Kate Welsh is a white settler, cis queer crip community activist, feminist artist and educator. She is passionate about building communities of care and striving to create safer, anti-oppressive spaces. Living with both visible and invisible episodic disabilities, Kate navigates complex experiences through art, activism and community care. Kate’s interests include community building, feminism, intersectionality, disabilities, queer identities and knowledge sharing. Kate was born and raised in the US but moved and then immigrated to Canada and has been in Toronto for ten years. Kate did her undergraduate education in sociology and drama studies and has been involved in the Toronto indie theatre community. Particularly participating in collaborative theatre creation as a part of Buddies in Bad Times queer youth arts program as well as the Artists Mentoring Youth Project (AMY). Over the past 6 years she has had to refocus her art practices away from theatre as her ability fluctuates.
Kate is currently finishing her Masters of Education at OISE where she is focusing on researching queercrip identities and resiliency strategies. Additionally she facilitates weekly crafting workshops for Hart House’s wellness programs, runs LGBTQ community wellness and mental health groups and continues to co-author books for WomanSafeHealth on women’s health care and advocacy. Most recently Kate has been working on an initiative to promote the social inclusion, awareness and policy recommendations for people with Episodic Disabilities, disabilities that have periods of wellness and periods of illness including many chronic health conditions. As a part of her work on this initiative she has been exploring ways in which to not just change policy but creating consumable art that tackles hard to talk about topics such as chronic illness.
Kate Welsh, Untitled 2016 (cyanotype framed with folded card stock)
