The Liu Lobby Gallery invites you to Terrains of Access: Civic Ecol ogies and Pre-Histories of 2050. This installment of the Solidarity series features the work of artist and Disability activist Sharona Franklin. The e xhibition bridges the gap between traditionally distinct worlds\, public po licy and fine art\, to enrich the conversation on Disability justice and ac cess expansion.
Visit the gallery during its open hours from April 30 – August 21\, 2026\, and join us for a reception on April 30th from 6-8 PM . Stay tuned for details about our summer programs!
Exhibitio
n: April 30 – August 21\, 2026
Reception: Ap
ril 30\, 6-8 PM
The exhibition is free and open to the public during regular building hours\, Monday – Friday\, 9am – 5pm. It is located in the Lobby on the first floor.
Curated by Ellinee Nelson
Abo ut the Exhibition:
Terrains of Access: Civic Ecologies and P re-Histories of 2050 brings together ionic gelatin biomaterial sculptures a nd a series of reimagined disability-focused policy documents. The exhibiti on functions as an experimental reading room\, combining sculpture\, access design\, illustration\, and poetry as disseminations of accessibility.
The work holds two temporalities in tension: the sensory and transient n ature of living\, biomaterial forms alongside the bureaucratic rigidity of civic access-infrastructure. Four policy frameworks: NEST\, RAMP\, TAPS\, a nd ACPA\, appear in the gallery as historical artifacts from the perspectiv e of the year 2050. They examine how systems of care and accessibility are built\, encoded\, and inherited across bodies and generations. The sculptur es cure\, shift\, and decay in real time.
Rather than treating disabi lity access as a future aspiration\, Terrains of Access positions it as an ecological relationship\, one rooted in collective solidarity and already l ong overdue. The installation asks what it means to design for futures we d o not yet inhabit\, using the body and the document as parallel sites of in quiry.
Artist Bio:
Sharona Franklin (b. 1987) is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist\, writer\, and advocate whose practi ce spans biomaterial sculpture\, textile\, photography\, poetry\, visual de sign\, and civic policy. Solo exhibitions include MIT List Visual Arts Cent er\, Cambridge\; Bradley Ertaskiran\, Montreal\; and La Maison de Rendez-Vo us\, Brussels. Group exhibitions include the Victoria and Albert Museum\, L ondon\; Art Basel\; and the Vancouver Art Gallery. She lives and works in V ictoria\, British Columbia.
CATEGORIES:Featured Events,Featured Homepage,Featured News &\; Events LOCATION:Lobby Gallery\, Liu Institute for Global Issues GEO:49.268776;-123.199987 URL;VALUE=URI:https://sppga.ubc.ca/events/event/terrains-of-access-receptio n/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sppga.cms.arts.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2026/03/LiuGallery_Terrains_2_WEB.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Vancouver BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 DTSTART:20260308T100000 TZNAME:PDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR