Neurodiversity and Museums Today: Panel Discussion

Jack Ky Tan

Jack Ky Tan (b.1971, Singapore) is an interdisciplinary artist based in the UK. Working across, performance, sculpture, law and policy-making, his practice is an ongoing exploration of social justice that blurs the boundaries between, art, law, governance, and consultancy. Looking toward alternative cosmologies and knowledge systems that predate Judaeo-Christian or colonial narratives, Tan interrogates the legacies of colonialism with a particular interest in Commonwealth and Tropical epistemologies of resistance. By questioning how embedded societal structures form our laws and guide our behaviour, Tan's work attempts to rethink our entanglement with the human and more-than-human world, and looks towards alternative ways of living and working.

Tan originally studied and trained in law [LL.B (Hull), MA Social Justice(UCL)] and worked in British civil rights NGOs before obtaining a BA(Hons) in Ceramics at Harrow/Westminster University and an MA at the Royal College of Art. Jack then completed a practice-led PhD at Roehampton University where he explored legal aesthetics and performance art through his works Karaoke Court and Voices From The Courts. He has taught MA Sculpture at the Royal College of Art and MA Politics & Art at Goldsmiths.

Marcus Dickey-Horley

Marcus Dickey-Horley works across both London Tate sites and has responsibility for programming access events, delivering access guidance to a range of Tate departments, and providing access training and support to our Visitor Experience teams. The creation and delivery of a durational quiet hours programme for disabled and neurodivergent visitors to the Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror Rooms exhibition has led to a continuing review of how we can improve and develop our support for these and other valued audience sectors.

Rebecca McGinnis

Rebecca McGinnis is the Senior Managing Educator for Accessibility at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She and her colleagues are internationally recognised for their pioneering programs for disabled people. Current work includes Crip The Met, an initiative fostering the inclusion of disability narratives in museum interpretation that aims to redress deficits and implicit biases in the representation of objects in the collection. Rebecca’s publications include “Who Does Inclusion Exclude?: Disability and the Limitations of Models of Inclusion” in What We May Be: Art Museums and the Implications of Special Programs (The Clark Art Institute, 2019) and “Islands of Stimulation: Perspectives on the Museum Experience, Present and Future” in The Multisensory Museum: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Touch, Sound, Smell, Memory, and Space (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014).

Kate Adams

Kate Adams is an artist, advocate and activist. She is Artistic Director & CEO of Project Art Works and has initiated and curated many responsive, collaborative projects with people who have complex support needs, families, caregivers, artists and galleries.

Kate co-founded Project Art Works in 1997 to explore an expanded concept of art that was and continues to be influenced by Paul Colley, her son, who amongst many amazing attributes has complex support needs. Project Art Works collaborates with individuals and their circles of support. The work embraces personalised studio practice, peer support and award-winning films, art actions, installations and exhibitions. Kate’s practice aims to disrupt preconceptions about what people can and can’t do, who they are and how they live, and to reveal other ways of being in the world whilst subtly the exposing the constraints of neuronormative constructs and environments. Project Art Works were joint winners of the Film London Jarman Award 2020; shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2021 and commissioned by DOCUMENTA 15 as one of 15 global ‘lumbung’ collectives to present in Kassel, Germany in 2022.