Garage Inclusive Programs department is extending the range of events designed for deaf and hard hearing visitors, delivering a series of workshops on International Sign.
By maintaining the status of an international institution and cultivating the principles of inclusion, Garage is expressing and retranslating the current necessity of studying the international basics of sign-language communication in Russia. As part of this process, Garage has expanded the range of its accessories which introduce the Museum’s visitors to the culture of the deaf community and sign language by producing a series of clothing with inscriptions in international sign fingerspelling.
The culture of sign languages has been experiencing its own globalization since the 1970s–1980s, with communicative networks between deaf people having grown increasingly worldwide. At one point, the necessity to use a common language at international events became obvious, and this is how the system of international signs started to develop.
As much as the English language for hearing people, International Sign has become the basis for formal and informal communication between deaf people across the globe, who interact with each other using signs from their national languages mixed with international and iconic gestures.
Together with Alina Lupookova—deaf pedagogue and advocate of International Sign—Garage announces a cycle of workshops dedicated to the study of this language. Participants will be introduced to the vocabulary and grammatical universals typical of linguistic systems of many sign languages and will learn some basic International Sign gestures.
If you are unsure about applying for the course, please come to Garage Auditorium prior to the start of the cycle, at 16:00 on May 6, for a general introductory workshop devoted to International Sign.