Live music events bring people together, but the use of amplifiers and lights can make these events inaccessible for people living with sensory-related conditions. It was a challenge that Cam Kochut experienced first-hand. Kochut has chronic migraines and said he would often have to leave an event early or not attend at all. After speaking with his partner, Kochut launched the Excavator Arts Collective in 2023 to host sensory-accessible events like open mic nights and art workshops.
“I was unable to go to music events without getting a migraine because of the lights and sound that are often unnecessarily amplified. We hosted an acoustic open mic [in 2019] to see if that would work, and it did—but then the pandemic hit,” Kochut said.
After taking a break, Kochut launched the Excavator Arts Collective along with co-founder Athena Katinas. The first event was an open mic night where Kochut met Daniel Thompson-Blum, who joined the collective as a facilitator.
“It was at one of the very first ones where I met Daniel. We swapped contacts and met up again where he said he wanted to do a drawing club,” Kochut said.
“For the first half hour or so, we have what’s called “Fuck Around and Find Out” time. It’s a warm-up before we get into the theme of the night. Sometimes it’s collage or figure drawing or live sketching. It’s really varied,” Kochut said.
The non-profit organization receives funding from the Laurier Students’ Public Interest Research Group (LSPIRG), which helped fund the first open mic in 2019. In addition to the LSPIRG funding, the Excavator Arts Collective accepts donations on a pay-what-you-can model for its events.
“[LSPRIG has] been a really wonderful partner to help us provide supplies if [participants] don’t have access to sketchbooks,” he said.
All the collective’s events are held at the Waterloo Visitor Information Centre, and Kochut eventually hopes to find a permanent space for the organization.
“It’d be great to have a space we can offer people to host events, people who don’t necessarily have the funding to do so. I would like to really make a properly sensory-friendly space with sound dampening too,” he said.
The events are open to everyone, but Kochut said many of the attendees are on the autism spectrum and many are 2SLGBTQIA+.
“They kind of self-select, and that’s who we end up with, which I think is also where we sit as facilitators,” Kochut said.
Kochut is a Laurier graduate and said many of the event attendees are fellow Laurier students. He added that more people are discovering Goodlines and the collective’s open mic series QT Open Mic through social media and word of mouth.
“Someone will try it out by themselves first, and then the next time they usually bring two or three friends, which I think is really exciting because that means they enjoyed it enough to connect their friends to it,” Kochut said.
The organization’s name comes from Kochut’s partner Danni, who is an avid birder. They searched through birding terminology and landed on “excavator.”
“There are birds who build nests and birds who dig holes—they carve out a space for their homes. That’s what we’re trying to do here. We’re trying to carve out our own space,” Kochut said.
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