Bill Porter

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Exhibition invitation for "Deconstructing Disability: Perspectives + Identities" at Lesley University with gallery image.

Open Call for Work: Deconstructing Disability: Perspectives + Identities

Exhibition Dates: October 12 – November 15, 2026. Raizes Gallery, Lunder Arts Center
Deadline for Submissions: September 13, 2026

The exhibition will feature work by members of the Lesley community—students, staff, faculty, and administrators—who identify as disabled. By centering the work of disabled artists, the exhibition seeks to expand and complicate prevailing understandings of disability, foregrounding the diverse ways artists engage their lived experiences, identities, and ways of moving through the world.

Rather than defining disability as a fixed or singular condition, this exhibition embraces it as a spectrum of experiences—personal, cultural, and political. In doing so, it affirms the presence and contributions of disabled artists within the Lesley University community and creates space for visibility, reflection, and dialogue.

Exhibition Jurors: Camilla Jerome and Bill Porter
Curatorial Team: Andrew Mroczek and Bill Porter
Supported by the Disability Advocacy & Education Group

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Dark Room Ballet Rotating Faculty 2026:
Cultivating a Studio Art Practice with Bill Porter
Online Course for Blind & Low Vision Artists

May 7 - June 25, 2026

This studio art course focuses on building a sustainable studio art practice within a supportive learning environment. Students will develop a single art project over the course of the program, working through research, making, feedback, and revision. The course also introduces art history and contemporary art through the perspectives of blind and low vision artists and scholars, grounding studio work in critical and creative contexts.

This seven-week course meets weekly for two-hour online sessions that include lectures, group discussions, and critiques. Creative individuals of all levels of art training and experience are welcome. Students are encouraged to work with the materials, modalities, and methods that best support their projects, including non-visual media. Attendance and active participation are expected, including engagement in class critiques and the shared process of giving and receiving feedback.

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Student-Led Peer Review:
A Practical Guide to Implementation Across Disciplines and Modalities

Based on the authors’ extensive experience and research, this book provides a practical introduction to the key principles, steps, and strategies to implement student peer review – sometimes referred to as “peer critique” or “workshopping”. It addresses common challenges that faculty and students encounter. The authors offer an easy-to-follow and rigorously tested three-part protocol to use before, during, and after a peer review session, and advice on adapting each step to individual courses.

"This book offers a research-based, practitioner-focused approach to using peer review in the classroom. The authors do a masterful job of anticipating the challenges of student peer review and describing the considerable benefits that accrue when students are asked to take responsibility, think critically and gain agency. The book is an excellent resource for teachers, as it provides strong rationale for encouraging peer review and compelling ideas for designing instruction and environments that foster student growth in this vital area. Highly recommended!"

- Peter Afflerbach, University of Maryland