majority of our events for free or at very low cost, in order to ensure the widest possible reach.

And, of course, all of our events are fully accessible.

“Engaging, entertaining, unexpected.”

In 2012, Abilities Arts Festival celebrates its 10th Anniversary. Ten consecutive years of sustaining and growing a not-for-profit arts organization is no mean feat. This success was made possible by the wealth and diversity of talent in the disability and deaf communities, their ever-more appreciative and growing audiences and by the vision and commitment of our partners and sponsors.

Our track record has earned us the confidence of public arts funders at the federal, provincial and municipal levels; but the bulk of our revenues have always come from community-minded partners in the private sector.