VSA arts of PA and VSA arts of Massachusetts

The Independence Starts Here Disability Arts Festival, led jointly by VSA arts of Pennsylvania and Art-Reach, Inc., began as a relationship-building initiative between the disability and cultural communities to support each other's attempts to create a community in Philadelphia that reflects its diversity and opens its doors to everyone. The roughly 30 original organizations as well as others they invited to join, produced or presented more than 60 events in every artistic discipline from October 18 through November 20, 2007, many running the entire month of the Festival, creating over 400 opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in the arts. But not all of the help for this wonderfully successful festival came from the Philadelphia area. Two of the Festival's most exciting events came from a neighbor to the north, VSA arts of Massachusetts.

Amaryllis Theatre, VSA arts of Pennsylvania's professional theatre company, worked with VSA arts of Massachusetts to bring Paul Kahn, an important playwright who frequently writes on issues of disability, to Philadelphia for a reading of one of his newest and most exciting plays: The Making of Free Verse, on November 11. The reading, part of a series of new play readings by published, disabled playwrights called "The American Playwrights Series," included disabled and non-disabled actors as well as a discussion of the play with the playwright. "Free Verse" was one of the most popular in the series and is still being discussed.

As the final performance of the Festival on November 19, Art-Reach presented Jazz ArtSigns with Lisa Thorson, a multi-disciplinary, multi-media showcase of professional art and accessibility that had been originally developed with VSA arts of Massachusetts. The performance was a huge success artistically and an eye-opening experience for many in the audience who either experienced accessibility for the first time or recognized how exciting it could be in its own right-the perfect ending to a celebration of inclusive art.

Now that the Festival is over, the organizations that produced it continue to work together toward greater inclusion of artists and audiences with disabilities. Accessibility is now less of a hurdle, especially for small organizations that struggle to make artistic ends meet and for disability organizations that must focus on their own unique constituency. Finding ways to create accessibility, at least on a basic level, without over-burdening small companies during the Festival, however, led to the creation of training programs for cultural staff members in audio description, captioning and alternate format program creation, the development of new captioning software for scripted performances and the purchase of equipment to share among all organizations. A new organization focusing on American Sign Language for theatre has recently been developed and is currently working with Festival participants to increase ASL on an ongoing basis, and the City's Department of Commerce recently provided more than $5 million in grants to support non-profits in their attempts to upgrade their facilities, particularly emphasizing accessibility.

The work in Philadelphia is still just beginning, but since the Festival, it has a better base on which to proceed. As the young VSA arts of Pennsylvania moves forward, leading Greater Philadelphia and the rest of the State in future efforts, it looks forward to working again with its more experienced colleague in Massachusetts on other projects that celebrate the work of artists with disabilities and include all audiences. Philadelphia and Boston have been leaders in independence since the country began. VSA arts of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania continue that work together, making sure that everyone, disabled or not, gets to enjoy the artistic fruits of that freedom.