Thank you for being part of another year of great disability art and culture! You can help us jump-start our work for 2013 by making a tax-deductible gift to DACP before 11:59pm on December 31!

PayPal Donate button

2013 was fantastic for DACP!

Our Inclusive Arts Vibe program has never been so active.

This year, Rachel Esteve, IAV Dance Company member, worked as an Assistant Dance Teacher. IAV also continued its dance classes at Alder Creek Middle School for a second year, and the Middle School students performed at the end of their school year! The Alder Creek Middle School principal called it “a model of inclusion,” and we look forward to many successful collaborations in the future!

black and white photo of IAVDC dancer Rachel Esteve, a young white woman in a black shiny skirt and black fingerless gloves, and a black t-shirt with a sparkling skull over her entire torso. Her glasses are small rectangles, and her shoulder-length dark hair is half over her face; she is dancing in 1/4 profile, facing right in the far right of the frame, in shadow next to washed out white wall, right arm outstretched and palm up, left arm held parallel but bent in front of her torso, as if she is offering something to the viewer. She looks edgy.

Inclusive Arts Vibe Dance Company, DACP’s integrated youth dance company, put on their second solo show, Home/Unrestrained. In addition to our weekend shows, IAVDC added a free Friday matinee for school and community groups.  IAVDC were featured performers at a Colored Pencils event.

IAVDC also performed at Portland Community College after DACP got a grant to showcase disability arts there; IAVDC was joined by two fantastic Portland artists, Tess Raunig and Ivan Cauldwell, who danced and sang, as well as a showing of Cheryl Green’s film “Friending with Brain Injury,” and Alexis Jewell and Max McDonnell’s film “A Heart’s Beat.”

IAVDC dancers Ali, Addie, Rachel W, and Monique dancing at Glitter, Groove, Grow!. Ali is in the background left, black capris and blue t-shirt, arms relaxed, facing to the right. Addie is standing straight on with head in 3/4 profile facing riht, left arm raised and bent to the side of her head, right arm slightly akimbo, right knee slightly bent. Her mouth is smiling and her hand is in her face. Rachel W is sitting in a wheelchair with right arm and left arm held slightly open at mid-chest height, head bent slightly down, hair piled on her head. She and Addie are in black pants and mint green shirts over black undershirts. Monique is to Rachel's right, all in black, head bent down, hair falling over her face, arms both raised in relaxed fists, knees bent, in profile. Rachel's PA is standing behind Rachel looking over Rachel's left shoulder, smiling, hands on handgrips of Rachel's wheelchair, also in black.
IAVDC dancers at Glitter! Groove! Grow!

April saw Glitter! Groove! Grow!, a family-friendly fundraiser for Inclusive Arts Vibe Dance Company.  We were honored by an afternoon of performances by Native American drummer and singer John Edmo, the luminous storyteller Ed Edmo, popular folksinger and longtime DACP supporter Jana Losey, storyteller and artist Joy Corcoran, singer Sarah Doherty, and a preview performance by IAVDC!

This year is a big one for growth and change!

DACP is transitioning. Oregon Cultural Access (ORCA), will become DACP.    Our current board is supporting the nonprofit’s transition, and we will be recruiting new board members!

DACP was also accepted into the Regional Arts and Culture Council’s Cultural Leadership Program. DACP staff have the opportunity to work on long-term strategic planning with a nonprofit consultant to secure our sustainability and growth.

DACP hired volunteer Sarah Doherty to work quarter time on Development, to write grant applications and reports, help organize fundraisers, and seek sponsorships.

From January to June, DACP hosted an accessible, low-cost life drawing group at the Gallery at Port City. We featured live models who were Disabled and nondisabled, young and old, LGBTQ and straight, fat and thin, and our artists created beautiful artistic representations of diverse bodies and subjects. Check out photos of some of the artwork on our facebook page!

DACP received a grant from Oregon Humanities for our reading group, Dis/Representation: Reading into Disability.  DACP partnered with Portland Community College Disability Services, Gimp Girl, and Portland State University Disability Resource Center to present a disability justice literature program, PCC provided space, technology, and real-time captioning to hold reading groups every month.  People attended groups in person, and called and wrote in from their homes ll over the state! We read fiction and nonfiction by leading thinkers on disability justice and studies. You can find a list of readings on our webpage, http://disrepresentation.com.

In addition to the reading group, we presented a poetry reading and chapbook-signing with poet and long-time DACP supporter, William Alton. We also worked with Willamette University to bring feminist Disability Studies scholar Ann Fox to lecture on Toni Morrison’s book, Home.

Photo of William Alton reading poetry. He is seated at a folding table, one arm braced on knee, right arm bent and elbow resting on right knee, leaning forward and speaking into a microphone while looking out at the crowd. Bill is a middle aged white man in faded jeans and a gray collared shirt with a brown hat and a brown beard and small wire glasses, looking up. A piece of paper is on the table along with a bottle of soda; he is seated in front of a table with rows of books lying sideways on their pages, below a few pictures or postings on the wall.
William Alton reading poetry

In the summer and fall, DACP also piloted a community organizing/outreach internship program. We worked with five interns to publicize our Dis/Representation events, build new connections with statewide disability, arts, social justice, and people of color organizations, and further develop existing relationships between DACP and other organizations and communities. Our interns also learned about organizing, disability rights and disability justice, and dynamics of oppression and resistance across different communities. Your donation will help us continue to develop new leaders and build our disability arts programing and sustainability of DACP.

PayPal Donate button

We have a lot to look forward to in 2014:

We are planning a winter Disability Movie Night. Watch for an announcement about that event!

We are planning our third Sex, Love, and Disability adult fundraiser for early March. We are always looking for volunteers to help us seek sponsorships and items for donation and auction, coordinate event details, and organize entertainment.

We will also be seeking submissions for a ‘zine on disability, sex, and love! We’ll assemble the ‘zine and sell it as a fundraiser for DACP.

May 17-24, DACP will present the 6th Disability Pride Art and Culture Festival! We are very excited to announce that our featured guest artist is Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, who is currently a featured artist with Sins Invalid,  founded the traveling queer and trans* people of color performance group Mangos with Chili, and won a Lambda Literary Award for her poetry book, Love Cake. Piepzna-Samarasinha will hold a performance intensive for any interested artists.  We are also planning a panel on Revolutionary Arts, a poetry reading by Piepzna-Samarasinha, and of course the Festival performances!

We would like to ask you to consider making a personally significant year-end gift  to Disability Art and Culture Project to kick off a spectacular new year. To those of you who have given your time and resources, thank you. We accomplished so much this year with volunteer time, donations, and the determination and creative flair from our disability arts community. We couldn’t have done it without you. All of us at the Disability Art and Culture Project want to thank you for a fantastic 2013, and we look forward to building vibrant disability art and culture with you in 2014 and beyond!

Sincerely,

Kathy Coleman, Artistic Director

Sarah Doherty, Development Director

Photo of IAVDC dancers Daric and Sam (and Sam's PA) dancing in black pants and pink shirts. Daric is an African American man standing in the left of the frame, right arm behind his back and left arm held parallel to the ground at shoulder-height. He is wearing glasses and smiling. Sam is a white man sitting in a black power chair with legs crossed, right arm lowered and left arm raised pointing out, at shoulder height. Behind Sam, his PA, a white young blond woman, stands in a black shirt with left arm raised over her head and right arm held at shoulder height, forearm raised and curled toward her slightly, fist clenched.
Daric, Sam, and Sam’s PA dancing in the studio

Leave a Reply