About Us

Co-Chairperson

My name is Riven (zi/hir/hirs w a sprinkling of he/they), I am a queer; fat, nonbinary, white settler, former sex worker, and am chronically ill/neurodivergent/mentally ill. More specifically I have fibromyalgia, depression, anxiety and social anxiety, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, ADHD, self-diagnosed autistic, living with a brain injury, and grew up with epilepsy. I have studied somatics, work in the anti-violence sector, and can often be found cuddling my cats.

I am the new co-chairperson and am grateful to get to be a part of this amazing and radical team! 

Joys: refurbishing furniture, writing, doing performance art, and drag/burlesque. Currently I am writing a sci-fi novella around grief/loss and artificial intelligence. 

I also truly believe that the most important pieces in life are community, building and maintaining meaningful relationships, and practice this in all aspects of my life. Access to art , community, and joy is important for everyone - especially those of us who have more barriers. And I hope to make accessible and covid-conscious spaces for our community to cultivate care and creativity around grief.

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Co-Chairperson

Hey all! My name is russ (they/him), and I am the Treasurer for the Victoria Disability Arts Collective. I am a sick and disabled genderqueer settler who deals with mobility issues and a lot of chronic pain. In addition to a wide array of non profit experience, I have been advocating for disability and environmental justice for years, and am keen to bring this skillset to VDAC and continue building upon it! I am currently writing a speculative fiction novel, and am a fan of cooking, hosting dinner parties, and fine salts.

Secretary

​Hi! My name is Emma Jory (they/them) and I'm the secretary at VDAC. I’m a self taught, multidisciplinary artist with a focus on lino printmaking. I'm queer, disabled, and I have an awesome dog named Bean. I believe that art is for everyone and I love putting that belief into action. I'm looking forward to sharing my knowledge with the community and helping uplift other disabled artists.

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Vice Chairperson

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Treasurer

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Director at Large

​Hi! I’m Julia Denley, pronouns she/they, and I’m a director at large. I’m neurodivergent and queer and live with multiple physical and mental health disabilities. I love bringing my lived experience to advocacy work and am passionate about disability justice. I’m also the Co-Chair of the UVic Society for Students with a Disability and founder of the Access4All campaign at UVic. I have three cute cats; one is an elderly lady and two are mischievous youngsters that keep me busy. I’m looking forward to planning VDAC events!

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Director at Large

hello! my name is carla (she/they). I am a older gen xer, a parent, a working class community engaged artist, media maker, and writer. I live with mind-body disabilities and am chronically ill. I thrive most thinking about ideas and talking with my friends and kin about them. For work and play, I like to bring people together to co-learn and make beautiful things. Through my creative endeavours, I aim to open realms of imagination, autonomy, reciprocity, art, creativity, mutuality, joy, and challenge empire. Because I tend to orient towards collaboration — with both my fellow humans and non-human friends — doing it together is how I like to make worlds, stories, and media that aim to incite joy, rage, thriving, and belonging. Over the past 30 years, my time in and with community has been mostly about keeping the embers burning with and for the youth and the coming generations. I am thrilled to be part of VDAC! 

Director at Large

Hi! I’m Finn and I use any pronouns but prefer He/They. I am a Two Spirit person with maternal ties to the Fort William band in Thunder Bay, Ontario and have heritage from Finland, Norway and England. I am located on T’Sou-ke lands where I grew up and where I continue to live and play. I am a Fat, Queer, Mentally Ill and Neurodivergent person who suffers with chronic pain. I am a director at large with Victoria Disability Arts Collective. My art includes but isn’t limited to paper collages, acrylic painting, stamp carving, embroidery and bead work.

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Director at Large

Volunteer Coordinator & Website Manager

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