2009-2010 ADA Cultural Access Grantees

 

The panel reviewed 16 proposals of which 7 were awarded and funded.

 

Attleboro Arts Museum: Since 2007, the Museum has collaborated with the Arc of Northern Bristol County, a grassroots, non-profit association serving individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. Together, the Museum and the Arc have offered arts classes to special needs individuals, providing them opportunities for positive self-expression and promoting a sense of accomplishment from seeing their completed work on display in the Museum gallery. To that end, we are requesting a project grant to support Picturing Connections: At Home in My Community, an arts education program connecting adult Arc students with their community. This initiative, which involves the funding of workshops, provides access to the visual arts for students with disabilities, promotes feelings of inclusion and self-esteem, and establishes lasting ties between this population and the larger community.

 

Community Access to the Arts: Community Access to the Arts (CATA) has been providing services to individuals with a wide range of disabilities through visual and performing arts workshops since 1994. CATA's workshops are individualized to meet the needs of specific participants, but the general model is for group instruction, with a ratio of approximately one instructor to eight participants.  Approximately 15% of CATA's workshops include individuals with severe to profound disabilities.  This group, as a whole, requires a smaller participant to instructor ratio - 1:4 is generally appropriate, but some individuals require 1:1 instruction to benefit.  Individuals with severe to profound disabilities and the agencies that serve them do not necessarily have access to the extra funds required to bring down the participant to instructor ratio and CATA is requesting $6,000 from the ADA Cultural Access Initiative Grants program to support an expansion of programming for the individuals CATA serves who have severe to profound disabilities that will allow participants to deepen and elevate their work and to experience greater benefit from CATA workshops during the 2009-2010 program year.  This expansion will include the following elements:

 

-         Team teaching to reduce the faculty to participant ratio.

-         Multidisciplinary workshops designed for increased sensory stimulation.

-         One on one instruction for individuals who require this ratio to benefit.

 

Children's Center for Communications: We propose to have the Little Theatre of the Deaf, the children's division of the famed National Theatre of the Deaf, do a performance which we would open to other schools and programs for children with deafness or disabilities.  In addition, we would have them to one workshop for our own students to introduce them to theatre and acting.

 

Extra Sensory Pictures : Starting in 1997, the SHOOTING BEAUTY project has brought the world of photography to a group of individuals living with significant disabilities.

 

Founded by photographer Courtney Bent who initially began volunteering at the United Cerebral Palsy Community Experience Program in Watertown, MA, the award winning program has involved the development of adaptive photography cameras, direct instruction and support to the photographers, and public exhibits.  Currently, the project is expanding to a national scale with the release of "SHOOTING BEAUTY: Everyone deserves a shot" - a documentary film and teacher's guide based on Courtney's work intended to instruct and inspire similar initiatives around the U.S and abroad while raising the general public's awareness about issues facing this often underrepresented community.

 

The film needs to be made as accessible as possible so that all these groups can have the opportunity to comfortably view the film regardless of their disability.  In order to do this, we utilize consultants living with disabilities to finalize our universal access strategy then we will use the latest technologies available to implement our strategy, creating a universally accessible version of SHOOTING BEAUTY that can then be mastered into a television-ready DVD format complete with closed captioning, descriptive services and, if necessary, audible menus.  Consultants will also be used for review, quality control, and final sign off of the implemented DVD design.

 

First Night Worcester: First Night Worcester's Deaf Youth Residency has commenced its 9^th consecutive year of operation. Annually, programs are designed to engage Deaf and Hard of Hearing youth and artists in the creative process; develop a range of artistic, communication, and dramatic subsets; and encourage participation in and contribution to an inclusive community-wide celebration. Each successive program builds on prior year's experiences with consideration given to advancing new creative life skills. Plans are underway for this year's program in collaboration with theatre artist Ezzell Floranina, ASL and Deaf Studies Director Judy Fask of Holy Cross and the Visual and Performing Arts Liaisons from the Worcester Public Schools. Members of the Deaf Youth Residency will partake in workshops and rehearsals during the fall leading up to the final production on New Year's Eve resulting in an interdisciplinary multi-lingual performance of music, choreography, stilt-walking movement, and puppetry.

 

Huntington Theatre Company : This program represents a broadening of the Huntington Theatre Company's engagement of students from the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the oldest public school for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the United States. The collaboration involves the Huntington's curriculum-based Student Matinee Series, the national Poetry Out Loud competition, and Huntington youth workshop classes. Support from VSA Arts would enable the Huntington to provide in-depth preparatory services to students and teachers from Horace Mann prior to ASL-interpreted student matinees; implement an inaugural classroom and school-wide contest as part of Poetry Out Loud and support the winner's participation in the semi-final and subsequent rounds of the competition; and facilitate, for the first time, participation by Horace Mann students in the Huntington's dramatic arts workshops.

 

Triangle, Inc: Triangle's Ablevision is a national, bi-monthly television program that is scripted, shot, hosted and directed completely by people with disabilities. The 60 members of our cast and crew are currently developing a four story series that focuses on the artistic contributions of people with disabilities.

 

The first story in this series will focus on Alliger Arts' production of GIMP, the second story will feature an inclusive rock band named BILL and the third story will focus on Claddagh Bing, an inspiring, inclusive musical show that featured several Ablevision crew members. We would like to focus the fourth story on the grand opening of VSA Massachusetts' new art gallery. The goal of this series is to introduce Ablevision's national audience to the diverse artistic contributions of people with disabilities and promote the work of the individuals and groups listed above. Several stories that are included in this project, such as the feature piece on GIMP, are already in process and we plan to complete this project by the end of December 2009.