Arts Access Newsletter Spring 2000

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Public Law 94-142 (which later became known as IDEA), and July 26th is the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, better known as the ADA. To commemorate these two pieces of legislation, VSA arts of Minnesota is joining with over a dozen disability organizations from around the state to present Celebrating Disability Rights. The day-long event will be held at Anne Sullivan School in south Minneapolis on Wednesday, July 26th from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The day will feature performances by individuals with disabilities from around the state including Stephanie Dawn, Joseph Baird, Ted Brown, the Tourette Traveling Troupe and many more! In addition, people will be able to join artist Dwayne Szot in creating a colossal floor painting using pogo stick painters and wheelchair printers!

The keynote speaker for the event will be disability rights advocate, Ted Kennedy, Jr., from New York, the son of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy and a board member of the national VSA arts organization. All of the day's events will be free and open to the general public. Food will be available throughout the day and there will be information booths staffed by various disability agencies, service providers and vendors.

Join us on July 26th for a day of fun and celebration!

by Craig Dunn, Executive Director.

I grew up in Warren, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, during the fifties, sixties and seventies. One of my most vivid memories is playing baseball and football on a nearby field where the guys from the neighborhood would gather for an afternoon of fun. On many of those days, a young man named Larry would hear us and emerge from his house on the far side of the field to join us. None of us really knew Larry; he didn't go to school with any of us and he hadn't gone to school with any of our older brothers or sisters; but like us, he enjoyed the games. So during the summer Larry was "official catcher" and in the fall, he shagged the football on errant passes and kicks into the nearby bushes. When the game ended, we returned as a group to our homes on one side of the fence and Larry returned to his, alone.

I knew that Larry was not like the rest of the guys; he was slow and awkward in his movements and when he spoke, most of us could not understand him. I learned from my mom who had been a nurse that he had Down Syndrome and that it was a common form of mental retardation. All I really knew was that he was usually a pretty good catcher and that no one I had ever seen, at school or the grocery store or on TV or at Tiger Stadium, looked like Larry.

Today, in the summer of 2000, it is hard to find a person who has not seen someone at their school or in their neighborhood or on TV that has a disability. In 1975 with the passage of Public Law 94-142 (which later became known as IDEA), children with disabilities and other exceptional learning needs began to be seen more and more in the public schools around the country. Likewise in 1990, President Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that guaranteed certain rights and protections for people of all disabilities ensuring that they have equal access to the same services, employment opportunities and public accommodations provided to people without disabilities.

I hope that you will join with the greater community on July 26th to celebrate these two important pieces of legislation at Anne Sullivan School in south Minneapolis (see page 1). Help us recognize that the "Larrys" of the world will no longer be unseen and relegated to second-class citizenship but rather embraced and valued for their abilities and the diversity that they bring to our human family.

The following individuals were selected to receive this year's $150 grant awards. Look for our summer newsletter for an article on what some of these grant recipients did with their awards:

Pamela Abels-VanWert.
Solway Visual arts.
Tary Flemino St. Paul Visual arts.
*Jennifer Hanson Hibbing Visual arts.
Julie Jeatran Minneapolis Poetry, other writing.
Anne Krocak Minneapolis Visual arts.
Robert Rivera Minneapolis Writer, essays.
Deb Salstrom St. Paul Writer, visual arts, playwriting.
Patty Subak Minneapolis Visual arts.
Valerie Wiggins Minneapolis Visual arts.

* denotes recipient between ages of 13 & 21.

More than 600 people from Central Minnesota and the Twin Cities attended Art of the Eye II at Saint John's University in Collegeville in March and April.

The exhibit of 42 works by artists with visual disabilities received key support from the Delta Gamma Foundation, Target Stores, Vision Loss Resources, Lions Club International, VSA arts of Minnesota, SJU, with transportation assistance from The Boss Foundation.

Carolyn Sands (see picture) was one of 25 participants at an April workshop at Saint John's University focusing on visual arts techniques for students with low and no vision.

Workshop teachers were Art of the Eye II curator, Scott Nelson, and arts educators Bonnie Lauber-Westover and Betsy Shallbetter.

More than 120 people shared their singing, dancing and art talents to Welcome Springtime with the Arts 2000 in Bloomington in late April. The Sunshine Singers (pictured) from Apple Valley were among the performers. Other participants came from Adults with Disability community education programs in Anoka, Bloomington, Elk River, St. Cloud and North St. Paul/Maplewood.

"Swamp Story", a pageant of colorfully masked and costumed creatures, was staged March 24th in Chisholm by several dozen people with and without disabilities. The performance was the conclusion of a two-week residency by In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre of Minneapolis. Hosted by Chisholm Community Education and the Range Center, two artists taught residents of area communities how to make a variety of 10-to-12-foot pole puppets, box head puppets, and other sculpted puppets and masks.

Artist Matt Weathers said the story was "about finding and discovering that there is beauty in everything in the world even when it seems there isn't anything beautiful." Laurie Witzkowski added "This is about the emergence of one's self. The characters have to pull out of the mire of a swamp as a metaphor for emerging." Thus, out of an eerie swamp come Mud Monster, Free Spirit, Water Creature, Fly Boy, Snake, Rat-Bat-Dog, Two-headed Cyclops, Bird, Grumpies and many other creatures. Fed with ideas by the participants, the play ends as a Cocoon celebrates its individuality by revealing itself to be a beautiful Butterfly. Several creatures were played by people who used their wheelchairs in the swamp dances.

Cora Culbert, Art Director at the Range Center, led a group of musicians who accompanied the narration and created the sounds of the swamp. Culbert said, "What Range Center artists have learned in the building of the masks (and involvement in the play) has opened up a whole new world for them. What a rich opportunity!"

A good crowd of about 300 people attended the event at Chisholm High School Auditorium. Financial assistance for the residency was provided by VSA arts of Minnesota, the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, McKnight Foundation and other local organizations.

When Kay Louise Johansen Chase moved back to Minneapolis two years ago after living on the East Coast for 23 years, she was used to an active life in the arts.

"We lived right outside of New York City. I still remember how thrilled I was to go to my first Mostly Mozart Festival concert with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and to my delight to be handed a Braille program. I had seen the play Summer and Smoke several times before I saw it on Broadway in an entirely new way with audio description. I had no idea how important gestures and facial expression could be in conveying the meaning of a theatrical presentation."

In Minnesota she heard about VSA arts of Minnesota in her work as an assistive technology consultant. She decided to join the board because of its support for persons with disabilities as arts enthusiasts needing access to performance venues, and as artists themselves. "Programs should be provided in alternate media, and audio description should be provided for operas, ballets and the theater," she says.

While Kay has been totally blind since birth, "other than not being able to drive a car, I have not felt limited in any way by my blindness. I attended public schools in an era when mainstreaming was not the norm. Until I started applying for jobs after graduate school, I had never heard things like, "a blind person can't possibly be a choral director," or "one must have five senses in order to teach elementary music. "I have tried through my professional responsibilities to push back some of these barriers."

After studying music education and music therapy, Kay got into public service, doing public relations for the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board in Washington, D.C., and then for almost ten years working as a Grants and Contracts Project Officer for the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. Since then, her career has gone down additional paths related to new technology. "Talking computers, the Internet, scanners, Braille displays, and voice recognition systems are providing disabled folks with the tools they need to be professionally competent. I really enjoy teaching people how to use this equipment to their best advantage." For musicians with disabilities, new software translates a MIDI or LIME file into Braille music notation and outputs it to a Braille printer. She is wrestling with other largely inaccessible software to scan in printed music and convert this to an accessible file format.

But Kay says "music, particularly playing classical piano music and singing in various choirs, is my first love." She has played piano since kindergarten, also plays the cello, and learned Braille music notation along with the Braille alphabet. "Much of the choral and symphonic repertoire is not available in Braille. Sometimes I Braille out the words to songs or the notes for difficult passages, but most of this music I learn by ear. Once I memorize something, it sticks with me for years." She is concerned that "fewer kids are learning Braille music. This is a travesty. Computers, though they are my current professional concentration, cannot replace the need for Braille music."

Kay Chase believes "the arts are all inclusive, encompassing varied abilities and performing levels. An artist or an enjoyer of the arts does not possess a disability with respect to their art of choice, for the arts in their very nature accommodate all things, all tastes, and all people."

VSA arts of Minnesota was one of the first two nonprofit organizations to receive support from the new Jade Foundation, which focuses on children with disabilities as its key funding priority. Accepting the check in December from Jade Foundation board members Terry Ventura, Eric Stevens and Eric Eidsness, were VSA arts Board President Eric Peterson & Executive Director Craig Dunn. The grant monies brought a music performance to students at the State Academy for the Blind in Faribault and provided three other artist-in-residency programs in Moorhead, St. Cloud and St. Louis Park.

Supporters: Mary Anne Bennett, Taras Dykstra, Vicki Lauruhn, Eric Peterson, U.S. West Foundation, Sharon Van Winkel.
Sponsors: Jerry Dubin, Pamela Endean, Deborah Leuchovius, Representative Darlene Luther Park Inn International (Virginia, MN).
Advocates: Mary Holte.
Benefactors: The Boss Foundation, Minneapolis Public Schools (MAEP program), Minnesota Department of Children, Families & Learning, Perpich Center for Arts Education, The St. Paul Companies Foundation.