We are ReDefine Arts
We believe that art is a necessary tool for world-building and (re)imagination.

Image of a mosaic with a hand holding a pencil writing the phrase, “access 4 all.”

Many Hands Make Light Work, Sherbourne Health Centre, 2011. Photo by Anna Camilleri.

Image of a mosaic with five hands of all different colours joining together overtop a red, yellow and white circle next to the phrase, “many roads.”

Many Hands Make Light Work, Sherbourne Health Centre, 2011. Photo by Anna Camilleri.

Image of a mosaic with hands holding a plant sapling next to the word, “nourish.”

Many Hands Make Light Work, Sherbourne Health Centre, 2011. Photo by Anna Camilleri.

Image of a mosaic with a stack of colourful tea cups next to the word, “connection.”

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

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2010

2006

2005

Explore our projects
Photo of a mosaic of a woman with her fist in the air holding a red umbrella on a brick wall.

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

  • photo of Anna standing in front of an ivory wall. Her red hair is shoulder length. She wears a cap sleeved black top.

    Anna Camilleri

    Founding Artistic Co-Director

    Anna Camilleri has been working with performance, image, and text for over 25 years. An interdisciplinary theatre artist and designer, her tactile and sculptural works are primarily expressed through 20+ public artworks, as well as installations and exhibitions. Her book works have been recognized with distinctions from the LAMBDA Literary Foundation, the Association of Independent Publishers, and the American Library of Congress.

  • Headshot of Tristan R. Whiston who has short, curly brown hair and two dimples on his cheeks. He is wearing black rectangular glasses with a navy t-shirt and blazer.

    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.

  • photo of Wy-J sitting on a set of wooden stairs. They wear their long brown hair half up and half down, with big round yellow earrings. They wear a dark navy blue linen top.

    Wy Joung Kou

    Associate Artistic Director

    Wy Joung Kou is an interdisciplinary artist based in Treaty 13 Territory, Toronto. Their body of work spans mosaic, video, sound, movement, performance, poetry, and installation. Grounded in a disability justice framework centering accessibility, relationship and interdependence, their artistic practice intertwines the digital and the analog; the public and the personal; the sensory-based and the story-based. Kou has been a performing & teaching member of Raging Asian Womxn Taiko Drummers since 2019. They are the founder of the Sick & Disabled Queer Zine Fair (2018-2019), an Intergenerational LGBT Artist Residency alum, and in 2018 they were the inaugural winner of the JRG Grant for Artist with Disabilities.

  • photo of Megan in front of a wall of leaves. They have brown shoulder length curly hair and are wearing glasses with rose tinted lenses and a tan button down shirt.

    Megan Wilk

    Program & Access Coordinator

    Megan Wilk is a mad, fat, queer, neurodivergent, settler residing, with gratitude, in Tkarón:to, Treaty 13 territory. They are an arts administrator, producer, creative enabler, and interdisciplinary artist who focuses on disability and 2SLGBTQIA+ advocacy, size inclusivity, and consent-based practices. Through their work with emerging and established artists and arts organizations, Wilk has furthered their dedication to building and sustaining relationships and practices of care and interdependence.

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.