Distillery District Location for World's First Deaf Centre

[Ed007Toronto]

Toronto's Distillery District Location for World's First Deaf Culture Centre

Centre Celebrating Deaf Culture Now Under Construction;
$175,000 Canadian Heritage Contribution Announced

TORONTO, Feb. 8 /CNW/ - Construction has begun in Toronto's Historic
Distillery District on the Deaf Culture Centre - the world's first public
facility dedicated solely to serving as a symbol of the Deaf community and a
celebration of Deaf life in Canada and around the globe.
"We are very excited to be in the final construction phases of this
project," says Helen Pizzacalla, President of the Canadian Cultural Society of
the Deaf, and the Chair of the Deaf Culture Centre. "When we open this Spring,
the Centre will be an enormous source of pride not just for Deaf Canadians,
but for all Canadians. The first of its kind, anywhere in the world, the
Centre will serve as a convergence point for the Deaf and hearing communities.
"The Centre will enrich the lives of members of the Deaf community and
will provide an appropriate stage on which to celebrate the formidable
accomplishments of the world's Deaf."
Among its features, the Deaf Culture Centre will boast an interactive
Museum exhibiting artifacts from both the Canadian and international Deaf
communities and will also include an Art Gallery featuring the work of
internationally celebrated Deaf artists; Research and Archive Facilities, and
a multi-media Production Studio featuring the internationally acclaimed
DeafPlanet.com (www.deafplanet.com).
A project of the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf (CCSD), the Centre
is funded by private donations and public monies, including a $175,000
contribution from the Department of Canadian Heritage, Cultural Spaces Canada
Program. The funds from Canadian Heritage will go towards construction,
re-adaptive use and the purchase of specialized technical equipment for the
Centre.
"An international project of this magnitude requires tremendous resources
- both financial and creative," says Nanae Ho, Secretary, Deaf Culture Centre.
"Fortunately, we have succeeded on both fronts, and have attracted both a long
list of generous and supportive funders, and an equally significant group of
talented and creative consultants. Both groups have played a major role in
turning the dreams of the Deaf community into reality."
Designed by the award-winning firm of Quadrangle Architects, and
featuring visual elements created by Bruce Mau Design Inc., the Centre will
open May 14, 2006.

About the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf (CCSD)

The CCSD is the only national cultural organization for Deaf Canadians. A
non-profit organization supported by private donations, the CCSD represents
over 450,000 Canadians and serves many more through its educational programs,
cultural activities and Deaf heritage resources. The CCSD strives to preserve,
encourage and advance the cultural interests of Canada's Deaf population.



For further information: Danny Roth, Brandon Communications Inc.,
T. (416) 850-0614, C. (416) 414-9064, E. droth@brandoncom.ca

 

[Archivistower]

Re: Distillery District Location for World's First Deaf Cent

First the Chinese and then the deaf! What's next, infrastructure for gay, blind, Vietnamese?

 

[Archivistower]

Re: Distillery District Location for World's First Deaf Cent

On a more serious note, I wonder where in the Distillery this will be located? No doubt, a great and interesting addition to the area.

 

[EnviroTO]

Re: Distillery District Location for World's First Deaf Cent

Give me a break. Deaf is racially and religiously inclusive.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Re: Distillery District Location for World's First Deaf Cent

Don't laugh, there is a distinct Deaf culture out there. I believe the issue made the news awhile ago over the merits of cochlear implants for children of the deaf.

AoD

 

[baldwin st boy]

Re: Distillery District Location for World's First Deaf Cent

Where will the dumb go?

(Dumb answer: metropolis.)

 

[jmacmillan]

Re: Distillery District Location for World's First Deaf Cent

The Deaf Centre will be next door to Building #6, which places it in the Stone Distillery on the south-west side of the property, off the main parking lot.

 

[adma]

Re: Distillery District Location for World's First Deaf Cent

Where will the dumb go?

 

[EnviroTO]

Re: Distillery District Location for World's First Deaf Cent

That is a pre-merger pic. There is even more room for the dumb now

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Re: Distillery District Location for World's First Deaf Cent

From the Globe:

Sign of the times
Flashing lights for alarms, intense colour art and puppets -- at the world's first deaf culture centre, even the door handles have a special significance

IAN HARVEY

Special to The Globe and Mail

When Joanna Cripps discusses Deaf Culture, she uses capital letters. The lower-case treatment smacks of a negative stereotype created by hearing people, she says, rather than celebrating the lives and experiences of the 450,000 Canadians who are deaf or hearing-impaired.

Deaf people, Ms. Cripps included, have a visual language and culture, she explains in an e-mail interview. As the policies, management and public-relations manager of a new Deaf Culture Centre, opening in May in Toronto's Distillery District, she is eager to celebrate that culture with other deaf people -- and share it with hearing visitors as well.

The 4,000-square-foot facility, billed as the first of its kind in the world, will showcase deaf culture with displays of historical artifacts, special events and workshops for deaf people, and exhibitions of art created by deaf and hearing-impaired artists.

Rotating exhibits of art will offer visitors a colourful experience of the unique culture that Ms. Cripps alludes to: They'll draw extensively on a genre known as De'VIA (short for Deaf View/Image Art), which is visual art created to express the experience of being deaf.

A group of artists who came together in 1989 to explore the nature of "deaf art" defined De'VIA as having a "possible tendency" to use intense and contrasting colours and textures, and exaggerated features -- for example, hands, mouths, eyes and ears. (Deaf people often key in on those features when communicating.)

"There's a tendency to vibrant colour, and a visually rich life," says Anita Small, the centre's director of education, research and development, who notes that shows already are programmed for the next three years.

Historical exhibits that will be featured on site include artifacts ranging from puppets used by Forrest C. Nickerson, a puppeteer who founded the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf, to a display honouring William Hoy, a deaf baseball fan who, in 1901, devised the system of hand signals still used by umpires today.

The centre also pays tribute to American sign language by featuring 3-D signature motifs, created by Bruce Mau Design, that capture the motion of keywords as they're being signed. These images, translated as swirls of motion, have become the inspiration for the centre's logo and visual identity.

Designing such a centre called for flashing lights, instead of bells, in the alarm systems, along with places to set items in order to facilitate discussions using sign language.

"We discovered [members of] the deaf community are very expressive and use a lot of humour," says Sheldon Levitt, principal at Quadrangle Architects, which designed the space.

Even the door handles of the new facility have a link to the deaf community: They were cast in bronze by 92-year-old sculptor and Order of Canada recipient Dora de Pedery-Hunt, who is, herself, hearing-impaired.

The creation of the centre was partially financed by a $175,000 grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage, Cultural Spaces Canada Program.

The balance of the $1.5-million required to cover the budget for the first two years was raised privately by the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf and its supporters.

"It is a chance to show the world what deaf culture is all about," Ms. Cripps says. Deaf culture is the result of "a centuries-long struggle for the freedom to express itself through its own culture, language and community.

"For us to be able to demonstrate without 'preaching' is a plus."

AoD

 

[building babel]

Re: Distillery District Location for World's First Deaf Cent

An interesting point, that deaf people have a primarily visual culture, though I'm not aware that they express their creativity in the various fields of design or the visual arts disproportionately compared to the rest of the population.

In a way they have certain advantages by living in an aural bullshit free zone, though I suppose sign language has its own form of bullshit too. Perhaps they also pick up on visual signals that the rest of us miss in our daily lives because they're free from sound distractions. And they're free from lots of dreadful music too, lucky them, though they also miss out on the great music and stage drama that packs an emotional wallop - I wonder if they compensate by absorbing visual art, video, and film in a more profound way?