Seminar for Accessible Future
World of Art | 20th Generation | Online seminar
Tuesday and Friday, 17 and 20 December 2024, 6 pm – 8 pm
Image description: The image is an event banner for the Seminar for Accessible Future. It features diagonal blue and pink stripes as the background. The design includes glowing pink text on the vivid background with the event title and other details, such as the dates and lecturers.
Seminar for Accessible Future is a series of lectures exploring creative and practical approaches to making the arts and culture sector more inclusive for creators and audiences with disabilities. In a world often shaped by exclusionary norms, the seminar examines how accessibility can transform cultural participation, empower marginalised communities, and inspire systemic change. By centring the voices of those working at the intersection of creativity, activism, and inclusion, the programme aims to foster dialogue and generate actionable ideas for building a more inclusive cultural landscape.
Organised by Kurziv – Platform for Matters of Culture, Media and Society and Center for Contemporary Arts SCCA-Ljubljana, the seminar brings together practitioners and experts whose work challenges barriers in cultural spaces and promotes accessibility.
The programme is divided into two thematic approaches. The first explores creative and artistic responses to accessibility, with contributions from Saša Asentić, performance maker, cultural worker and founder of Per.Art organisation (Novi Sad), whose practice critically reimagines dance history through a disability lens by employing memory work and reconstruction as methods of resistance. Nataša Antulov, Nataša Bačić, and Mila Čuljak, coordinators of the Peti ansambl (Fifth Ensemble, Rijeka) project, will share insights into the ensemble’s long-term artistic engagement among disabled youth and discuss how inclusive theatre can transform cultural institutions and reduce social inequalities.
The second thematic approach offers practical, know-how perspectives on accessibility. Saša Lesjak, a leading expert on Easy Read from the RISA Institute (Slovenj Gradec), will showcase its applications in arts and culture, focusing on making complex cultural content accessible to people with various disabilities and others who benefit from simplified communication. Maja Ogrizović, from the Film for Everyone and Culture for Everyone projects (Rijeka), will discuss the importance and practical methods of adapting various types of cultural content to meet the needs of disabled communities. She will also emphasise the importance of promoting inclusive practices and making arts and culture accessible to everyone.
ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION
Free of charge. The seminar will be held in English via Zoom. Closed Captions will be available as part of Zoom streaming.
Please send an e-mail to urska.aplinc@scca-ljubljana.si or hana@kulturpunkt.hr in order to recieve the Zoom link.
PROGRAMME
TUESDAY, 17 December 2024
6:00 pm – 6:45 pm: Nataša Antulov, Nataša Bačić & Mila Čuljak: The Potentials of Inclusive Theatre: The Experience of the Fifth Ensemble
6:45 pm – 7:00 pm: Discussion
7:00 pm – 7:45 pm: Maja Ogrizović: Film for Everyone + Culture for Everyone – Inclusive Cultural Practices. Everything. For everyone.
7:45 pm – 8:00 pm: Discussion
FRIDAY, 20 December 2024
6:00 pm – 6:45 pm: Saša Asentić: Aesthetics of Access and Politics of Memory
6:45 pm – 7:00 pm: Discussion
7:00 pm – 7:45 pm: Saša Lesjak: Information for All – Culture for All
7:45 pm – 8:00 pm: Discussion
Nataša Antulov, Nataša Bačić & Mila Čuljak:
The Potentials of Inclusive Theatre: The Experience of the Fifth Ensemble
“Like other cultural and public institutions, theatre always reflects and expresses the beliefs, needs, desires, and worldviews of the dominant majority. It is crucial to ask who, in this process, is left marginalised and denied access or representation?” – Dr Darko Lukić (Introduction to Applied Theatre: Whose Theatre Is It?).
This question lies at the heart of the Fifth Ensemble project, developed in partnership with the Rijeka Down 21 Association, the Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc, and the Center for Education in Rijeka. The Fifth Ensemble brings together young individuals with diverse abilities, offering them the opportunity to train in performing arts with the aim of creating an artistic collective that participates equally in the theatre scene.
In this lecture, Bačić, Čuljak and Antulov will share their experiences working with the Fifth Ensemble, whose members have become performers with distinctive artistic expression through dedicated effort and training. The lecture will address questions such as: How can inclusive theatre transform cultural institutions? In what ways can artistic processes reduce social inequalities? How does the Fifth Ensemble build an audience that follows their artistic growth?
The lecture will provide insights into the ensemble’s long-term vision, aiming not only to create performing arts but also to develop an audience that supports and appreciates their artistic evolution.
Maja Ogrizović:
Film for Everyone + Culture for Everyone — inclusive cultural practices. Everything. For everyone.
Inclusive cultural projects Film for Everyone & Culture for Everyone aim to make culture accessible to everyone in order to create an inclusive future of co-created culture. Culture for Everyone – by everyone. Equal access as consumers can lead to equal access as creators. We started our inclusive journey in 2016, driven by the personal urge of our founder. Her vision was inspired by her sister—one of the many overlooked members of our society who are stopped from equal participation due to a few steps, the absence of subtitles or audio description, expensive tickets or the exclusive nature of cultural spaces. It started to take shape through collaborative actions that not only promoted creative, inclusive cultural practices but also encouraged solidarity and equality. Along the way, we discovered our own Otherness and made society in which we live a bit more inclusive. It’s about film, cinema, the act of watching films together, culture, people, otherness, togetherness, us.
Saša Asentić:
Aesthetics of Access and Politics of Memory
Saša Asentić will present his PhD research project, Aesthetics of Access and Politics of Memory, which explores how embedding accessibility in artistic practices from the outset can reshape our perceptions of history and memory. Through a multidisciplinary, practice-based approach, the project employs reconstruction as a form of resistance against ableism, reviving marginalised positions and practices omitted from mainstream dance history. By positioning accessibility as a core aesthetic, the project fosters transformative experiences of freedom, solidarity, and collective joy. It challenges ableist norms in dance by integrating diverse perspectives, including those of disabled artists, to reimagine performance as a political practice. Grounded in principles of care, accessibility, and solidarity, this work reframes dance and disability history, offering new frameworks for collective remembrance and creativity.
Asentić will integrate audio descriptions and provide detailed visual and image descriptions of the content, ensuring an inclusive experience for all participants.
Saša Lesjak:
Information for All – Culture for All
Everybody should be able to access cultural goods. However, when working in contemporary art, the accessibility of intellectual content often poses a problem, as art texts are frequently shrouded in the hermeticism and elitism of artspeak. In the lecture, we will learn about Easy Read. Easy Read texts are texts that are easier to read and understand. It is intended primarily for people who, due to various disabilities, have a permanent need for easy-to-read information and those with less developed reading or poor language skills and may eventually no longer need it. Saša Lesjak from RISA Institute, the Centre for General, Functional and Cultural Literacy, will show how Easy Read or more accessible language has paved its way to books and other media, museums and other cultural venues. Why must Easy Read branch out, and what does this mean for people needing easy-to-read information? The lecturer is one of Slovenia’s most experienced experts on Easy Read. In the lecture, she will primarily focus on their projects in the field of arts and culture.
BIOGRPHIES
Nataša Antulov is a dramaturge and artistic collaborator working in theatre, performance, and the visual arts. Her practice is focused on shared authorship dynamics, exploring themes such as reproductive labour, the degrowth movement, and the production of space. Since 2017, she has been a faculty member at the Department of Performing Arts, Academy of Applied Arts, University of Rijeka, where she teaches courses on performance dramaturgy and collaborative practices.
Nataša Bačić is a teacher and educational rehabilitator with a passion for mountaineering and gardening. Since 1998, she has been dedicated to providing students at the Center for Education in Rijeka with opportunities to develop new skills and knowledge through innovative extracurricular programs. She has led and participated in numerous projects, including Swimming and Freediving for Children, Volunteering for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities, the school garden initiative Green Gates of Knowledge, and the sCOOLFOOD Program focusing on sustainable food and environmental education. Nataša has also been involved in civic education, international solidarity projects, and the Fifth Ensemble initiative while leading the school’s Volunteer Club. Her vision is to create a community where individuals with intellectual disabilities enjoy equal opportunities, their contributions are valued, and their rights are fully respected.
Mila Čuljak is a mother, performer, cultural and arts educator, and a specialist in lip-sync techniques. She has contributed as a choreographer, performer, and collaborator in numerous dance, theatre, and music productions, including Bebè na Volè, Prostor Plus, Ekscena, Elementary School for Classical Ballet and Contemporary Dance in Rijeka, TRAFIK, Parainstitute Indoš, Drugo more, Kik Melone, Kabinet, OOUR, Croatian National Theatre “Ivan pl. Zajc” and Fiskultura. She is a founding member of the inclusive performance group Peti ansambl (Fifth Ensemble). She actively participates in the work of the Down Syndrome Association – Rijeka 21 and is engaged in solidarity initiatives related to current migrant and workers’ struggles, including Refuge Cities and Migrants’ Point in Rijeka. Mila authored the monodrama Down, by Law (OOUR and HNK “Ivan pl. Zajc”), which received the audience award for Best Theater Production in 2018. The radio version of Down, by Law, was a finalist for the BBC’s Best European Drama Award in 2022. She is a lecturer at the University of Rijeka’s Academy of Applied Arts, where she teaches courses in the Acting and Media program.
Maja Ogrizović holds a master’s degree in media and cultural studies. She imagines, creates and implements inclusive programs and projects in cooperation with colleagues and partners and acts as an independent cultural producer, educator, and communicator. She’s been the head of inclusive programs of the organisation Filmaktiv since 2016, strongly dedicated to the topic of inclusion, which she actualises through projects aimed at both the deaf and blind population, as well as the hearing and sighted. She created and manages five inclusive cultural projects (Film for everyone, Film for everyone everywhere, Film for everyone everywhere online, Book for everyone, and Culture for everyone). She continuously cooperates with the Association of the Deaf and the Association of the Blind in Primorje-Gorski County, the Day Rehabilitation Center Slava Raškaj, the Center for Audio Description, the Portić Organization and the Rijeka City Library. She is also a co-founder of a newly established NGO, Culture for everyone everywhere.
Saša Asentić is a performance maker and cultural worker whose artistic work has been widely presented at major contemporary performing arts venues and festivals in Berlin, New York, Paris, Tokyo, Vienna, Tehran, Athens, Moscow, and beyond. His practice spans contemporary dance, performance, and disability arts, emphasising solidarity and resistance to cultural oppression and indoctrination. Central to his work are allyship and long-term collaborations, particularly with disabled artists. Asentić is the founder of Per.Art, an organisation uniting disabled and non-disabled artists to challenge ableism in dance and cultural spaces since 1999. He is currently a PhD researcher at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, focusing on Aesthetics of Access and Politics of Memory. Asentić divides his time between Berlin, Oslo, and Novi Sad.
Saša Lesjak is a social pedagogue, poet and co-founder of the RISA Institute, the Centre for General, Functional and Cultural Literacy, where she is the head of social programmes. She has been working with children, young people and adults in vulnerable positions for more than 20 years. She runs workshops, seminars and training on social inclusion and Easy Read. She is an instructor for writing easy-to-read and easy-to-understand information and the editor of the free magazine 20 MINUT. She is the co-author of a four-step easy-to-read system in Slovene and the author of numerous adaptations and original Easy Read texts.
The seminar is organised by Kurziv – Platform for Matters of Culture, Media and Society and SCCA-Ljubljana. The Seminar is part of the curriculum of the Kulturpunkt’s Journalism School and the World of Art School, but it is also open to the general public.
The programme is supported by the City of Ljubljana – Department for Culture, City of Zagreb – Office for Culture and Civil Society Kultura Nova Foundation.
