Arts and Disability

From the Kenneth Rainin Foundation: "When artist Ana Teresa Fernández first stepped inside the main studio and gallery of Creativity Explored she discovered magic...What emerged from Ana’s initial visit was a collaborative project “Of Here From There | De Aquí Desde Allá,” which is featured in the above video. The project took place in 2019 and 2020 and engaged nearly 50 developmentally disabled artists to explore ideas of movement and migration. An immersive exhibition at the San Francisco Art Institute in March 2020 brought a kaleidoscope of their expressive works to a wider public."

GIA is advocating for policies that increase the amount of assets that people with disabilities can hold while remaining eligible for public benefits because disabled artists – indeed, all workers – deserve to get paid for their work and to build savings, even when circumstances – like a disability – prevent them from working a conventional fixed role or schedule. GIA is advocating for disability justice for artists and for all as part of our valuing of intersectionality.

"For those of us who have participated in a half-century of powerful activism by people with disabilities, a familiar slogan summarizes our call to action: Nothing about us without us." Nikki Brown-Booker writes in the Winter 2022 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review.

The Communications Network designed an accessibility resource page to provide information and resources on how to create and maintain an inclusive environment that is accessible to those with disabilities.

The Ford Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation launched Disability Futures, the only financial award in the US for disabled creatives from all disciplines, according to the announcement.

"All funders across the philanthropic spectrum should work to ensure that the projects we fund are made accessible to people with disabilities," states in a recent post Rachel Pardoe, program officer for Older Adults and People with Disabilities at The New York Community Trust.

Judy Heumann, an internationally recognized disability rights leader, joined in 2017 the Ford Foundation for a yearlong fellowship, working with the foundation’s staff to integrate a disability-inclusive perspective across their work. On her own, as a blog post/interview by the Ford Foundation details, she researched the inclusion of disability in film and television.

Led by disability studies scholars and disability activists, a movement is underway to hold arts institutions accountable for the lack of accessible programming and accommodations for people with disabilities. Twenty-eight years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Bay Area, a major hub for both arts and culture as well as the disability rights movement, still has many museums that have done the bare minimum (or less) to welcome in patrons with disabilities, and funding to support access is rare.

From American Academy of Poets:

36 pages, February 2013. National Endowment for the Arts, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., 20506. (202) 682-5400. http://arts.gov/

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