Art Street
On July 20, 2007 (rain date of July 21st) Boston's commitment to overcome violence in our neighbrhoods will take the form of a major event called "Paint for Peace" involving 1,000 youth from Boston's neighborhoods. "Paint for Peace" is an opportunity for young people from all across the city join together to paint a giant Dove Of Peace, 200 feet large, on City Hall Plaza. Mayor Menino, Boston youth organizations, Stop Hand Gun Violence, Inc., and street artist Sidewalk Sam will direct one thousand youths in the creation of the huge Dove of Peace on the Plaza. This event will launch a city-wide initiative involving neighborhood youth who will create an additional 600 Doves Of Peace, sidewalk-sized, throughout Boston in neighborhoods affected by handgun violence with the goal of promoting non-violence. The image will present a positive symbol representing people's commitment to peace in neighborhoods where violence has been dominant.

These images will be painted in the heart of boston's neighborhoods - at bus stops, in front of schools and churches, on well-traveled streets and in high impact shopping areas. The artworks will present a visible reminder of each neighborhood's desire to support young people as they bring symbols of peace and hope to Boston's communities.

Sites will be determined in parternship with organization s in the neighborhoods of Boston, including Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, South Boston, East Boston, and Cambridge. Art Street will partner with VSA arts of Mass to employ youth at VSA sites to create sidewalk paintings on the sidewalks of those organizations.

Community Access to the Arts
In 1993, painter Tim Lefens developed and began to use an innovative painting technique that allowed individuals with physical disabilities to paint with the assistance of lasers attached to the artists' heads and trained trackers - people acting as the hands of the artists. The tracker asks the artist an infinite series of yes or no questions concerning shape, color, and location, and the artist uses both the laser and the dialogue with the tracker to create images. Lefens calls this technique Artistic Realization Technology (A.R.T.) and in 1995 started a non-profit organization with the same name. A.R.T. has received the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leadership Award and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Teaching Award. Lefens has helped to start numerous A.R.T. sites around the country and in each instance artists, trackers, caregivers, and community members given the opportunity to view the art have been impressed and deeply moved by the quality of the images and by the tremendous power A.R.T. has to unlock otherwise hidden talent and vision.

In August, 2005 Mr.Lefens came to Community Access to the Arts (CATA) for a three day residency program during which he gave a talk on A.R.T. technique, worked with two faculty artists and five CATA participants in a A.R.T. studio workshop series, and gave a public talk at the exhibit that took place on the last day of the residency. Four paintings that CATA participants created using A.R.T. were sold at the exhibit, and one of those paintings was later displayed at the Princeton University Museum of Art. During the 2005-2006 program year two CATA participants continued to use A.R.T. in a small painting workshop with Michael Wolski, one of the faculty artists trained by Mr.Lefen's during the summer residency.

CATA will receive funding from the VSA Massachusetts to expand this highly successful pilot project into a permanent program feature. Project activities will include:
§ Artist-in-Residency Program: Mr.Lefens will visit CATA for another three day residency and work with CATA faculty artists and participants to train no fewer than five new trackers and to introduce no fewer than ten individuals with disabilities to A.R.T. CATA representatives will also visit Tim Lefen's A.R.T. center in Belle Mead, NJ to observe workshops at that setting.
Expansion of A.R.T. Workshops: CATA currently has one trained tracker who worked with two CATA participants for a six-week series of one-on-one workshops. A core element of this project will be expanding CATA's A.R.T. program throughout the program year and to new settings including nursing homes and public schools.

Department of Conservation and Recreation
The funded project Artists in the Parks will further the Universal Access Program's mission and scope by engaging persons with disabilities to pursue and produce significant art in MA state parks which focus on their personal connection with nature.

Project Goals of Artists in the Parks
1) Facilitate a clear and supportive strategy to engage 7-10 artists with varied physical, sensory, cognitive, and psychiatric disabilities along with 2-4 artists without disabilities to produce a significant art piece of art that demonstrates their connection with the landscape in MA state parks and forests.
2) Construct, publicize and showcase this exhibit at an art show/ reception for the artists and through the development of a digital catalog of the exhibit.
3) Evaluate the project.
4) Establish an organizational strategy for continuing this initiative.

Participants will have the opportunity to pursue their preferred mode of art such as writing, poetry, drawing, painting, sculpting, photography, music composition, etc. in various DCR Interpretive programs, various UAP programs and/or independently at MA State Parks. Participants will receive individual and peer support, reasonable accommodations and a stipend to facilitate their participation. New seasonal DCR staff will receive disability awareness training to enable seasonal staff to better serve and accommodate participants within DCR parks.
This will be a competitive program. Following publicity/outreach, interested artists will complete a questionnaire to assess their eligibility. The management team will review applications and determine eligibility.

Fitchburg State College
The project brings Rosa Lee Gallimore with her one-woman theater piece, "R-The Rose Lee Show" to the college. This continues the work of the 2006-07 season when CenterStage brought The Show of Hands Theatre as the first performance by Deaf artists in the CenterStage at Fitchburg State College series. Of all the performers in the Show of Hands Theatre ensemble, Rosa Lee was one of the performers who stood out.
Gallimore describes her performance as follows: "The Rosa Lee Show is about who we are, what we see, and how we feel through our Deaf eyes. It is a multimedia performance comprised of storytelling, ASL poetry, comedy skits, video shows, sign song performances and many more."

The intent of this project is to continue deepening the connection to the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (HOH) community. This deepening will be accomplished through four goals:
1. increased inclusion (participation) of Deaf artists in the CenterStage at Fitchburg State College series
2. increased use of American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters
3. increased connection with the local Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (HOH) community through more deliberate communication with identified key people
4. continued utilization of Deaf and HOH-focused marketing and promotion that was developed for the 06-07 performance.

Pilgrim Theatre
Pilgrim Theatre received support from Very Special Arts, MA, to bring the production of Struck Dumb to Boston in November of 2007. Pilgrim is a Resident Company at the Boston Center for the Arts and last season won an NEA Challenge America grant to bring Deaf/Blind audience to their Crossing Borders III Festival at the BCA. It was for that festival that Gene-Gabriel Moore landed in Boston for performances of Struck Dumb. It was a difficult several days as there was a major blizzard. Moore, who is 71, a veteran actor, and aphasic, weathered the storm heroically and on Sunday, March 18, after his closing performance which was attended by many aphasics and their families, led a Symposium with Jerome Kaplan of the Aphasic Community Group of Boston University's Sargent Center and the co-founders of Pilgrim Theatre, Kermit Dunkelberg and Kim Mancuso. Affiliates of VSA Massachusetts were in attendance. The performance this coming November will be timed to be open to members of the American Speech Language Hearing Association national convention when thousands of speech-language pathologists and audiologists will converge on Boston.

Over the course of the three performances Moore gave in March at the BCA, it was clear from critical and audience response that it would be highly beneficial to bring this remarkable work of theatre back for a longer series. Pilgrim proposes to bring Struck Dumb to the Charlestown Working Theatre, a fully accessible theatre, for a two-week run, during the time of the ASHA conference.

Joseph Chaikin and Jean-Claude van Itallie's one-character classic, "Struck Dumb," a play about a day in the life of a man with aphasia, was created by the renowned 7 Stages (Atlanta, GA) and Not Merely Players, under the direction of Del Hamilton, the artistic director at 7 Stages.

Show of Hands Theatre Company
In collaboration with DEAF, Inc., SOHTC will work with Deaf, DeafBlind, Hard of Hearing and Late-Deafened theater professionals and consumers, staff, and volunteers present and past, and members of the Deaf, DeafBlind, Hard of Hearing and Late-Deafened community to develop and present a theatrical tribute to DEAF, Inc. and the Deaf, DeafBlind, Hard of Hearing and Late-Deafened community on the event the 30th anniversary of the founding of DEAF, Inc. Participants will develop poetry, dramatic presentations, dance and the like to showcase DEAF, Inc.'s mission, ASL and Deaf culture. The performance will be showcased in November, 2007, at DEAF, Inc.'s annual community celebration. The audience is estimated at around 200 Deaf, DeafBlind, Hard of Hearing, Late-Deafened and Hearing people.

Wheelock Family Theatre
Wheelock Family Theatre (WFT), with support from the Cultural Access Initiative Grant Program, seeks to deepen our relationships with schools and programs for Blind and low-vision children through inclusion of a Blind artist in our highly successful School Partnerships Program. WFT will train a Blind artist to become part of the Partnerships Program faculty. In tandem with a veteran Partnerships Program faculty member, the Blind artist will then run residencies and DramaShops at Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, MA, and at the after-school arts program for Blind youth Our Place Our Space. In addition, teachers from partnering schools and programs will have an opportunity to participate in trainings presented by WFT's Education Program.

If you are interested in applying for the 2008 grant cycle please contact Bonnie Kaplan, Director of Cultural Access at bsk@vsamass.org or by TTY (617)350-6535.