The Disability Culture Leadership Initiative (DCLI) includes video conversations and convenings with Deaf and disabled artists in Chicago. The participants are alumni of the 3Arts/Bodies of Work Residency Fellowships, a program that is centered on the creation of new work, professional development, and advocacy for Disability Arts & Culture.

Our intentions are to document what some have called the “Chicago model” of disability aesthetics at this moment in time, promote the art of Deaf and disabled artists to the field, and encourage the inclusion of Disability Culture in equity-forward work.

In this ever-expanding archive, you will get to know artists through a series of conversations in which they reflect on their experiences in the arts and in Chicago’s disability community. Two new conversations will be added annually.