VSA arts
of New Mexico
4904 4th N.W.
Albuquerque, NM 87107
Phone 505-345-2872
Fax: 505-345-2896
NM Relay Network:
1-800-659-8331
[email protected]
Table of Contents
Taos
Institute is Global Gathering
VSA
Does Windows
Local
Foundations Support Developmental Studio Program
Brian Maple Day
VSA
Enabled Studio Arts Receives Commendation
Transforming
Work
VSA’s
AmeriCorps Global Depot Team Kicks Off for a Second Year
Changes
Taos
Institute is Global Gathering
Arts
for Life: Transition and Transformation Through the Arts
The
Arts for Life Learning Institute in Taos, New Mexico September 6 - 8,
2001 was for many a transformative experience.
Artists, educators and program administrators from around the
country, Japan and Montreal came together in Taos to network, share
ideas, learn and be reinspired.
The Institute in Taos, hosted by VSA arts of New Mexico, with support from the home office of VSA arts, was a wonderful gathering of persons who are involved with arts programs for both youth and adults. The Institute celebrated the innovative ideas that are being generated from these programs. The Institute honored Elias Katz who at the last minute was unable to attend, but whose spirit was felt throughout. He and his late wife Florence pioneered studio arts programs for persons with disabilities in founding the National Institute of Art and Disabilities (NIAD) and Creative Growth in California. NIAD Curator Rose Kelly, Dr. Marcia Landau, and family were wonderful representatives for Elias. A report on the Institute and a call for action prepared by Paladin Consultants will be available to the field in January, 2002.
VSA
Does Windows
by Kim
Corwin, September 8, 2001
Reflections
on the 2001 Arts for Life Learning Institute: I was sitting and heard someone say, “I don’t
do windows.” (The
statement not related to VSA.) But
it made me think. A
metaphorical image came to mind. It
was night. I saw each of our communities as a huge warehouse or gallery.
There were
thousands of windows in this gallery and some of those windows were
cracked. Some of the
windows had pieces missing. While
others were dirty, warped, and almost opaque.
I saw VSA consisting of people willing to do windows.
Each broken window became a person with a disability and VSA
people were going through this gallery cleaning all the windows.
VSA was not trying to fix or repair the windows. Their purpose was to allow the windows to let the light shine through. Now, when the windows had all been taken care of and the sun came up the gallery was illuminated with a light that took my breath away. We—you—me—VSA were bathed in colors and patterns beyond belief. Art is light. We are all windows of glass, but the artist with a disability needs someone willing to do windows. I have to tell you that the windows with missing pieces let the most light through. VSA does windows.
Local
Foundations Support
Developmental Studio Program
Support from the Presbyterian Healthcare Foundation and the Albuquerque Community Foundation this year made building renovations and the purchase of equipment and supplies for the VSA Developmental Studio Lifelong Learning program possible.
VSA arts of New Mexico is thrilled to have dedicated these specific resources to meeting the support needs of individuals with severe cognitive and physical disabilities attending the Enabled Studio Arts Program. Under the guidance of Training Instructor Anna Zollinger, enhanced studio activities, communication skill development, and expanded personal care supports have been made possible.
A standing room only crowd of some 75 youth volunteers, AmeriCorps members, parents and teachers gathered at the VSA arts Center of New Mexico in May for the fifth annual Brian Maple Day Celebration.
Sydlyn Monua, a senior from Manzano High
School, was the 2001 Brian Maple Award Recipient and Hilary Druley, a
senior at Freedom High School received honorable mention.
VSA
Enabled Studio Arts Receives
Commendation
In completing its
second CARF (Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission) survey, VSA’s
Enabled Studio Arts program was commended by CARF surveyors who wrote, “VSA exhibits exemplary conformance to the standard of involvement in developing
community resources based on the identified needs and desires of persons
receiving services. VSA has
developed demonstration models in the visual and performing arts that
truly integrate individuals with disabilities and celebrate a person’s
contribution to the community.” VSA
was granted a three-year accreditation in Community Services, Personal
and Social Services.
VSA arts of New Mexico opened the Enabled Studio Arts program in 1992 and in 1997 received its first three-year CARF accreditation. The Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission accredits agencies providing community-based services for people with developmental disabilities. When Enabled was accredited in 1997 it was the first studio arts program in the United States to receive that recognition. The spring 2001 accreditation is testament to the hard work and dedication of staff, board, apprentice artists and all of our community supporters. Congratulations to us all!
Transforming Work
By Michael Kroth, Ph.D. and
Patricia Boverie, Ph.D.
Excerpted by
permission from the October issue of the New Mexico Business Journal.
We recently made a presenta-tion at a conference called the Arts for Life/Artes Para La Vida Learning Institute. The conference was sponsored by VSA arts of New Mexico (VSANM), an organiza-tion whose mission is to celebrate the creative power of individuals with disabilities and educate through the arts. Leading the conference was a remarkable woman, Beth Rudolph, VSANM’s founding and current Executive Director.
Beth has been with VSANM since it was a project of the City
of Albuquerque over 20 years ago. Executive
directors of non-profit organizations are akin to CEOs of for-profit
organizations. They report
to boards of directors, are responsible for bringing money into the
organization and providing needed services, and lead staff.
In addition, they usually have volunteers to recruit, motivate,
and retain. It’s one of
the most demanding jobs around. When
we talked to Beth she told us that she had recently read that the
average time an executive director stays with an organization these days
is only six years. We
wanted to know how she had kept her enthusiasm and love for VSANM for so
many years. Her story
reveals key factors.
Find Work That
Helps You Understand Yourself
Her path to VSANM began with her love of the arts at a very
young age. Later, when she
moved to New Mexico, she began working with people with disabilities.
At VSANM those two interests are intertwined.
It turned out that she had a learning disability that hadn’t
been diagnosed in school. Her path turned into a journey that helped her find herself.
“I found out why I had this interest because it was all about
me, it was about my family, and learning who I was.
And I think that’s part of the passion thing.
When [your work] helps you understand who you are, why you tick,
it’s a journey of discovery.”
Fostering
Learning and Creativity
Learning, for herself and helping others, has been an
essential part of maintaining her enthusiasm and commitment. “Seeing
people grow, for me, has been really reinforcing.” “For me, what’s
kept me going is that it’s continually been a learning environment. I learn so much, and I think I learned that learning isn’t
always a positive experience. That’s
a hard one to learn.” You often learn the most, she says, from your
biggest mistakes. VSANM’s
national organization provided her early and excellent training and
incredible learning experiences. One
of the things she discovered was that everyone has the capacity for
creativity.
Asked
about the direct application of the arts to work, Beth says “I know
that, despite much adversity and low pay, what keeps people coming to
the work that we have to offer is the opportunity to be hands on
everyday creating things and seeing other people create things… I’ve
learned that everybody has the desire to create.”
One
VSANM program Beth talks about which fosters and celebrates creativity
is the Buen Viaje Dancers. Comprised
of people with and without disabilities, “What [they] bring to people
is a connection with their own joy and their own passion… What Buen
Viaje shares with people is that all of us can, will, and should dance
whether you’re working from a wheelchair, can only move an eye, or
whether you are a professional dancer who has committed your entire life
to dancing.”
Finding “Aha”
Moments
Helping create “aha” moments - moments of insight - has also been important to Beth.
“That’s why I got into teaching in the first. place. One of the
things I’ve learned from VSANM is that those moments may be really
teeny. When somebody is severely disabled the ‘aha’ moment may
be a flick in their eye, but that’s what makes a difference for a
person.” That was not
something she knew about before she started working with people with
disabilities.
She
still holds “the [VSANM] mission near and dear and believes it has
incredible resilience and strength.”
What a gift her life has been to so many people.
What can we learn about Transforming Work from Beth? Find work that helps you continually understand yourself… Always seek learning, creative environments… Create ‘aha’s” in your life and your work. And finally, don’t forget to dance.
Patricia Boverie is an Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico. She and Michael Kroth, a UNM adjunct professor, own Boverie, Kroth & Associates. Their book: Transforming Work: The Five Keys to Achieving Trust, Commitment, and Passion in the Workplace can be ordered at Amazon.com.
VSA’s
AmeriCorps
Global Depot Team
Kicks Off for a Second Year
Changes
The
Buen Viaje Dancers have a wonderful dance called “Changes” that
captures the overwhelming feeling of how many changes each of us go
through in our daily life. The
events of September 11, 2001 have changed our world forever and give a
particular sense of poignancy to all of the changes our VSA arts family
has encountered in the last
year.
There
are far too many to list but we will especially miss former Buen Viaje
Dancer Ed Wegman, former board members Elizabeth Hirsch and Art
Blumenfeld, Court Youth Center AmeriCorps member Alejandro Medina,
musician and consultant Steve Wilkes, and Department of Health
epidemiologist David Jackson. We also extend condolences and best wishes to long time Taos
area program coordinator Andy Haimowitz on the loss of his wife and to
Enabled Studio Arts mentor Dr. Elias Katz on the recent loss of both a
sister and sister-in-law.
Congratulations are extended to Dr. Robert Pasternack,
former State Special Education Director, who has moved to Washington DC
to become Assistant Secretary of Special Education at the US Department
of Education and Dr. Brenda Heiman, former Director of Central Regional
Education Cooperative #5
who moved to Louisiana to teach. Both
of these dedicated individuals were instrumental in assuring that our
2001 Arts for Life Learning Institute was supported before pursuing
their new careers.
In this 20th Anniversary Season we give tribute to all those who have contributed to the vision of VSA arts in New Mexico and urge every reader of this newsletter to join in creating the changes that will be the future of arts access in our state.