We are ReDefine Arts
We believe that art is a necessary tool for world-building and (re)imagination.
Many Hands Make Light Work, Sherbourne Health Centre, 2011. Photo by Anna Camilleri.
Many Hands Make Light Work, Sherbourne Health Centre, 2011. Photo by Anna Camilleri.
Many Hands Make Light Work, Sherbourne Health Centre, 2011. Photo by Anna Camilleri.
Many Hands Make Light Work, Sherbourne Health Centre, 2011. Photo by Anna Camilleri.
ReDefine Arts Manifesto
ReDefine Arts (established in 2005 as Red Dress Productions) creates and presents interdisciplinary and community grounded performance, installations and public artworks that advance disability justice, collaborative processes, and artistic innovation.
Alongside its collaborators, community members and partners, ReDefine Arts is re-defining what it means to be an artist. ReDefine Arts views the artist as a creator and visionary, and also: co-creator, listener, connector of ideas, guide, and choreographer. While there is space for this definition to grow in tandem with our work, core to this understanding is that the artist’s role is to facilitate community-centred practices that remain accountable to the artistry, the stories, and the people telling them.
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We embrace multitudes: we are multidisciplinary, multi-access, multi-sensory, and multi-modal.
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We embrace our interconnectedness: we are interdisciplinary, interdependent, and interwoven in our stories.
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Our work is guided by principles of collective liberation. Our ways of thinking and working consider needs and experiences beyond our own.
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We believe in the power of art. We see art as an expansive way to express and communicate; we see art as necessary and reflexive.
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We believe that our practice is strengthened by our relational ways of art making. Radical reciprocity and mutual care are central to our relationships.
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We see art as a necessary tool for world-building and (re)imagination; as a way of navigating complexities and creating knowledge.
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We strive for justice in all that we do. We hold and nourish our relations with care. We uphold the inherent value of all persons.
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We continue to define and redefine what it means to be an artist through our work and relationships.
Our History
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2005
Homage, 2013. Photo by Martin Reis.
“ReDefine Arts creates unimaginably beautiful and complex pieces that weave together decades of history, ancestral memories and sparks of revolution and justice.” Syrus Marcus Ware, Curator, Homage, 2013, Juried commission, Church Street Murals Project
Our People
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Anna Camilleri
Founding Artistic Co-Director
Anna Camilleri works across diverse media including sculpture, installation, literature and theatre. A producer and public artist, her practice is activated through collaboration and mentorship. Anna has presented and exhibited at galleries and festivals such as Festival of Live Digital Art, Liminal: The Interdisciplinary Critical Femininities Conference, STEPS Public Art, National Queer Arts Festival, White Water Gallery, LIVE: Biennial of Performance Art (Grunt Gallery), National Library Archives. Her book works have been recognized by the LAMBDA Literary Foundation, the Association of Independent Publishers, and the American Library of Congress. Anna is also an Intergenerational LGBT Artist Residency alum, a 2023-2024 Toronto Arts Council/Toronto Metropolitan University Leaders Lab fellow and a part-time professor for Centennial College Theatre Arts and Performance.
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Tristan R. Whiston
Founding Artistic Co-Director
Tristan is a director, dramaturge, and community artist. He has written and directed five audio documentaries for CBC, including Middle C, which won the 2007 Premios Ondas Award for International Radio. He has directed Gender Play, trace, and recently, was dramaturge on the dance-theatre production Dancing With the Universe by Vivian Chong and Kathleen Rea that premiered at the Harbourfront Centre’s CoMotion: International Festival of Disability Arts. Tristan’s film pINCO Triangle was honoured with three 2018 Queer North Awards, including Best Canadian Film.
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Megan Wilk
Program & Access Coordinator
Megan Wilk is a fat, queer, disabled, settler residing, with gratitude, in Tkarón:to, Treaty 13 territory. They are an arts administrator, producer, and artist. Through their work, Wilk focuses on disability and 2SLGBTQIA+ advocacy, size inclusivity, and collaborative and consent-based practices.
Current Partners
With respect and gratitude, thank you to all project contributors, community members, and partner organizations. These relationships – past, present and future – strengthen, support, and make up a large and crucial part of RDA’s artistic and community-based activities. Thank you to the Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council for their ongoing operational support, without which our work would not be possible.
ReDefine Arts acknowledges that we are situated primarily in Toronto, the traditional territory of many nations including the Anishnabeg, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples, and the treaty lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (Treaty 13) and multiple Mississaugas and Chippewa bands (Williams Treaties). Many of our rural projects also take place on unceded traditional Omàmìwininì (Algonquin) territory. We acknowledge our shared obligation to respect, honour, and sustain these lands and the natural resources within it.