Rachel Gray

Rachel Gray is a multimedia artist based in Ottawa, Canada. She has a BA in English from King’s College and Dalhousie University (2013) and a BFA in Visual Arts from the University of Ottawa (2017). Rachel was the Artistic (2020–2021) and Executive Director (2021–2022) of BEING Studio, a studio space for artists with developmental disabilities, where she advocated for accessibility in the arts sector.

Rachel has explored intersections between art making, ecology, and community engagement in residencies at the Everglades National Park in Florida (2020) and the Klondike Institute for Art and Culture in Dawson City, Yukon (2023). She has collaborated with academic and medical researchers in interdisciplinary projects that aim to mobilize and share knowledge in accessible ways, including working with the Isenberg Lab to create an animated film based on stories from a palliative care unit. This work will be adapted into a live performance with the support of the Ontario Arts Council in 2025. 

Rachel is also a librettist. Recent works include Jess (2022) and Raccoon Opera (2024). Raccoon Opera was awarded the Mécénat Musica Prix 3 Femmes and the Pirch Prize from Opera America. It received an excerpted première at Salle Bourgie, Musée Des Beaux-Arts in Montréal. Jess was awarded the Notable Project Award for Digital Excellence from Opera America in 2023. She is also a finalist for the Atlanta Opera’s 96-Hour Opera Project, a competition for emerging librettists and composers from underrepresented communities. Rachel’s writing for opera draws on her interdisciplinary practice, combining text, movement, and visual design to create emotionally rich and unconventional narratives.

She is a founding member of Ghost Rooster, a disability arts collective dedicated to creative approaches to access at the intersection of dance and film. The collective’s first short film, Dreamscapes, will tour across Canada in 2025. As a director, Rachel uses puppetry, visual art, dance, and collaborative filming techniques to tell stories that center disability experience and non-human consciousness. She continues to seek opportunities to collaborate and explore art as a site for connection, transformation, and shared imagination.