ETC is delighted to announce that Executive Director Heidi Wiley has been appointed to an influential research committee on making theatre more accessible for people with disabilities.
The Digital Access Research Project (DARP), a collaboration between metaLAB (at) Harvard University and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, is concerned with maintaining the digital provision of theatre that allowed underserved audiences to engage with the arts during the pandemic.
It aims to develop a set of guidelines for policymakers and performing arts organisations that balance the digital accessibility needs of formerly marginalized groups, with the performer and institutional copyright rights.
In DARP, Heidi Wiley joins a group of leading international experts in disability law, copyright law, digital technology, and performing arts management, including:
- Magda Romanska, Principal Investigator at metaLAB (at) Harvard, and Faculty Associate at Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Chair of the DARP
- Paul Harpur, Affiliate Researcher at The Harvard Law School Project on Disability; and Associate Professor of Law at The University of Queensland Law School
- Sam Gold, Theatre Director
- Doaa Abu-Elyounes, Affiliated Researcher at Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, and UNESCO
- Kasia Lech, Executive Director of TheTheatreTimes.com, and Associate Professor of Global Theatre History at the University of Amsterdam
- Jim Augustine, former COO of Zuckerberg Media, co-founder of Assemble Stream, and co-founder of the League of Live Stream Theater
- Talia Rodgers, Head of Higher Education at DigitalTheatre.com, and her team, Hessom Arta and Kristina Irlam
- Ilinca Todorut, Artistic Director of the International Online Theatre Festival (IOTF)
- Richard Misek, Professor at the University of Bergen, Norway, and Principal Investigator of Digital Access to Arts and Culture.
The committee also includes Maxime De Brogniez, Lecturer of Law at University of Liège, Belgium; and Antoine Vandenbulke, Professor of Law at the University of Mons, Belgium. They are the co-authors of Performing Arts Recordings and Broadcasts: A Practical Manual on Author’s and Related Rights, the research published by ETC. Read the study
DARP is a development of metaLAB’s FutureStage project. You can read more about the Digital Access Research Project on the metaLAB website.
You can also read about ETC’s ongoing research into digital theatre practices and business models, which will be published in Spring 2023.
