Since 1984, the VSA International Young Soloists Competition has recognized talented, emerging musicians living with disabilities from all over the world. Five young artists have been named winners of the 2019 award, each receiving $2,000 and the opportunity travel to Washington, DC for pre-professional development activities culminating in a performance on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. The winners of the 2019 award are: soprano Tori Adams of Minneapolis, Minnesota; saxophonist Avery Dixon of Riverdale, Georgia; pianist Kasyfi Kalyasyena of Jakarta, Indonesia; pianist José André Montaño of Washington, DC; and singer/songwriter Maya Wagner of Hillsborough, New Jersey.

Based in Minneapolis, soprano Tori Tedeschi Adams, age 22, is in her fifth year at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Her most recent performances include Miles in Turn of the Screw and Constance in Dialogues de Carmélites with Oberlin Opera Theater and Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel with LAH-SOW Minneapolis Opera Workshop. In past summers, Adams has been a Young Artist at Songfest and the Oberlin in Italy program where she sang Bianca in La Rondine. Other notable performances include the title role in Griffelkin by Lucas Foss with Project Opera and roles with the Minnesota Opera in the world premiere productions of The Shining, Doubt, and The Giver. She is pursuing her singing career while living with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that causes hypermobility, chronic pain, among other symptoms.

Many people know Blessing Offor from his impressive appearances on the television shows The Voice and Platinum Hit. But before television audiences fell in love with him, Offor was a 2010 VSA International Young Soloists Award winner for his piano and vocal skills. Today, the Nashville-based musician is still writing and performing his infectious original songs, and urges other emerging artists with disabilities to decide to be the best at their artistic practice with “no qualifiers.”

What is your area(s) of artistic practice?
Music: songwriting, singing, multi-instrumentalist

As the threat of the climate crisis becomes ever more imminent, the importance and benefits of nature to human health become ever more undeniable. Highlighted in books such as “Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness” by Qing Li, various practices of nature therapy are said to improve mental and physical health. A 2018 report from the Nature Conservancy states “a growing body of scientific evidence suggests contact with nature provides a multitude of health benefits...nearby nature provides a positive emotional experience that has been shown to speed up recovery time for hospitalized patients, motivate healthy behaviors such as exercise, and provide therapeutic benefits to people living with mental disorders.” 

Due to the varied and often challenging terrain the natural environment can present (steep grades, unpaved pathways and delicate ecosystems), access to our natural resources for those with physical disabilities has historically been confined to the parking lots and nature centers, restricting their ability to fully partake in the benefits of a natural connection. 

April is Autism Awareness month, but Jacqueline Russell, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Chicago Children’s Theater, celebrates the “mind-blowing” creativity of theater and drama students on the autism spectrum every day.

Tara Wray is a photographer, curator, and documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on issues of mental health and the ambivalence of family ties. In 2018, she started the Too Tired Project, a nonprofit photo initiative committed to helping people with depression. In less than one year, the Too Tired Project has received more than 15,000 submissions from 16,000 followers on Instagram and hosted multiple live exhibitions via their traveling Slideshow Exhibition Series. Here, she discusses what inspires her, the future plans of the Too Tired Project, and how anxiety and depression connect to her work.

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework for curriculum development that provides many different points of access for each student.  In recognition that each learner is as unique as their fingerprint, UDL aligned pedagogy offers multiple ways for students to receive information, express what they know and engage with the content in ways they find interesting and motivating.

In this article, three experienced arts practitioners share some of the UDL aligned strategies and accommodations they employ:  Teaching Artist and Music Therapist Deb Neuman; Accessibility Coordinator, Director and Drama Teaching Artist Fran Sillau; and Middle School Visual Art Teacher Samantha Varian.

Jenna Gabriel, Special Education Manager at the Office of VSA and Accessibility at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts shares her reflections on the VSA Intersections:  Regional Arts and Special Education Conference in New Orleans.

Hello.  My name is Adrianna A. Matthews. I am a recent graduate from The University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Theatre and Dance. I received my Master of Fine Arts degree in May 2018, in the field of Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities. In addition, I also received a certification in Disabilities Studies from The University of Texas at Austin’s Master’s Portfolio program. Throughout my tenure attending The University of Texas at Austin as both a student and a Teaching and Project Assistant, I learned and discovered a lot about the complexities of being a black person and a graduate student with disabilities. I learned a lot about the trauma that takes place when having to negotiate between my wants, needs and desire to feel respected and valued as a black artist and wanting and needing to feel accommodated for my challenges as a student dealing and living with disabilities.           

Not being able to feel like I was obtaining both goals as a black artist and a graduate student made me feel diminished and empty throughout the majority of my experience in graduate school. Taking on the new identities as a black artist with disabilities and educator with disabilities made me feel limited and self-conscious about everything that I was trying to put out in the world. I didn’t feel whole in owning either identity. I consistently questioned my abilities to make good art, my abilities to teach, and my ability to feel, overall,  like I was adequately succeeding in my academic studies and desired profession to work full-time in higher education settings. I kept wondering to myself, “Why is it that I feel this way? Why is it so hard for me to accept and own these two identities? After all it’s not all of me, ‘it’s just one part of me’” (Matthews Applied Project).

Meet Me at the MoMA, a program developed for patrons with dementia by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, New York, has influenced museums both nationally and internationally. None have had such expansive and wide-ranging success, both in terms of geographic area and diversity of organizations, as SPARK!

SPARK! Ignites

With the mission of making Wisconsin a leader in addressing challenges posed by Alzheimer’s, the Helen Bader Foundation (now Bader Philanthropies Inc.) sent out a request for proposals to every museum in Wisconsin. Taking cues from Meet Me at the MoMA, the Foundation aimed to bring similar opportunities to their home state. 

Jessy Yates is a theater artist who was recently announced as the inaugural recipient of a scholarship from the Ruderman Family Foundation and Yale School of Drama. Here, she tells us about her artistic inspirations, current projects, and future plans.

Kallen Blair and Alie B. Gorrie have had many conversations about inclusion and representation of disability in the arts, and both share a passion for changing the way disability is currently portrayed in media. Now these actors are getting a chance to share their conversations with an audience in their new documentary series, ABLE. Here, Kallen and Alie B. talk about what to expect from ABLE, the future of the series, and how we can engage with them.

Office of VSA and Accessibility: What is ABLE, and what inspired this project?

In this article, two New Orleans area arts education leaders share their knowledge and experience building partnerships to create arts-rich schools and connect students to the local culture and arts community.

Abigail Diaz, Director of Education at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, won a John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts LEAD Award for Emerging Leaders last year for her work on field trips at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago. “For me, accessibility means total physical, cognitive and social access to learning and engagement. It’s intersectional; when you make things better for accessibility, it becomes better for everybody.”

Born in Williamsburg, Virginia, Abbie Diaz spent countless field trips and birthdays in museums. “I knew that museums were for me, and I wanted everyone to love museums as much as I did,” she shares of her passion and decision to pursue a career in education. Diaz is also sister of and caregiver to a young man with disabilities and found it difficult to share her enthusiasm with him; “I always imagined that we would go to museums all over the country together, but we were constantly fighting to allow him to engage in the space physically.”

In December, a group of prominent theater artists with disabilities announced the launch of a new professional company, employing only professionals with disabilities to create fully accessible theater. National Disability Theatre (NDT) says its mission is not only to create world-class theater productions, but also to “change social policy and the nation’s narrative about what people with disabilities can do and provide a guiding model in audience accessibility for the arts and culture sector.” Here, Co-Executive Directors and founders Talleri McRae and Mickey Rowe offer insight on how NDT came to be, as well as their plans for the future.