Gee Collins.


Artworks


About















Contact form 

Instagram

Access Rider


Name: Gee Collins
How to say my name: https://hearmyname.net/say/en-gb/Gee%20Collins
My pronouns are: They/them

What I look like: Photos of me can be found in this folder. Please ask before using these for promotional use.

Thanks for choosing me to be involved in your work! If you’d like this document in a different format, please let me know.

I believe in a social model of disability (“that people are disabled by systemic barriers, negative attitudes, and social exclusion, rather than by their own physical or mental differences”). The need for this document comes from the nature of work under capitalism, rather than the limitations of any of our bodies. If anything in this document makes you feel nervous, let’s work it out together.

I understand accessibility as a learning tool, below are some things you might choose to learn from me:


1. Culture, support and supervision: 

I appreciate spaces that reflect diversity, this creates Access Intimacy in spaces that we all benefit from. Freelancers all have independent support and supervision with people they have long-standing relationships with - you can offset this cost by:
  • offering freelancers a budget for external supervision
  • encouraging more diversity in your workplace

2. Money: 

I cannot accept work below the Artist Union England day rate. 

If your organisation uses a complicated Purchase Order system that requires extra forms and documentation beyond an invoice, please consider ways you can change this. If this isn’t possible, please offer to fill out these forms for me, from information I provide you with.

3. Scheduling: 

Schedule 1-1 meetings by suggesting some dates and times via email. You might want to try Doodle poll or Lettucemeet to find dates for group meetings. 

4. Travel: 

I cycle, use public transport and request lifts to get around. To make this easier for me and my community you can: 
  • include transport costs in your budget (including transport of artworks)
  • consider using Zoom for a meeting shorter than 2 hours
  • schedule meetings during daytime hours
  • encourage car sharing among people you work with

If my return journey and expected work lasts longer than 12 hours, I will book overnight accommodation.

5. Online meetings:

I use Zoom and Teams for online calls. I pay for Zoom and am happy to create meeting links for our calls that are longer than 40 minutes.

6. Physical spaces: 

  • provide an all-gender bathroom
  • where meetings are not interactive (lots of rows of chairs, sitting in silence, listening) consider creating space at the back of a large room for people who need to be more mobile to concentrate
  • please consider if you need to use a microphone in a large space. Make sure the audience can see the face of the person speaking


7. Energy:

  • share a clear agenda at the start of, if not before, a meeting/workshop/event (& stick to it as best you can)
  • include clear start and end times of all work (including ‘social’ spaces, such as group meals or meetings outside the office)
  • encourage everyone to take at least a 10 minute break every 1.5 hours. (A break might mean standing up and moving around and breaking the flow of what is going on in the room, other times it means a break from social activity and the option to spend time alone - please consider and encourage both in your planning.)


8. Information: 

I pick up most information quickly and easily, but I appreciate your help prioritising information. When writing emails, or long documents consider:
  • bold or change the colour of text that you need me to action/feed back on
  • address emails directly to me (“Hi Chris, Jenny and Gee,” rather than “Hi all”) or I will assume that this email doesn’t need a response
  • contact me by Signal/Whatsapp/Text message if you need a quick, short, response or want to remind me to answer an email
  • if you’d like to send me a general update that doesn’t need my immediate response, please send me a Voice Message on Signal/Whatsapp.

9. Promotion: 

  • please make sure I am gendered as a nonbinary person in any alt text for images
  • https://gcollins.cargo.site/ - my bio and work history can be found here
  • I do not work with organisations or individuals that use generative AI to replace human labour (ie. creating images, writing, editing or summarising text)


10. Artwork display: 

  • signage, maps and captions should be in plain English. Use a readability checker.
  • if your exhibition space is not physically accessible, make this clear in promotional material
  • consider who the space you’re creating is for and who it is not for. You know your audience best - consider who is not in the room, who should be and who can’t be.

All artworks are different. I aim to share clear and simple installation instructions to accompany any artwork I exhibit - if you haven’t received this from me and would like it, please ask. Considerations for exhibiting my glass sculptures might include: 
  • lighting (Do you have a lighting designer I can work with? Have you included lighting purchase or rental into your exhibition costs?)
  • storage (Do you have somewhere fragile work can be stored safely before and after install?) 
  • cleaning (Is the space dusty? Will someone be able to clean this work while it is exhibited?) 


11. Emergencies:

  • please ask for my emergency contacts when our work together is confirmed.


I believe in abolitionist & restorative justice models, this means I look for alternative practices to policing. Policing behaviour might include: Mental Health First Aid that attempts to ‘spot’ distress without consent from participants, hiring private security firms to outsource the responsibility of community safety at your event or sharing the data of attendees at your event with the police. Instead, you might:

  • map how trust might be taken for granted in your organisation (how do you feel about giving someone your legal name? your address? your medical history? getting a DBS check?)
  • hire people with lived experience to lead around topics that you might outsource to someone else (instead of suicide awareness training, hire someone with appropriate lived experience to work with you)
  • create collaborative safety agreements with attendees at your event where trust is expected

If you would like help creating restorative safeguarding procedures in your work, I can recommend organisations and individuals who will help you.

12. Sources:   


This Access Rider is inspired by Johanna Hedva’s

It’s spirit is inspired by Mia Mingus (and Nicole Rose)

My values are inspired by my work with With-you

My favourite PDF that is a lesson in exhibition accessibility