Improving SpaceFinder: Launch of Disability and Dance Workspace Directory

Fractured Atlas’s free service SpaceFinder helps thousands of artists find space to rehearse and perform. Today, SpaceFinder launches a new custom directory, built for and with disabled dance artists in New York City, to highlight inclusive rehearsal and performance spaces.

Built upon SpaceFinderNYC.org, which already has data for over 1,800 spaces, the new directory is a curated “short-list” of spaces recommended by disabled artists. To gather information for the directory, Fractured Atlas worked with people across disability communities with experience in workspaces throughout the five boroughs to learn what accessibility and inclusiveness means to them, what features suit their needs, and about what spaces have enabled them to make good work. The directory can easily be shared as a resource link and new spaces can be added by writing a recommendation on SpaceFinder. Support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation made it possible for Fractured Atlas to provide stipends for disabled artists to visit spaces and write the first wave of recommendations in order to get the momentum going.

While the new directory focuses on dance workspaces in the New York City area, all Fractured Atlas-powered SpaceFinder sites across North America now include the improved accessibility features listed below:

1. We’ve improved the Accessibility search criteria section to make the filters more efficient. In doing so, we added an accessibility icon to make finding accessibility information easier. We chose the symbol championed by The Accessible Icon Project, a leader in design as activism.
2. Want to see a space before you go? We’ve added a filter to search by ‘virtual tour provided’ — A virtual tour can help with questions for potential renters, such as: Is the entrance to the venue wheelchair accessible? Will I be able to access this space and work in it comfortably? Are hallways and doorways wide enough for wheelchair users to navigate easily? Is there adequate and clear signage throughout the venue? Are accessible restrooms located on the same floor as your facilities? We’ve also provided venues with examples and resources for virtual tours.
3. We’ve compiled resources to share with venues looking to learn how their spaces can be more accessible and inclusive, check them out here.
4. Among the resources, we’re highlighting examples for venues about what it means to be inclusive (not just accessible).

Working on this project has provided the SpaceFinder team with fresh perspectives into the utility of our site for communities of disabled artists, and we’re excited to watch this resource expand. This community-curated directory is a leap toward expanding the vibrant community of dance makers, educators and performers who contribute to dance as an art form, and we can’t wait for it to grow to to aid artists across disciplines.

Want to get involved?

Check it out here: Disability & Dance Directory of Inclusive Workspaces

Have questions? Contact Alessandra Pearson, Project Coordinator, at SpaceFinder@FracturedAtlas.org. These improvements to SpaceFinder are Fractured Atlas’s response to a call for action from Dance/NYC’s Disability Initiative. (Visit Dance.NYC for more info.) Special thanks to Christine Bruno, Disability Advocate for Inclusion in the Arts for her assistance with this initiative.