Open Door Gallery

Fashion Accessibility Project

May 7, 2018 - August 3, 2018

Accessible fashion display

Reception May 31, 2018 6-9pm, Panel Discussion 6:30pm with:

- Nicole Agois, Moderator, VSA MA Managing Director
- Heather Watkins, Activist and blogger
- Keith Jones, Activist, advocate and performer, President of SoulTouchin' Experiences
- Jay Calderin, Fashion designer, and Director of Boston Fashion Week
- Arielle Gray, Writer, and Social Media and #AssembleBOS Coordinator, TCP
- Nicole Olusanya, Special Initiatives Manager, ArtsEmerson

Fashion is Political

Fashion is powerful. Fashion allows us to express the autonomy we have over our bodies and our identities to the world. However, the many barriers that exist in the fashion industry and its historical marginalization of the disability community have often left people with disabilities out of the conversation.

To flip this script, Epicenter Community (now Transformative Culture Project), in collaboration with Arts Emerson, convened many partners, including VSA Massachusetts, to launch the Fashion Accessibility Project (FAP) : a celebration of disability, beauty and humanity through fashion.

FAP convened people with disabilities and fashion designers to create custom-made outfits that were showcased in a fashion show at the Paramount Black Box Theater on June 24, 2017. The show created a platform for community to get dressed up, feel beautiful and celebrate our common humanity, but more importantly, it gave visibility and urgency to this conversation.

This exhibit is a visual retrospective of the FAP process and show, and allows us to continue the conversation, highlight the great work that’s happening around adaptive fashion, and create a call for continued change.

Thank you for joining the movement!

The Open Door Gallery promotes the work of artists with disabilities and shifts our community's perceptions of ability while enjoying quality art.

Also visit Open Door Gallery at the Worcester Art Museum.

For more information about the Open Door Gallery email .