Sudden Illness, Chronic Illness, Disability: A Conversation for Museum Educators on Zoom

Where: Zoom

Time: 6PM

Panelists from the popular NYCMER Annual Conference session “Sudden and Chronic Illness Through the Lens of Museum Educators” and the addition of new voices will share how they have managed their illness and disability in the workplace and the support that they have received with the goal to break stigmas around health challenges. Then, participate in a conversation about illness and disability as a museum educator.

Speakers:

– Adelyn Castro-Stratulat, Senior Citizenship Educator, New-York Historical Society, New York, NY

Adelyn Castro-Stratulat (she/her) is a Senior Citizenship Educator at the New-York Historical Society, and a graduate student in Museum Studies at CUNY School of Professional Studies’ in partnership with The New-York Historical Society. She has over a decade of experience in education, having worked with the New York City Department of Education, the City University of New York, and most recently the New-York Historical Society. 

– Roberto Chavez, Museum Educator, Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum/ and NYCMER Peer Group Coordinator for Queer Peers

Roberto Chavez (he/him) is a museum educator and a LGBTQ advocate. He works full-time at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum and he serves as the NYCMER Peer Group Coordinator for Queer Peers. Roberto previously has worked at King Manor Museum, the New-York Historical Society, the New York Transit Museum, and the Tenement Museum. 

– Kevin Gotkin, Artist-Organizer with Creatives Rebuild New York

Kevin Gotkin is an access ecologist, facilitator, researcher, and Artist-Organizer with Creatives Rebuild New York. Previously, they served as Organizer with the disability arts ensemble Kinetic Light. They have been organizing in the movement for disability artistry since 2016, when they co-founded Disability/Arts/NYC with Simi Linton. Their university-based teaching and research includes a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018 and a Visiting Assistant Professorship (2018-2021) in NYU’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, where they also received their B.S. in 2011. Kevin’s performance and curatorial work has been featured most recently at Lincoln Center (An Evening of Access Magic, July 2022) and in ongoing nightlife organizing with the REMOTE ACCESS party collective. They have helped steward the Critical Design Lab (a 2022 United States Artist Awardee) and Creative Time’s inaugural Think Tank. And they run the weekly newsletter Crip News.

– Kirsten Sweeney (Moderator),  Accessibility & Inclusion Manager, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design MuseumCo-Chair, Museum, Arts and Culture Access Consortium

Kirsten Sweeney (she/they) is an autistic advocate working to advance disability equity in the arts & culture sector. They are the Accessibility and Inclusion Manager at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, as well as Co-Chair of the Museum, Arts, and Culture Access Consortium (MAC). They are also a member of A.R.T./New York’s Disability Advisory Council and an accessibility consultant for A.R.T./New York’s Theatre Admin Consulting program.