| Lehigh Valley arts and cultural organizations will be welcoming patrons with intellectual, sensory and physical disabilities as a result of the effort of the Lehigh Valley Arts Council (LVAC) and the Lehigh Valley Partnership for a Disability Friendly Community (Partnership).
They will host an “Arts & Access” reception on July 24, 2015, to launch the yearlong plan to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) through the lens of the arts. The event will be held 4:30-6 p.m. at the Good Shepherd Health & Technology Center, 850 S. 5th St., Allentown. It is open to the public, particularly to anyone with a disability.
“Access to the arts is more than just building a ramp,” said Randall Forte, LVAC Executive Director. “To be truly accessible to those with disabilities, performing and visual arts groups need to make important changes in the way they have always done things.”
With the guidance of VSA PA, LVAC has developed staff training and promotional programs to help local arts organizations learn how to remove the barriers that prevent people with disabilities from enjoying their offerings. More than 30 arts organizations have already agreed to move toward greater inclusion and make accommodations for people with disabilities.
Workshops will continue this year on implementing open captioning and audio description for people with vision and hearing loss. Open Captioning provides the audience with an electronic text display to the side of the stage, displaying lyrics, dialogue, and sound effects in real time. Audio Description is a form of audio-visual translation, using natural pauses to insert narrative that translates the visual image into an audible form. Patrons use headsets to hear the audio description.
Together, the arts council and partnership hope to accomplish the following goals:
a) to convince cultural organizations to consider the community with disabilities as a viable market
b) to train arts presenters in how to adapt their work for an audience with varied disabilities.
c) to help arts organizations recognize the needs and the abilities of people with disabilities.
d) to work together to promote accessible events for people with disabilities and their families.
For more information, visit ArtsandAccess.org
Addressing a need
Most of us can go to a concert or play with little thought to attendance details. But those who experience hearing or vision loss, or have mobility or developmental challenges that require special accommodation, are often barred from cultural events.
The 2012 U.S. Census estimated that more than 12 percent of the Valley’s non-institutionalized population lives with some kind of disability. That’s a potential arts audience of about 81,000 people. “Arts groups should realize that in the community with disabilities there is an untapped market for performing and visual arts,” said Forte.
Members of the Lehigh Valley Partnership for a Disability Friendly Community, a coalition of organizations that serve the diverse disabled community, asked the LVAC to involve arts groups in addressing this issue. To date, more than thirty arts and cultural organizations have agreed to participate, including ArtsQuest, Allentown Art Museum, Lehigh University Art Galleries, Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, SATORI, and Williams Center for the Arts.
Arts & Access is already responsible for important changes in the way the arts are presented. For example, this fall the Lehigh University Art Galleries will debut a tactile description program in their teaching gallery, which uses technology to create a three-dimensional relief of a portion of the image for the person to explore through touch. Many local service providers, such as Lehigh Valley Center for Independent Living and the Center for Vision Loss, are offering customer service training free-of-charge. For instance, the staff at Center for Vison Loss will work with ushers and box office personnel on how to interact with a person with vision loss. In addition to providing them audio-description, theatres may offer a pre-show sensory tour, where patrons arrive early, meet cast members and handle props and costume accessories.
The LVAC can connect presenters with affordable professionals who do American Sign Language interpreting, audio describing, and open captioning for live events and exhibitions. The council also offers audio-describer training and equipment for organizations who wish to train their in-house personnel. In addition, participants may apply to the council for a Greater Inclusion Grant, a matching grant for up to $300, to help fund a new initiative that meets the approved criteria.
The Americans for Disabilities Act, passed on July 26, 1990, prohibits discrimination against the disabled. It set in motion a frenzy of activity designed to prevent discrimination against those who have difficulty navigating modern life, particularly in employment, transportation, and public buildings. But the act did not specifically address the facilities used by the arts such as theaters, galleries, and auditoriums. http://www.ada.gov/cguide.htm#anchor62335
L.V. Partnership for a Disability Friendly Community is a diverse network of more than 75 people and agencies in the Lehigh Valley united in the goal to improve the lives of people with disabilities. Their vision is to be a catalyst for change in making the Valley a disability-friendly community which is inclusive, accessible, and welcoming. http://disabilityfriendlylv.com/
The Lehigh Valley Arts Council acts as both advocate and catalyst to create new gateways, and bring people together to find solutions that advance greater arts participation. It promotes the arts, supports the development of artists, assists arts organizations, facilitates communication among its constituencies, and conducts research to measure the economic impact of the region’s cultural industry. http://www.lvartscouncil.org/
VSA ARTS in Pennsylvania shares its knowledge of inclusive arts education across Pennsylvania and works with artists with disabilities to develop professional careers.
Schedule for July 24 Launch Party
4:30 p.m.
- Guests greeted by The Miracle Movers cheerleaders from The Miracle League of the Lehigh Valley
- Tours of “Beyond Limits”, the Heath & Technology facility
5:15 p.m.
- Welcome by John Kristel, President and CEO, Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network
- Remarks by Nelvin Vos, founding convener of the Partnership
- Remarks by Randall Forte, Executive Director, LVAC
5:30 p.m.
- Refreshments. Music by The Mississippi Mudders Dixieland Quintet
6 p.m.
Free, wheelchair accessible parking is available in the Good Shepherd parking deck across from the Health & Technology Center on South 5th St.; it is connected to the center via a bridge on level three.
A Partial List of Arts Organizations participating in Arts & Access
Abbreviations used below: AD – Audio Described; ASL – American Sign Language; OC – Open Captioned;
Allentown Art Museum in collaboration with Via of the Lehigh Valley and artist Jill Odegaard
Contact: Julia Marsh, 610-432-4333, jmarsh@allentownartmuseum.org.
Thru October 11, 2015: “Woven Welcome: Making Community” a community weaving project that connect individuals and groups trough the creative process.
ArtsQuest
Contact: Mark Demko, 610-332-1341, mdemko@artsquest.org
December 19, 2015 – February 15, 2016: “Life Accessible” Photography Beyond the Limits of Life; at Banana Factory. Photographer Stephen Cunic uses braille techniques and braille labels to create stunning visuals for the visually impaired.
Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre
Contact: Jessica Bien, 484-664-3807, bien@muhlenberg.edu.
July 26, 2015: AD and OC performance of “Hello Dolly” at 2:00 p.m.
July 18, 2015: Sensory-friendly performance of “GRIMM,” a children’s play for children with autism and their families, followed by an interactive workshop, at 1:00 p.m.
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
Contact: Jill Arington, 610-282-9455, jill.arington@pashakespeare.org
July 25, 2015: American Sign Language (ASL) performance of “Rapunzel” for hard of hearing children, 2:00 p.m.
August 1, 2015: Audio-described (AD) performance of “The Foreigner,” 2 p.m.
Raker Lecture Series
Contact: Nelvin Vos, nvos@ptd.net.
September 29, 2015: Daniel Lasko, retired Marine corporal, accomplished
athlete and member of the Wounded Warrior Amputee Football Team at 7:30 p.m. at Egner Chapel, Muhlenberg College. Presented by Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network.
SATORI in collaboration painter William Christine at the Colonial Intermediate Unit #21
Contact: Nora Suggs, Executive Director, 610-435-6036, nas0710@yahoo.com
October 23, 2015: “See the Music, Hear the Art” at 1:00PM at the CIU #21, Schnecksville. Blends chamber music, art narration and discussion, ASL interpreted.
Williams Center for the Arts/ Lafayette College
Contact: Kelly Prentice, 610-330-5203, prentick@lafayette.edu
September 15, 2015: Dance for PD® Workshop for Parkinson patients, care takers and dance teachers at 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. |
Roy's Rants - For Your Information 