Accessible Art Resources
Programs Help Disabled Find Experience, Expression Through Art
Jul 30, 2009
In 1966, Michael Spencer began giving concerts in New York mental institutions. Many of the residents had been, in his words, “warehoused for decades.” The state asked for a program and in 1969, Spencer launched Hospital Audiences, Inc. (HAI) to bring arts to those whose access is limited by health, age, or income.
Spencer was far ahead of his time. HAI expanded to serve nursing homes in the 1970s and in the late 1980s, began reaching out to persons with physical and developmental disabilities. “It’s happened over a long period of time, but the richness and depth of things began about 10 years ago,” Spencer says.
HAI Gives Disabled Access to Arts and Culture
HAI makes summer concerts in Central Park accessible, subsidizes front-row tickets so the blind and visually impaired can get more from Shakespeare in the Park, and has hosted US veterans from Walter Reed Hospital and their families for cultural weekends in New York City. “We’re about mainstreaming society and taking people to places such as the Met and Carnagee Hall,” Spencer says.
HAI’s services include:
- Tickets to cultural events
- Arts workshops
- On-site performances of music, theater, and dance
- Audio description for the visually impaired
- Transportation for people with disabilities in specially designed Omni*Buses.
Each year, HAI provides access to music, dance, theater, and the visual arts to more than 400,000 people. Call Jane Kleinsinger, Director of Operations (212.575.7679) for information.
Pure Vision Arts Gallery
The Shield Institute (New York City) founded Pure Vision Arts (PVA) in 2002 as the city's first studio and exhibition space for people with developmental disabilities. At PVA, professionals with education, fine arts, and art therapy backgrounds mentor and support beginning, emerging, and established artists.
“Ever since the deinstitutionalization of the developmentally disabled in the 1970s, there’s been a steady increase in the amount of programs for the disabled, particularly in the arts,” says PVA executive director Pam Rogers. “The whole “outsider art” movement has also sparked interest and inspired museums to develop programs that have launched artists.”
All of the artists represented by PVA are self-taught and refined their craft independently in institutions, day programs, or group residences. Some PVA artists work on commissioned pieces while others create work for sale or exhibition. Many artists’ work has garnered major recognition and is included in private and corporate collections.
PVA’s ultimate aim is facilitating social change through arts access and inclusion. The power and uniqueness of many artists’ work breaks down negative stereotypes and misperceptions about the disabled.
Art Beyond Sight Conference
Art Education for the Blind (AEB) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA) will host “Multimodal Approaches to Learning” conference on Friday and Saturday, October 16 and 17, 2009 at the MMA in New York City.
The conference will focus on challenges that educators, artists, and museum professionals face in creating inclusive learning environments that serve those with sensory impairments. The event will showcase pioneering approaches to classroom and museum learning and best practices in multi-sensory exhibition and program design.
“It’s a forum for researchers and practitioners, for them to share applications for learning development in the education and exhibition of art,” says AEB executive director Nina Levent. “A major goal is to help develop an audience of art devotees among the disabled and to create teaching techniques that bring art to life through the senses.” Call Marie Clapot (212.334.8720) for information.
Though the above programs are based in New York City, the accessible art movement is inspiring museums and state arts institutions throughout the US to create innovative ways to let art speak to the disabled and for the disabled to express themselves through art.
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