Timeline of Disability Art & Activism Events, People, and Places

1949-present - Sima Elizabeth Shefrin

Sima Elizabeth Shefrin is a feminist, anti-war, and social justice artist and visual arts curator. Born in 1949 in Ottawa, Ontario, Shefrin moved to Vancouver, BC in 1971 and now resides on Gabriola Island.

Shefrin has worked as a professional artist since 1978. Some of her early work can be found in Kinesis (Vancouver women’s newspaper, 1973-2001). She continued to appear in Kinesis as an artist, writer, and interviewee until 2000 [link to UBC Open Library Kinesis Collection].

Her art first appeared in Kinesis in volume 7, issue number 2, January 1978. The artwork was a quilt she made in collaboration with Persimmon Blackbridge. The quilt (The Bimini Quilt) was political art in support of the Bimini Pub’s striking workers. Made from fabric, stuffing, leather, and green garbage bags, the quilt was constructed over the course of the twelve week-long strike. The quilt was featured on the front page of the Kinesis issue, and Shefrin and Blackbridge’s artist statement was included inside the issue.

Shefrin’s involvement with Kinesis overlapped with Emma Kivisild’s time as editor of Kinesis (1984-1986). Kivisild became Artistic Director of Kickstart Disability Arts & Culture (Kickstart) in 2012, where she organized Kickstart 5 (2013). Shefrin co-curated the Kickstart 5 visual arts show, Magic/Realism, with Bernadine Fox.

Shefrin co-curated many visual arts shows for Kickstart. While she does not identify as being disabled, Shefrin has always worked with a co-curator who identifies as having a disability.

Some shows she co-curated for Kickstart include:

• Outside the Lines: Self-Portraits by Artists with Disabilities (2001), co-curated with Persimmon Blackbridge
• Borg Again (2004), co-curated with Persimmon Blackbridge
• kickstART 2 visual arts show (2004)
• Island Artists
• Heroes (2010), co-curated with Bernadine Fox
• Magic/Realism (2013), co-curated with Bernadine Fox

In the late 1990s, Shefrin began The Middle East Peace Quilt. She requested people send quilt squares responding to the question, “What is your vision of peace in the Middle East?”. The resulting quilt would then be toured and form a basis for discussion and dialogue. She received squares from over 300 people all over the world and the quilt toured across Canada and the United States of America until 2010.

In 2011, Shefrin’s husband, Bob Bossin, was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Shefrin embroidered a series of humorous comics about how cancer affected their lives. She then sewed the sixty panels of comics into quilts. In 2016, the comics were published into a book titled Embroidered Cancer Comic, that can be found on Amazon or purchased directly from her by email. In 2017, the comic quilts were displayed as part of Gallery Gachet’s spring art show, How to Remember.

Along with her political art, embroidered comics, and curatorial roles, Shefrin has also illustrated books with cloth and collage. Books she has illustrated include Abby’s Birds, Jewish Fairy Tale Feasts, and Once Upon a Bathtime. Shefrin continues to make comics and fabric arts about various social and political issues, such as climate justice, Judaism, and COVID–19. Her recent series of embroidered comics about COVID–19 is similar in style to her embroidered cancer comics series. She also continues to facilitate community workshops on fabric art and community organizing.

Sima Elizabeth Shefrin was mentioned by DAAA Interviewee Emma Kivisild in her 2022 interview for the DAAA. Kivisild mentioned that Shefrin was the co-curator of Kickstart 5, when Kivisild was Artistic Director of Kickstart. Read Emma Kivisild’s interview linked here.

1992- present - Gallery Gachet

Gallery Gachet is a unique artist-run centre located in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver, on the stolen, sacred, and ancestral homelands of the xwməθkwəy’əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. The gallery aims to demystify and challenge issues related to mental health and social marginalization in order to educate the public and promote social and economic justice.

The organization has grown from operating out of a small, basement studio in downtown Granville South and offering one exhibition a year in 1993, to coordinating approximately 1500 square feet of public-access arts space with up to 12 exhibitions each year, in addition to residencies, workshops, artist talks, special projects and other events.
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Gallery Gachet's space is used for exhibitions including contemporary and experimental artwork in all media as well as arts programming for community members. The gallery supports a community of developing artists and professionals alike in collaboration and dialogue. The governing body of Gallery Gachet is Collective Members who guide management and programming while building professional art skills and experience.

Gallery Gachet was mentioned by DAAA Interviewees Miki Aurora and Persimmon Blackbridge in their 2022 interviews for the DAAA.
Read Miki Aurora's interview linked here.
Read Persimmon Blackbridge's interview linked here.

2016 - Pod Mapping

Pod mapping is a worksheet to help you identify people, organizations, and resources in your “pod”. The Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective (BATJC) defines a “pod” as the people, organizations, and resources that you would call on in the event of violence, harm, or abuse that you may experience, witness, or cause.

Pod mapping was developed by Mia Mingus in her work with the BATJC. The term “pod” was developed in 2014, and the pod mapping worksheet was published in 2016 on the BATJC website. The pod mapping worksheet is available for download as a free PDF.

The use of the word “pod” was developed because the BATJC needed a word for the type of relationship between people who turn to each other for support. This type of relationship is often called “community”, but the BATJC found the word “community” too broad. They found that every person defines “community” differently, and not every person identifies with a community.

The pod mapping worksheet was developed as a transformative justice tool. It is meant to help you plan your “pod” relationships by illustrating social connections and planning for community care.

Some goals of the worksheet are:

• to reduce the presence of, and reliance on, police in community conflict;
• to build networks of people, organizations, and resources who can interrupt violence in different ways;
• to build networks of people, organizations, and resources who can support someone who is at risk of experiencing domestic & sexual violence.

The groups the BATJC had in mind while designing the pod mapping worksheet include:

• people working towards transformative justice;
• people in situations of domestic and sexual violence;
• particularly current survivors of abuse, children, disabled people, gender-oppressed people, and immigrants, who are all more likely to be in situations of domestic and sexual violence.

It can be used by anyone interested in interrupting violence in their life.

The pod mapping worksheet is significant to disability arts and activism for many reasons: 

• It was developed in large part by Mia Mingus, a disabled queer woman of colour.
• Disabled people are more likely to experience situations of domestic and sexual violence.
• The worksheet serves community building and analysis in activism and organizing spaces.

Pod mapping was mentioned by DAAA Interviewee Regan Shrumm in their 2022 interview for the DAAA.
Read Regan Shrumm’s interview linked here.