Arts Access Newsletter September 2006

The 2006 Arts Access Awards will be presented in Saint Paul on Sunday, September 24, in a program that will include a performance by dancer/musician Sidiki Conde from Guinea, West Africa.

The annual awards are presented to recognize those individuals and organizations who have been dedicated to making arts programs and facilities more accessible, as well as creating opportunities for artists with disabilities. Named the Jaehny, after VSA arts of Minnesota founder Jaehn Clare, the awards in the past have recognized outstanding arts educators, artists with disabilities, producing or performing groups or venues, public officials and private citizens.

This year’s five recipients will be announced on Sunday, September 24 at 2:00 PM at the new Rondo Community Outreach Library, 461 N. Dale Street, at the SW corner of Dale & University in Saint Paul. Each will receive a Jaehny statuette created by artists involved in the Bridgeview Club program in Spring Lake Park for individuals with mental health and other disability issues.

Performing as part of the festivities will be Sidiki Conde, a musician and performing artist from Guinea who specializes in Kasa dance and music. Thanks to the Minnesota Composers Forum and the McKnight Foundation, Sidiki will be touring Minnesota in September and October, presenting his art form and talking about his life as an artist with a disability. To find out locations and times, contact Amie Pence at VSA arts of Minnesota.

The awards and performance event is free. Light refreshments will be served. An ASL interpreter and Audio Describer will be provided. If you need captioning assistance, please call VSA arts of Minnesota in advance. The new library building has a free parking ramp, and people can be dropped off on the Dale (east) side of the building, closest to the meeting room.

Please do not wear fragrances to the event so that everyone can participate.

Sidiki Conde

The call to sing and dance first came to Sidiki Conde in a dream he had after he lost the use of his legs when he was 14. Music and dance became his transcendance and his vocation. In 1986 he cofounded Message de Espior (The Message of Hope), a music and dance ensemble with other artists with disabilities he met in Conakry, the capitol of Guinea. Conde toured West Africa with Message de Espoir, giving performances and working to change perceptions of disabilities.

In 1988 Conde came to America. He founded his company Tokounou the next year. Conde has worked extensively with children and adults of all abilities, giving performances while teaching African dance and music in schools, hospitals and universities, and serving as an artist in residence in the Bronx.

For more information about Sidiki Conde and Tokounou, visit Sidiki Conde - Tokounou Dance Company (http://tokounou.home.mindspring.com).

VSA arts of Minnesota is pleased to announce the expansion of a successful metro area program to five areas in Greater Minnesota.

For the past four years, a group of resolute Twin Cities artists known as the Artists with Disabilities Alliance, or AWDA, have come together once a month to share successes (their own visual art, writing or music), challenges and opportunities. Meeting in arts centers and community rooms around the metro area, they have participated as a group in Art Crawls in St. Paul, Art-a-Whirl and the Powderhorn Art Fair in Minneapolis, World Jubilee Festivals and, coming in October, are featuring performers with disabilities at Patrick’s Cabaret (see separate story). The group is member-directed with staff from Springboard for the Arts, the Minnesota State Arts Board (MSAB) and our office assisting with publicity, financial oversight and occasional meeting facilitation.

Earlier this summer, VSA arts of Minnesota and the MSAB submitted a successful grant proposal to expand the AWDA model to five areas around Minnesota. This will result in networking gatherings for artists living in or near Duluth, Bemidji, Mankato, Fergus Falls, and St. Cloud/Mora. The goal of this project is that, following two or three visits over the next eight months by the Twin Cities teams (several AWDA members, Gail Burke from MSAB and Craig Dunn or Jon Skaalen from VSA arts of Minnesota), self-directed groups similar to AWDA will establish themselves in these locations.

We encourage artists with disabilities who are interested in attending the initial informational meetings this fall to contact their Regional Arts Council (RAC) director to indicate their interest in participating. These people (listed below) will also be able to provide more information about the time and location of the proposed meetings. The gatherings will be open to people of all disabilities, across all artforms (writing, visual arts, music, theater, dance), ages 18 and older.

If you plan to attend, please tell your RAC director if you will need a communication accommodation (ASL interpreter, assistive listening, captioner).

VSA arts of Minnesota exhibits work from artists with disabilities around the metro area. Art displayed is for sale. All profits go to the working artists.

Park State Bank:

430 First Avenue N., #104, Minneapolis, Phone: 612-238-3588.
Showing through October 31, 2006: Jane Strauss, Photographer.

Vision Loss Resources:

1936 Lyndale Avenue S., Minneapolis, Phone: 612-871-2222.
Showing through October 31, 2006: Serik Kulmeshkenov, Visual Artist.
Showing November 1, 2006 - February 28, 2007: Anodyne Artists.

To be considered for future exhibits, contact Amie Pence: amie@vsaartsmn.org.

Minnesota artists with disabilities can apply for one of six $1,000 grants this fall from VSA arts of Minnesota. The Artist Recognition Grant Program, funded by the Jerome Foundation, is open to artists in all art disciplines - visual, performing, written, media, etc. Grant recipients from 2004-05, two-time grant winners and people who prepared artwork for educational credit are not eligible.

The program’s goals are to:

• recognize excellence in arts produced by persons with disabilities;
• provide financial awards and tangible encouragement to artists with disabilities so their work in the arts might continue;
• identify Minnesota artists with disabilities who are dedicated to making arts production and/or presentation a central part of their lives.

Click here for more information and find out how to apply for a $1,000 Artist Recognition Grant. A grant application will also be mailed to those who have previously requested an application. For a copy, call VSA arts of Minnesota or email: jon@vsaartsmn.org. Applications are due Friday, November 10.

The Access to Performance Project at VSA arts of Minnesota has received funding from COMPAS to assist performing arts organizations in the 11-county metro area who offer Audio Description, American Sign Language Interpreting, or Captioning, and who provide reduced-price tickets to patrons using these services.

In Greater Minnesota, VSA arts offers limited funding for these services. Performing organizations and venues can request:

1. Up to $100 per production to assist in hiring an ASL interpreter, Audio Describer or Captioner (maximum is currently $200 per season).
2. Reimbursement of ticket subsidies to patrons using these services up to $7 per person (blind or deaf patron plus one companion) at ALL your accessible performances.

A meeting to discuss accessibility guidelines for arts organizations will be held in October.

More information and forms, as well as a monthly calendar of accessible shows, are available on our web site or by email. A weekly listing of shows is also on our voicemail at 612-332-3888 or 800-801-3883.

One of the main sources of good information and networking contacts about accessibility in the arts in the past few years has been the annual Leadership Exchange in Arts and Education (LEAD) Conference sponsored by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Next August, that national conference will be coming to the new Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

Co-hosted by VSA arts of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Arts Board, the event is an excellent and affordable opportunity for arts administrators in the Midwest to join this national forum on cultural access. Topics will be appropriate for theatres, museums, art galleries, concert halls, artists, administrators, and audience members with disabilities. A number of presenters and panelists will come from the Midwest, and others from around the country.

To receive information, contact VSA arts of Minnesota or visit John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (www.kennedy-center.org/accessibility/lead/lead06.html). Subscribe to its Cultural Arts Access listserve at Cultural Arts Access: ADA/504 Coordinators and Accessibility Managers in the Cultural Arts (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/culturalartsaccess).

The Artists With Disabilities Alliance (AWDA) is an informal group of writers, visual artists, musicians and other performers who meet once a month in the Twin Cities.

The next meeting is Wednesday, September 20, 6:00 pm, at Midtown Global Market / Allina at Chicago Avenue & Lake Street, Minneapolis. Meeting attendees are requested not to wear fragrances so everyone can participate. To receive postcard or email meeting notices, contact VSA arts of Minnesota, 612-332-3888 voice/tty (voicemail box 4) or go to AWDA - Artists with Disabilities Alliance (www.Angelfire.com/mn3/awda) or VSA arts of Minnesota, What's New (www.vsaartsmn.org/new.html).

The Jaques Arts Center in Aitkin will host two art classes on Saturdays in October - the 14th and 21st. Explore your creative side and learn skills in various mediums of two-dimensional forms focusing on wildlife and nature. This free class is available to anyone with a disability. Completed works of art will have the opportunity to be selected for a juried exhibit in January at Jaques Arts Center. For more information, contact Janae Johnson at 218-927-2363.

SNO (Saturday Night Out) is a social opportunity for teens and young adults with disabilities (ages 13 to 22) in Eden Prairie. In October it will offer a special Clay Mobile project that will allow SNO participants to bring their creative energies to the table and design a one-of-a-kind project. Supplies and instruction will be provided by the Northern Clay Center in a partnership that includes Eden Prairie Parks & Recreation and VSA arts of Minnesota. All interested individuals must register using the bar code 19669. New participants to SNO are requested to complete a free intake assessment.

For information on registering, view the city website at City Of Eden Prairie (www.edenprairie.org) and click on Parks and Recreation, then click on view brochure. The four easy ways to register are explained on page 101. For more information, contact Nicole White, Eden Prairie Community Education, at 952-949-8457 or NWhite@edenprairie.org.

A great thanks to everyone who attended the "Success for All" workshop at the Perpich Center for Arts Education on August 3! We have had wonderful feedback from this event, and hope to continue to build our relationships with educators and teaching artists throughout the state!

Many thanks to the Perpich Center for Arts Education for the beautiful space at the Glass Box and to our wonderful presenters including: Lee Schwanke, Arts Specialist; Marcia Holman, Statewide Developmental Cognitive Disability Specialist; and Professional Teaching Artists Perrin Boyd, Linda Back McKay and Barry Kleider.

"The Arts Ambassador came to my school today, Mom!"

Yes, it’s true - this year your school can have a visit from a real Arts Ambassador - an artist (with disabilities) who comes into classrooms to talk about life as an artist. Musicians talk about making music (and play examples!); visual artists demonstrate their sculpting or multi-media technique. The Ambassadors help students - especially students with disabilities - understand more about an artist’s vision and life, and encourage students to believe that they, too, can become good at art.

Five Arts Ambassadors from VSA arts of Minnesota’s roster of artists are available to visit schools:

Michael Deutsch, keyboardist;
Alec Sweazy, pianist/accordian;
Carei Thomas, pianist/composer;
Alissa Hullett, visual artist;
Bob Saxon, sculptor.

The Arts Ambassador visits are also opportunities for students and teachers to think about their awareness of disability in general, of the activity of people with disabilities in the arts and of their feelings about people with disabilities.

Teachers and school administrators can arrange for Arts Ambassador visits by contacting Amie Pence at VSA arts of Minnesota. The only cost is a school fee of $100 to cover a portion of the expenses. Schools will also receive an electronic copy of Putting Creativity to Work: Careers in the Arts for People with Disabilities, created by VSA arts and published by the Social Security Administration in 2000.

The mission of the Highland Friendship Club in Saint Paul is to provide a range of opportunities for individuals with disabilities from teens through adulthood to develop lifelong skills, friendships and connections within their community.

For the 2006-07 school year, VSA arts of Minnesota will bring in Arts Ambassadors to work with Highland Friendship Club’s art and music programs and their participants. Arts Ambassadors will talk about and/or demonstrate their professional work in the arts as well as provide positive role models as persons with disabilities.

For more information on these sessions, please contact Arts in Education Coordinator Amie Pence at 612-332-3888 or Highland Friendship Club at 651-698-4096.

VSA arts of Minnesota would like to send a great Thanks to many organizations that worked with us this summer to bring arts opportunities and exploration to students and adults with disabilities throughout Minnesota.

Organizations include:

Eden Prairie Parks and Recreation;
ISD 191 Burnsville-Eagan-Savage;
Northern Clay Center’s Clay Mobile;
Duluth Children’s Museum;
Camp Courage Mankato;
ISD 77 Community Education A.C.C.E.S.S.;
ISD 192 Farmington;
and ISD 194 Lakeville.

VSA arts of Minnesota partners with community centers, community education programs and community artists around the state to provide arts classes designed to meet the needs of children and adolescents with various disabilities. While these classes are open to children of all abilities, they are marketed so that parents, schools and agencies know that instructors will be open to and trained in working with young people with disabilities.

Here are two Professional Development opportunities for individuals to help VSA arts of Minnesota develop programs that acknowledge and embrace all cultures, abilities and ethnic backgrounds. We are looking to form two advisory committees:

1. A new Arts in Education Committee seeks members from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. It will look primarily at developing arts programming opportunities that challenge and engage diverse students with disabilities. If you have a passion for the arts, education and diversity and are interested in helping, please contact Amie Pence, Education Coordinator at VSA arts of Minnesota.
2. VSA’s Arts Program Committee has been active in recent years advising on policies affecting Arts Access Awards, Artist Recognition Grants and Access to Theatre programming. If you have a particular interest in these areas and in expanding access to the arts, particularly for adults with disabilities, please contact Jon Skaalen, Access to Performance Coordinator at VSA arts of Minnesota.

Talented young musicians with disabilities can apply soon for the 2007 VSA arts Young Soloist Award. Four finalists will receive $5,000 each and a chance to perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. next spring.

You are eligible if you are (A) an individual musician (instrumental or vocal) with a disability, age 25 and under, OR (B) a musical ensemble of two to eight members. At least one member of the ensemble must have a disability, and all must meet the age requirement. All types of music are accepted.

For application info go to VSA arts (www.vsarts.org) or call 800-933-8721; TTY 202-737-0645.

What do you think about VSA arts of Minnesota information you receive in the mail, by email or on our website? Your assistance in returning the following brief survey to us will be greatly appreciated! Please mail or email it to our office. All information will remain anonymous, but if you enclose your name & contact info with the survey, we will have a drawing from among the respondents for theatre tickets, CDs and literature. Thank You!

By Craig Dunn, Executive Director, VSA arts of Minnesota.

There is no subtle way to begin this issue’s column – It is September and we are less than eight weeks away from a very important election! It is important because the people that we send to Saint Paul and to Washington, D.C. will soon be making decisions that will affect what programs and services VSA arts of Minnesota and other arts and disability nonprofits can provide in the coming years.

The Governor and each member of the Minnesota House and Senate have a say on how much funding state arts organizations receive by way of the Minnesota State Arts Board and Regional Arts Councils. On the federal level, members of the U.S. House and Senate determine what programs are and are not funded by the Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Arts as well as the level of that funding.

The following box shows what VSA arts of Minnesota receives from state and federal government sources:

Were this amount of $110,500 in state and federal funding for some reason to go away, every individual or organization who receives this newsletter - about 5,000 of you - would need to make a donation of $22.50 to replace it! While I would both welcome and encourage that response by all of you (boy, would I ever!), there is another thing each of you can do to ensure that those funds don’t go away. Before making up your mind on whom to support in the November elections, find out the candidates' views on financial support for the arts at both the state and federal levels.

One way to do that is to talk to each candidate seeking to represent you (or their staff) about their views on either state or federal funding for the arts and for arts in education.

The easiest way to find this out is to go to the Minnesota Citizens for the Arts (MCA) website (www.mtn.org/mca) and click on 2006 Legislative Candidate Survey. There you will find responses by candidates for both state and U.S. House and Senate offices to questions posed by MCA this summer regarding their general support for the arts and arts education and, more importantly, their interest in providing dollars toward that support.

Please consider support of the arts as a determining factor for the candidates that you choose this November. And, if you haven’t made a donation yet this year, we would also happily accept your $22.50 or any other amount!

The Artists With Disabilities Alliance (AWDA) will present their first major performance event on Friday and Saturday, October 20-21 at Patrick’s Cabaret.

The informal group of visual artists, writers and performers with disabilities has been meeting monthly for nearly four years. While performers have performed individually at meetings, arts events and open stages, this is the first time the group has been on stage together.

For 20 years, Patrick's Cabaret (www.patrickscabaret.org, 3010 Minnehaha Avenue S.) has been a community-oriented performance venue in Minneapolis, providing a space for a diverse range of artists, including artists of color, GLBT/queer-identified artists and those with disabilities. Original works created and first presented at Patrick's Cabaret have gone on to stages on every continent, except Antarctica.

This event will feature six acts that were selected by an AWDA committee. Performing 15-minute sets will be: Tony Wentersdorf, autoharp, guitar, writer and curator of the event; Rebecca Kragnes, pianist; Michael Deutsch, pianist; Kip Shane & Jim Hanson, guitar and harmonica duo (see picture); Tara Innmon, memoirist; James Livingston, poet and playwright.

Alternates are: Kathy Lea & Kim Anderson, musicians; and Kathryn Bakke, pianist. Tickets for the 8:00 p.m. performances are $6 in advance (available from the performers and AWDA members) and $8 at the door. All ticket revenue will go to the artists. CDs, scripts and concessions will be available. To request ASL interpreting, Audio Description or Captioning, contact Patrick’s at 612-724-6273.