By Aliza Greenburg (Museum Access Coalition/Learning Spring School), Josh Taylor (Associate Professor of Special Education, Dept. of Teaching and Learning, Washington State University), and Karen Waltuck (The Consortium for Customized Employment, NYC)
The Rosemary Kennedy Initiative (“RKI”) provides internship experiences at the Kennedy Center to individuals with documented disabilities. Through this 24-week experience, disabled individuals build professional skills and workplace confidence. Interns leave better prepared to engage in competitive, integrated employment. Open to candidates ages 18+ with a documented disability. The 2026 program runs January 12 through June 28, 2026.
During their six months on-site at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, RKI interns have the opportunity to dive deep into their departmental placements. In addition to this hands-on work experience at the Kennedy Center, the program provides opportunities for professional growth through a curriculum of workshops, field trips, and networking events. RKI interns build skills while exploring today's varied careers in the cultural sector.
Young writers with disabilities (generally, ages 14-22) enrolled in high school or high school equivalency are invited to submit a 'ten-minute script' on any topic. Entries may be the work of an individual student or a collaboration of two students that includes at least one student with a disability. A panel of theater professionals selects division winners.
Applications for the 2025 season are due by Wednesday, January 8, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Apply now!
Each year outstanding young musicians with disabilities from around the world receive the Access/VSA International Young Musicians Award, $2,000, and the opportunity to perform and participate in professional development and music coaching activities provided by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. This program is open to soloists and ensembles of any instrument or genre.
All genres of music are accepted, including but not limited to classical, jazz, hip-hop, rap, rock/alt rock, pop, indie, bluegrass, folk, country, R&B/blues, Latin, and world. All instruments, including voice, are accepted.
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| Sally Kim, National Museum of the American Indian |
Margalit Schindler, Pearl Preservation |
Joelle Wickens, Ph.D., University of Delaware |
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Social Security Resources
Work Incentives Planning & Assistance (WIPA): Programs to provide free benefits counseling to people who receive SSI and/or SSDI beneficiaries to help you make informed choices about work. WIPAs provide information and referral services related to work incentives. Find your local WIPA at https://choosework.ssa.gov/findhelp/
Playwright Tim J. Lord received the inaugural Apothetae and Lark Playwriting Fellowship for a writer with a disability, a two-year award spanning 2017-2019. His work has been developed and produced at theaters across the United States, and he will be the writer-in-residence at the William Inge Theatre Festival in Independence, Kansas, this spring. Here, he talks about his career path, the connection he found with disability in his work, and the importance of honing your craft.
VSA and Accessibility: Where are you currently based?
United Kingdom (UK) theater company Mind the Gap envisions an arts sector where there are equal opportunities for performers with learning disabilities*, and where artists with learning disabilities are recognized as leaders in their fields. Mind the Gap’s new leadership program, called Staging Change, aims to increase the visibility of artists with learning disabilities in the wider arts community and offer them skills development and advocacy opportunities.
Staging Change is based around three-way partnerships between Mind the Gap (MTG), six arts venues across the UK, and artists with learning disabilities. According to MTG Associate Producer Deborah Dickinson, the program has five objectives: to grow talent among artists with learning disabilities (LD); to increase participation in LD-led arts; to increase representation of LD people in high quality work; to nurture new leaders to advance LD-led work; and to accumulate better evidence to support the value and impact of LD-led arts practice. They plan to accomplish these goals through three strands of the project: active partnerships with their six venue partners; training and leadership development for artists with LD; and collaboration and knowledge exchange events that bring venues and artists with LD together.
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.
