VSA arts of Minnesota
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Hennepin Center for the Arts |
Craig J. Dunn |
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Tel.: (612) 332-3888 |
Website: |
Organizational Profile:
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Full-time Staff: 3 |
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VSA arts of Minnesota makes the arts available and accessible to people with all types of disabilities throughout the state.
Programming Partners and Other Funders:
Minnesota Department of Education-Special Education Section; Minnesota State Arts Board; McKnight Foundation; Jerome Foundation; St. Paul Travelers Foundation; General Mills Foundation; ELA Foundation; United Arts; ArtSpace; Judd, Ostermann & Demro LTD; Cornerstone Copy Center; Perpich Center for Arts Education; COMPAS; Young Audiences; Springboard for the Arts; ADA Minnesota (a program of Metropolitan Center for Independent Living); Minnesota Department of Human Services; Minnesota State Academy for the Blind, Vision Loss Resources
State Programs
Educational Programs and Artist Residencies
School Residency Program
VSA arts of Minnesota is partnering with 14 schools throughout the state offering residency artists to provide participatory arts experiences to students with disabilities. In addition, the VSA arts of Minnesota education coordinator will make classroom presentations, often in tandem with a visual or performing artist with a disability, focusing on building student awareness of the capabilities of people with disabilities.
Art Center Classes
VSA arts of Minnesota is partnering with community art centers to provide arts classes designed to meet the particular needs of young people with various disabilities. These partnerships are currently with Hopkins and Bloomington Art Centers and will be expanded to include new metro and Greater Minnesota locations during the year.
Arts Festivals
VSA arts of Minnesota and Music Therapy students at Augsburg College will host a festival for students with disabilities from the Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts.
Professional Development
Teacher and Artist Professional Development
VSA arts of Minnesota will conduct workshops that address topics crucial to the success of using the arts with students with disabilities. The workshops will be for artists who do classroom residency work, classroom teachers, arts specialists, and others seeking to improve their skills in working with students with disabilities in and through the arts.
Interpretation and Audio Description Professional Development
Workshops will be offered during the year to instruct American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters and audio describers in working with performance companies and other arts settings, and to instruct arts administrators in working with interpreters, describers and real-time captioners.
Artist Recognition Grants
For the tenth year, VSA arts of Minnesota will institute a granting program to artists with disabilities. This competitive program recognizes individuals who have been active in their art form for a number of years. Six $1,000 grants are awarded each year.
Career Training and Information Sharing for Artists with Disabilities
This program has three distinct parts. The first component is ongoing assistance to artists with disabilities as a continuation of VSA arts of Minnesota Careers Forum in 2002 and our careers workshops during the summer of 2004. This is primarily accomplished via our facilitation of the Artists with Disabilities Alliance gatherings throughout the year. The program also includes our Artist Pipeline, an email posting service that lists current information pertinent to Minnesota artists with disabilities, including employment opportunities, calls for art, accessible performance listings, and announcements of happenings by and for artists with disabilities. Inclusion on the email list is requested by the email recipient. Finally, the program includes convening the Minnesota Arts Programs for Adults with Disabilities providers twice annually, in a one-day gathering for directors from around the state who run stand-alone arts organizations for people with disabilities, as well as larger social service and vocational programs that have a dedicated department for programming in the arts. These meetings are scheduled in March and September 2006.
Cultural Access and Inclusive Arts Services
Access Services to State Arts Organizations
VSA arts of Minnesota works as a resource to arts organizations on disability awareness, the Americans with Disability Act, and physical and programmatic access to arts venues and services, using on-site materials and community resources. The Minnesota Arts Access Resource Guide will be available to state arts organizations during the year in both print and PDF format (on the VSA arts of Minnesota Web site.)
Access to Theatre
Access to Theatre is a program that provides technical assistance to arts organizations, and also makes funding available to assist with costs of ASL interpretation and audio description (AD) for individuals who are deaf or blind who attend ASL and AD performances. The technical assistance is in the areas of marketing to deaf/hard of hearing and blind/low vision communities, and building the skill capacities of performance organizations to meet the needs of audience members from these communities.
Public Awareness and Outreach
Arts Access Awards
VSA arts of Minnesota will present the ninth annual Arts Access Awards in June 2006. The awards recognize individuals and organizations that have made accessibility and disability awareness a priority. The award, created each year by an artist with a disability, is named Jaehny in honor of our organization’s cofounder, Jaehn Clare.
Public Exhibits
VSA arts of Minnesota makes artwork by artists with disabilities available to organizations in the community. Exhibits will be held at Vision Loss Resources in Minneapolis and at the University of Minnesota.
Newsletter & Web Site
Arts Access, the organization’s newsletter, is published three times a year and features accounts of programs, artist profiles, and public acknowledgement of donors. It is distributed to more than 4,500 addresses and is available in electronic, large print, and Braille formats. The VSA arts of Minnesota Web site (http://mn.vsarts.org) is designed to be accessible to people over a broad range of abilities (including people who are blind or have low vision) and includes current and pertinent information about the organization and its programs.
(F) 202-429-0868