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Deaf Arts (work in progress)

1000 BC-1700    1700-1800    1800-1900    1900-2000    2000-now

For more information about Deaf Arts and current Deaf Artists, go to: https://deaf-art.org

1000 BC - 1700    

+/- 5 BC: Quintus Pedius, Painter (IT)

+/- 5 BC: Quintus Pedius, Painter (IT)

Quintus Pedius (died about 13) was a Roman painter and the first deaf person in recorded history known by name. He is the first recorded deaf painter and his education is the first recorded education of a deaf child. All that is known about him today is contained in a single passage of the Natural History by the Roman author Pliny the Elder.

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1454 - 1513: Pinturicchio, Painter (IT)

1454 - 1513: Pinturicchio, Painter (IT)

Bernardino di Betto, known also as Pintoricchio, was born between 1456 and 1460 in Perugia to a modest family of artisans. His real name was Betti Biagi, but he was often called Sordicchio, from his deafness and insignificant appearance, but Pinturicchio was his usual name.

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1440 -1486: Cristoforo de Predis, Illuminator (IT)

1440 -1486: Cristoforo de Predis, Illuminator (IT)

Cristoforo de Predis (also called Cristoforo de Preda ) was an illuminator active in Milan between 1467 and 1486.

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1465? -1548: Joanot de Pau (Joan Pau Guardiola), Painter (ES)

1465? -1548: Joanot de Pau (Joan Pau Guardiola), Painter (ES)

Joanot de Pau was an active painter in the Segarra, Solsonès and several Pyrenean regions. He is remembered, above all, for being born deaf-mute. 

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1526 – 1579: Juan Fernandez Navarrete, Painter (ES)

1526 – 1579: Juan Fernandez Navarrete, Painter (ES)

Juan Fernandez de Navarrete was born in the beautiful town of Navarre, Spain near the mountain range of the Pyrenees. He was called El Mudo (the mute) since childhood. He lost his hearing at the age of three and never learned to talk.

Juan's amazing drawings skills became evident when he began communicating his needs by drawing them out with charcoal on paper. The young artist never allowed his disabilities to hamper his dreams or ambitions and allowed his art to become his voice.

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1585-1634, Hendrick Avercamp, Painter (NL)

1585-1634, Hendrick Avercamp, Painter (NL)

Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634) was one of the first Dutch landscape painters of the 17th century. He was deaf and mute and known as de Stomme van Kampen (“the mute of Kampen”).

He is especially noted for his winter landscapes of his homeland. His landscapes are characterized by high horizons, bright clear colors, and tree branches darkly drawn against the snow or the sky. His paintings are lively and descriptive, with evidence of solid drawing skills that made him an ideal recorder of his contemporary life.

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1615 – 1678: Wolfgang Heimbach, Painter (DE)

1615 – 1678: Wolfgang Heimbach, Painter (DE)

Wolfgang Heimbach (1615–1678) was a North German Baroque painter, mostly active in Denmark. He was deaf-mute but compensated by being able to read and write several languages. 

(Wolfgang Heimbach, self-portrait, 1666)

 

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1625 - 1688/95: Johannes Thopas, Painter (NL)

1625 - 1688/95: Johannes Thopas, Painter (NL)

Johannes Thopas (ca. 1626 – 1688/95), born deaf, was one of the few artists in the Golden Age who specialized in drawn portraiture. He was especially a virtuoso in lead marker on parchment.

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1700 - 1800    To Top

1723 - 1792: Joshua Reynolds, Painter (UK)

1723 - 1792: Joshua Reynolds, Painter (UK)

Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits.

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1740 - 1823: Claude André Deseine, Sculptor (FR)

1740 - 1823: Claude André Deseine, Sculptor (FR)

Claude-André Deseine was born deaf.  He was an early pupil of the French pioneer of sign language teaching, the abbé de l’Epée, and justly proud of his achievements as a deaf-mute artist.

 

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1742–1810: Richard Crosse, Painter (UK)

1742–1810: Richard Crosse, Painter (UK)

Richard Crosse  was a leading English painter of portrait miniatures. Crosse was, like one of his sisters, completely deaf and never able to speak. 

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1746 - 1828: Francisco Goya, Painter (ES)

1746 - 1828: Francisco Goya, Painter (ES)

In the winter of 1792-93, when Goya was 46, he developed a mysterious illness that nearly killed him. He survived but lost his hearing, and for the next 35 years was “deaf as a stump.”

(..)

And yet, only after the illness did he achieve full mastery of the face in his portraits. Only after his hearing was gone did his skill as a portraitist reach its zenith, possibly, it has been suggested, because deafness made him more aware of gesture, physical expression, and all the minute particulars of how faces and bodies reveal themselves.

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1750 – 1829: Charles Shirreff, Painter (UK)

1750 – 1829: Charles Shirreff, Painter (UK)

Charles Shirreff was born in either 1749 or 1750. His last name has, at times, been spelled as Sherrif, Sherriff, or Shirref.

At the age of three or four, Shirreff became deaf and mute. In 1760, his father approached Thomas Braidwood, owner of a school of mathematics in Edinburgh, seeking an education for the boy, then ten years old, in the hope that he could be taught to write.

Charles became Braidwood's first deaf student; soon afterward, Braidwood founded Braidwood's Academy for the Deaf and Dumb, the first school of its kind in Britain."

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1788 – 1839: Eelke Jelles Eelkema, Painter (NL)

1788 – 1839: Eelke Jelles Eelkema, Painter (NL)

Eelke Jelles Eelkema (8 July 1788 – 27 November 1839), a painter of landscapes, flowers, and fruit, was born at Leeuwarden (NL) as the son of a merchant. On account of his deafness, which was brought on by an illness at the age of seven, he was educated in the first Dutch institution for the deaf and dumb at Groningen (1799). The Flemish Gerardus de San, first director of the Academie Minerva, instructed Eelkema in the art of drawing.

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1795 - 1837: Walter Geikie, Painter (Scotland)

1795 - 1837: Walter Geikie, Painter (Scotland)

Walter Geikie RSA (10 November 1795 – 1 August 1837) was a Scottish painter. At the age of two he suffered a "nervous fever" which left him deaf.  

He sketched in India ink with great truth and humor the scenes and characters of Scottish lower-class life in his native city. 

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1800 - 1900    To Top

1799 - 1871: Mathias Stoltenberg (NO)

1799 - 1871: Mathias Stoltenberg (NO)

Mathias Stoltenberg (21 July 1799 – 2 November 1871) was a Norwegian painter. He earned his living mostly as a travelling portrait painter and furniture restorer. His paintings were later rediscovered and presented at the 1914 Jubilee Exhibition in Kristiania.

He lost his sense of hearing as a child, and died in poverty in Vang in 1871.

 

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1823 - 1875: Bruno Braquehais, Photographer (FR)

1823 - 1875: Bruno Braquehais, Photographer (FR)

Bruno Braquehais was born in Dieppe, France in 1823. Although records don’t state how he lost his hearing, Braquehais was deaf from a young age. When he was nine years old, he started at the Royal Institute of the Deaf and Mute in Paris. He later found work as a lithographer.

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1829 - 1907: Paul Ritter, Painter (DE)

1829 - 1907: Paul Ritter, Painter (DE)

At the age of four, Paul Ritter became deaf due to illness. He became known in particular for his large-format architectural pictures of old Nuremberg with historical figure staffage against the background of the historically faithful architecture of the old town.

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1844 -1914: Félix Martin, Sculptor (FR)

1844 -1914: Félix Martin, Sculptor (FR)

Félix Martin was born deaf on June 2, 18441 in a bourgeois family.

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1856 - 1937: Paul-François Choppin, Sculptor (FR)

1856 - 1937: Paul-François Choppin, Sculptor (FR)

Paul-François Choppin, born in Auteuil on 26 February 1856 and died in Paris (14th arrondissement) on 13 June 1937, was a French sculptor.

He lost his hearing at the age of two and remained deaf and mute throughout his life.

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1861 - 1937: George W. Veditz, First Person to Film Sign Language (ASL)

1861 - 1937: George W. Veditz, First Person to Film Sign Language (ASL)

In 1904, Veditz became president of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD). He had strong opinions about preserving sign language, so during his years as president he worked closely with Oscar Regensburg, the first chairman of NAD's Motion Picture Fund Committee to produce some of the earliest films that recorded sign language.

Consequently, these videos are some of the most significant documents in deaf history. 

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1869 - 1943: Fernand Hamar, Sculptor (FR)

1869 - 1943: Fernand Hamar, Sculptor (FR)

Fernand Joseph Job Hamar, born 15 July 1869 in Vendôme and died 10 March 1943 in Paris, was a French sculptor.

During the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, between the Battle of Orleans (1870) and the Battle of Le Mans, the Prussian army pushed the Army of the Loire around Le Temple. The noise of the cannons caused the deafness of Fernand Hamar, according to his family. Around his tenth birthday, he entered the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris.

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1870-1950: Peder Christian Pedersen, Painter (DK)

1870-1950: Peder Christian Pedersen, Painter (DK)

Peder Christian Pedersen was born on 12-10-1870 and died on 11-5-1950 in Aalborg. Ship paintings and other maritime environments were his specialty.

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1877 - 1906: Slava Raškaj, Painter (Croatia)

1877 - 1906: Slava Raškaj, Painter (Croatia)

Slava Raškaj (2 January 1877 – 29 March 1906) was a Croatian painter, considered to be the greatest Croatian watercolorist of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Being deaf ever since her birth, due to the difficulties in communication, she gradually withdrew from people, but not before her talent was noticed.

Her works have been exhibited since 1898 in art pavilions of Zagreb, Moscow and Saint Petersburg. It was the best part of her short career when most valuable works were done, especially those painteid in this very Garden, by the ponds. A series of paintings of water lilies (‘Lopoci’) are considered as a sort of a hallmark of this great artist.

Bust of Slava Raškaj in Nazorova Street in Zagreb.

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1893 - 1975: Gustinus Ambrosi, Sculptor (AT)

1893 - 1975: Gustinus Ambrosi, Sculptor (AT)

"The later sculptor and poet Gustinus Ambrosi, born on February 24, 1893, lost his hearing in 1900 as a result of meningitis."

"In 1913 the sculptor, who was considered brilliant at an early age, received a state studio for life in Vienna and from that year attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna."

 

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1894 -1960: Kazimierz Wiszniewski (PL), Graphic Designer

1894 -1960: Kazimierz Wiszniewski (PL), Graphic Designer

Kazimierz Wiszniewski was an excellent graphic designer and artist who commemorated the beauty of Polish landscape and Polish architecture in his works.

The art of Kazimierz Wiszniewski is also a very important part of the history of the deaf community in Poland.

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1900 - 2000    To Top

1856 - 1937: Paul-François Choppin, Sculptor (FR)

1856 - 1937: Paul-François Choppin, Sculptor (FR)

Paul-François Choppin, born in Auteuil on 26 February 1856 and died in Paris (14th arrondissement) on 13 June 1937, was a French sculptor.

He lost his hearing at the age of two and remained deaf and mute throughout his life.

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1867 - 1959: Johannes Graadt van Roggen (NL)

1867 - 1959: Johannes Graadt van Roggen (NL)

Johannes Mattheus Graadt van Roggen (Amsterdam, 28 May 1867 – Alkmaar, 26 August 1959) was a Dutch draftsman, painter and graphic artist.

Graadt van Roggen was deaf from the age of three as a result of meningitis

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1870-1950: Peder Christian Pedersen, Painter (DK)

1870-1950: Peder Christian Pedersen, Painter (DK)

Peder Christian Pedersen was born on 12-10-1870 and died on 11-5-1950 in Aalborg. Ship paintings and other maritime environments were his specialty.

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1872 - 1947: Jan Zoetelief Tromp (NL)

1872 - 1947: Jan Zoetelief Tromp (NL)

Johannes Tromp was born on December 13, 1872 in Jakarta (then Batavia). Tromp painted the daily lives of the fishing community, and especially pictures with children, showing them playing on the beach, shepherding goats or returning from the dunes. These scenes are all idyllic and resonate with a familial contentment that presumably reflected his own. 

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1879 - 1963: Valentín de Zubiaurre Aguirrezábal, Painter (ES)

1879 - 1963: Valentín de Zubiaurre Aguirrezábal, Painter (ES)

Valentin de Zubiaurre Aguirrezábal ( Madrid , 1879 - 1963 ), was a Spanish painter. He was born deaf, as was his brother Ramón de Zubiaurre , also a painter, three years his junior. Both were children of the musical composer Valentin de Zubiaurre Urinobarrenechea .

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1881 - 1930: Maurycy Minkowski, Painter (PL)

1881 - 1930: Maurycy Minkowski, Painter (PL)

Maurycy Minkowski was a Polish painter of Jewish ancestry, best known for his genre scenes of daily life in the shtetls. An illness he had when he was a small child left him deaf and without speech.

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1900 - 1966: Richard Liebermann, Painter (DE)

1900 - 1966: Richard Liebermann, Painter (DE)

Richard Liebermann was born deaf and Jewish at Neu-Ulm in Bavaria.  He painted portraits and landscapes all across Germany, but when the Nazis came to power, he was prohibited from continuing his public career because of his Jewish ancestry.

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1900 - 1972: Emerson Romero

1900 - 1972: Emerson Romero

Emerson Romero  was a Cuban-American silent film actor who worked under the screen name Tommy Albert. Romero developed the first technique to provide captions for sound films, making them accessible for the deaf and hard of hearing; his efforts inspired the invention of the captioning technique in use in films and movies today.

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1916 - 1975: Ivan Štrekelj (Sculptor, Slovenia)

1916 - 1975: Ivan Štrekelj (Sculptor, Slovenia)

Ivan Štreklj (1916 - 1975) was a sculptor who studied under the great names of Slovenian sculpture.

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1924 - 2003: Alexander Lobanov (RU)

1924 - 2003: Alexander Lobanov (RU)

Alexander Pavlovich Lobanov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Па́влович Лоба́нов; 30 August 1924 – April, 2003) was a Russian outsider artist. Born in Mologa (Russia) in 1924, Lobanov contracted meningitis before five years old and was left deaf and mute. 

For over fifty years he produced hundreds of works with very little variety in style or content.

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1928 - ..: Peter Dimmel, Sculptor (AT)

1928 - ..: Peter Dimmel, Sculptor (AT)

Peter Hans Dimmel (born August 31, 1928 in Vienna) is an Austrian sculptor and functionary in various deaf interest groups. His life's work includes more than 170 works, including many sculptures and restoration work for churches, especially with the material bronze.

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1931 - 1993: Dorothy

1931 - 1993: Dorothy "Dot" Miles, Poet and Activist (UK)

Dorothy "Dot" Miles (19 August 1931 – 30 January 1993) was a poet and activist in the deaf community. Throughout her life, she composed her poems in English, British Sign Language, and American Sign Language. Her work laid the foundations for modern sign language poetry in the US and UK.

She is regarded as the pioneer of BSL poetry and her work influenced many contemporary Deaf poets.

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1940 - 2003: Albert

1940 - 2003: Albert "Fisé" Fischer, Painter (DE)

Albert Fischer was born on October 13, 1940 in Munich. He became deaf at the age of one as a result of meningitis.

From 1956 to 1959 he studied art with Prof. Karl Blocherer in Munich - and there he showed his extraordinary talent.

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1949: Foundation of the Deutsches Gehörlosen-Theater e.V., Germany

1949: Foundation of the Deutsches Gehörlosen-Theater e.V., Germany

The German Deaf Theater (Deutsches Gehörlosen-Theater e.V., DGT for short) was founded over half a century ago with the aim that the deaf people can visit a theater in their language and that the deaf actors can come out of themselves and slip into other roles and still be themselves stay.

Deaf actors have long been discriminated outsiders. That shouldn't be anymore. On stage they are free spirits and rebels who maintain the culture of the deaf. It is simply fascinating to see how the deaf actors on stage implement their creative ideas with such passion, as if it were about life and death, about everything or nothing.

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1960 - ..: Alexander Matianov, Painter (RU)

1960 - ..: Alexander Matianov, Painter (RU)

Alexander Martianov was born in 1960 in a village not far from the town of Vyatka in the Russian Federation.

Mr Martianov has described his work in this way: “I find my own forms in art that can express my thoughts and internal images. I believe deafness has influenced my art in the sense that my world vision is connected to my deafness, and I try to express this in my work. My style has changed very little in recent years. Whatever changes there have been reflect my inner experience and images.”

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1971 - ...: Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq, Painter (UK)

1971 - ...: Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq, Painter (UK)

Rubbena is a London-based artist and facilitator whose work concerns culture, deaf identity and, as a deaf woman of Pakistani heritage, the multi-faceted nature of being a ‘minority within a minority’

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1977: Foundation of the International Visual Theatre (IVT), France

1977: Foundation of the International Visual Theatre (IVT), France

In 1976, the deaf American artist Alfredo Corrado went to France to work for the Nancy International Theater Festival. He meets Jean Grémion, French director already engaged in research on non-verbal theater.

Founded in 1977, IVT is currently directed by Emmanuelle Laborit since 2002, Jennifer Lesage-David since 2014.

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1970: Foundation of Tyst Theatre (Sweden)

1970: Foundation of Tyst Theatre (Sweden)

Riksteatern’s Tyst Teater is a pioneer in the production of groundbreaking dramatic art in Swedish Sign Language. Ever since the start in 1970, thee have offered a unique selection of dramatic arts, seminars and meetings.

Tyst Teater’s vision is to create the very best dramatic art in Swedish Sign Language, with and by artists and cultural performers who are deaf and members of the sign-language community.

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1987: Foundation of Teatteri Totti (Finland)

1987: Foundation of Teatteri Totti (Finland)

Theater Totti is the only sign language theater in Finland.It was founded in 1987.

Theater Totti produces his performances for many different age groups, from children to adults and older generations. The plays can also be interpreted into speech for non-sign language viewers.

Every year, Toti has one to two of the theater's own sign language productions in its repertoire.

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2000 - now   To Top

1990 - 2015: Handtheater

1990 - 2015: Handtheater

Handtheater was a unique organization in the Netherlands that was active in the field of performing arts and cultural education in sign language from 1990 to 2012.

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2001: Foundation of Teater Manu (Norway)

2001: Foundation of Teater Manu (Norway)

In December 2001, Theatre Manu was established. The theatre's strategy document states that the theatre will be the best theatre in the world with its roots in deaf culture and the environment.

Theater Manu is Norway's sign language theater. Teater Manu has developed into a state-funded institutional theater with eight employees, which has an office and stage at Grünerløkka in Oslo.

Theater Manu is a touring professional theater with high quality performing arts, a young cultural institution that is recognized both nationally and internationally.

 

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2001: Foundation of Signdance Collective International (UK, NL)

2001: Foundation of Signdance Collective International (UK, NL)

The Signdance Collective is a touring performance company that was established in 2001. The company is culturally diverse with a team of experienced deaf and disabled artists at the helm.

The company is one of the first in the world to utilise and introduce the concept of inclusive practice with a specific focus on disability-deaf led team work.

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2002: Foundation of Deafinitely Theatre Company (UK)

2002: Foundation of Deafinitely Theatre Company (UK)

In 2002 Paula Garfield founded Deafinitely Theatre alongside Steven Webb and Kate Furby having become frustrated with the barriers deaf actors and directors faced in mainstream media. 

They are the first deaf launched and deaf-led theatre company in the UK that works bilingually in British Sign Language and spoken English, producing work that caters to audiences of all ages. 

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2003 - ...: Festival Clin d'Oeil (FR)

2003 - ...: Festival Clin d'Oeil (FR)

The Festival Clin d'Oeil is an international sign language arts festival created in 2003, taking place every two years in July for four days. Several artistic fields are represented: theater, dance, cinema, visual arts, street performances, etc.

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2013 - ... :École de Théâtre Universelle (FR)

2013 - ... :École de Théâtre Universelle (FR)

The first generalist theater school in sign language immersion, the ETU offers a two-year diploma course.

The theater school, exclusively in sign language, is generalist, demanding, diploma-based and based on pedagogy by project. This innovative research site is enriched by numerous partnerships and exchanges.

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