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!

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 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.

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.

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 6^th 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

Daric, Sam, and Sam’s PA dancing in the studio

Do you want experience planning arts events? Do you like working on a team? Are you good at working with volunteers, or are you a total social media maven? Are you the kind of person who has a flair for organizing details, or getting people to events? Are you passionate about building a vibrant arts community that celebrates the fullness of humanity? Do you want to experience social justice and radical inclusion in a nonprofit? Disability Art and Culture Project needs you on our planning/production committee!

Committee members meet monthly or as needed (eg. more often closer to the events) to plan a fundraiser in February 2014, and the Disability Pride Art and Culture Festival in May 2014. The commitment is to volunteer through June 2014. Committee members get to experience significant leadership and responsibility in making both events happen. There are several roles that committee members can volunteer to take on, or share. These include:

• Accessibility Coordinator (duties might include scouting event locations, communicating accessibility features and areas of inaccessibility, fielding questions from the public, and serving as a point person for the audience on questions of disability access)

• Volunteer Coordinator (duties include recruiting, welcoming, and supervising volunteers)

• Fundraising Coordinator (duties include procuring donations from individuals and local businesses, and helping  other volunteers and committee members to do the same, as well as managing the financial logistics of running a silent auction)

• Hospitality Coordinator (procuring food, beverage, and other items to serve at events, coordinating the pickup of donations, making sure our state licenses are in order)

• Outreach/Marketing Coordinator (advertising both events using online tools, networking, postering, and traditional marketing strategies, and getting audiences to turn out for some great disability arts!)

If you’re a mover and shaker, if you love disability arts, dance, or social justice, or if you’re just looking for a meaningful way to use and develop your skills for a fabulous nonprofit organization, sign up for the committee today!

Contact disabilityartculture@gmail.com or call  (503) 238-0723 (voice).

In-person discussion in a NEW location, same building but new room: 208 Terrell Hall, Portland Community College Cascade Campus, 6:00-8:00pm.

If you would like to participate in real time from your home, by phone or computer, go to http://DisRepresentation.com/ for information on how to access the conversation online!

Also join us at DisRepresentation.com for online discussion of the readings anytime!

EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO PARTICIPATE.

Whether you read everything, one of these pieces, or none of these reading selections, WE WANT YOU HERE!

READINGS FOR JUNE 27 GROUP:

FICTION/POETRY:

Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden is widely available in libraries and bookstores. The text is also available for free on Project Gutenberg. You can also read a copy for free in several accessible formats at the Internet Archive.And there is a free audiobook available on Librivox, read by a human.

Chris Hewitt, Four Poems in Bent:

http://www.bentvoices.org/bentvoices/hewitt_fourpoems.htm

NONFICTION:

Cal Montgomery, “Harry Potter and Separatism” from A Ragged Edge Online: http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/focus/potter0604.html

Renee Martin at Womanist Musings, “You’re cured now right” http://www.womanist-musings.com/2012/02/youre-cured-now-right.html

Garland-Thomson, “Staring at the other,” Disability Studies Quarterly 2005 v. 25 no. 4, http://dsq-sds.org/article/view/610/787

Hel, Black Broken & Bent, “What’s apparent?” http://blackbrokenandbent.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/whats-apparent/

Building Radical Accessible Communities Everywhere, “Inspiration Porn” http://buildingradicalaccessiblecommunities.blogspot.com/2012/02/inspiration-porn.html?zx=39542697836e416b

In the next week we’ll put up concept maps/summaries in accessible language.

To participate in real time online, see http://www.disrepresentation.com/reading-group/

And watch this space for the link to the Blackboard Collaborate session.

Dis/Representation is a program of Disability Art & Culture Project (https://dacphome.org/), Portland Community College Disability Services, Gimp Girl (http://www.gimpgirl.com/) and other community partners!

Portland Community College is an Affirmative Action Equal Opportunity Institution.

This program was made possible in part by grant from Oregon Humanities (OH), a statewide nonprofit organization and independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which funds OH’s grant programs.

ACCESS:

Contact disabilityartculture@gmail.com with access questions or requests.

Wheelchair accessible

Natural light and (optional) low-flicker fluorescent lighting.

There will be a live captioning stream available through the website to online participants and projected on a screen during the program.

ASL interpreting available by request (please let us know at disabilityartculture@gmail.com).

Accessible by transit (72 bus, within a mile of yellow line Max Killingsworth stop).

Please refrain from wearing scented products.

Gender neutral restrooms available in two accessible adjacent campus buildings.

Armless chairs available.

There is an elevator to the second floor of Terrell Hall and power buttons on the building’s outer doors and restrooms.

Go check it out! http://www.DisRepresentation.com

Find reading lists, access information, and both ongoing online discussion and information on how to join a real-time reading group conversation! Our first in-person reading group is Thursday, May 30, from 6:30-8:30pm in PCC Cascade Campus’s 112 Terrell Hall. Join us in person or online, or start talking over at the DisRepresentation website discussion forum!

Or find our facebook group and join the facebook event for in-person or real-time online reading group discussions!

And tell your friends!

This program was made possible with generous support from Oregon Humanities, and contributions from community partners Portland Community College Disability Services and Gimp Girl, as well as consultation and ongoing support from community experts on everything from reading groups to disability literature.

We need the following art and craft supplies for our upcoming art classes:

• Colored construction paper
• Colored cardstock
• Colored felt or felted wool
• Acrylic sealing spray
• Jump rings
• Earring wires
• Headpins
• Embroidery thread and craft needles
• Jewelry stringing wire or cord
• Fasteners/clasps for necklaces/bracelets
• Beads (all sizes)
• Donated or borrowed jewelers’ pliers (at least 2 more)
• Donated or borrowed small wire cutters (at least 2 more)
• Frames, 8 1/2 x 11″ or larger (at least 10 more)

We could also use gift cards to art and craft supply stores!

E-mail us at disabilityartculture@gmail.com if you can help with art and craft supplies!

We are looking for donations of items for our art and culture auction this April:

• Artwork, including but not limited to sculpture, jewelry, painting, illustration, papercrafts, prints, photographs, and digital media
• Gift certificates
• Meals at restaurants
• Hotel stays
• Art supplies
• Vouchers for classes
• Tickets to local performances
• Museum tickets and/or memberships

We are also looking for donations of

• Gift certificates to local grocery stores
• In-kind donations from local restaurants and/or bakeries, for light refreshments the day of the fundraiser
• In-kind donations of poster printing
• Paper products: cups, plates, napkins, tablecloths, disposable flatware
• Artisan chocolates and fresh-cut flowers to sell at the fundraiser
• Crayons, paper, pipe cleaners, coloring books, and other art supplies appropriate for young children for an activity table

Do you have anything to donate, or any other ideas about fundraising for our youth dancers? Let us know by e-mailing diabilityartculture@gmail.com!

For the Inclusive Arts Vibe Dance Company performance in May, we are looking for donations of the following:

• Videography
• Video editing
• Professional photography
• In-kind donations of poster printing

Contact the artistic director, Kathy Coleman, at kafia2008@yahoo.com  if you can help us with our IAVDC performance needs!

We’ve received a donation of frames for our Waltz of the Flowers class, but we can still use your help!

Join us for an all-ages paper cutout art workshop with emerging local artist, longtime diversity facilitator, and friend to DACP, Lavaun Heaster! Join us to make bright, tactile, inclusive, and accessible paper cutout folk art. All materials and tools will be provided. Don’t worry if you’ve never made visual art before, or if you don’t think you have the skills! Lavaun’s workshops are inclusive, for all ages and abilities, we’ll have some shapes already cut out for you to design and arrange, and DACP will also have some volunteers to assist with art-making.

All participants will receive an electronic image of the art piece(s) they create, and the original artwork will be donated to DACP for fundraising purposes. Inclusive Arts Vibe Dance Company’s spring performance is coming up, and DACP is working on a family friendly fundraiser to cover the expenses. This workshop is for people who would like to create art to donate for auction at DACP’s fundraiser!

WHEN AND WHERE:

SCRAP Education Annex, Standard Dairy Building, Suite J, 2808 NE MLK, Jr. Blvd, 97212
Saturday, March 2, 3:30-5:30pm

ACCESSIBILITY:

• The SCRAP Education Annex is on the #6 bus line, and there is some on-street parking on the surrounding side streets.
• The building is ADA accessible.
• There are two large, accessible single-stall gender-neutral restrooms.
• Although DACP gladly accepts donations to cover our costs, there is no charge for this workshop.
• Please refrain from wearing scented products. This event takes place in a rented community space that is not consistently fragrance free.
• This workshop is all ages. Children 6 and under with adult supervision only.
• Volunteer art assistants will be available.
• Contact disabilityartculture@gmail.com with further accessibility questions.

TO REGISTER:

Space is limited! Please register directly with DACP by e-mailing disabilityartculture@gmail.com or calling 503-238-0723 (voice) by 5pm on Friday, March 1.

Visit our facebook event page here, but please do register by e-mailing or calling.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Lavaun Heaster is an emerging local low vision artist who creates inclusive tactile art. Lavaun’s work depicts diverse people connecting. She is curious about varying cultural practices and beliefs, having grown up in a multiethnic family and currently living with a multiethnic partner. Inspired by the vibrant art, ethnic communities and disability scene in Portland, OR, Lavaun has combined her passions in creating original art which you can see at http://accesibleart.webs.com/.

Volunteer Coordinator

Duties:

• Recruit Fundraiser and publicity volunteers using internet tools, email, and personal networking.
• Liaise between other committee members and volunteers.
• Clearly explain volunteer duties.
• Welcome volunteers to DACP.
• Supervise volunteers at the fundraiser
• Attend Fundraiser planning committee meetings and communicate challenges and needs to committee members.
• Help with event publicity/other tasks as needed.

Time commitment:

• 4 hours/week
• 6-7 hours/week on weeks that events occur.

Development Specialist

Duties

• Procure donations or supervise volunteers to procure donations of art supplies and items for auction.
• Plan and run art auction aspect of DACP fundraiser: logistics including cash box and credit card payments, bidding sheets; supervise volunteers to  make auction run smoothly.
• Set up and manage auction payment options.
• Keep records of donations and payments.
• Write thank you letters to donors, or coordinate volunteers to write thank you letters.
• Help with event publicity/other tasks as needed.
• Attend committee meetings.

Time commitment

• 4-6 hours/week through mid April
• possibly 8 hours the week of the event.

Hospitality Coordinator

Duties

• Procure food, beverage, and paper goods donations for Fundraiser.
• Coordinate pickup of food and beverage donations.
• Plan and run food and beverage setup and cleanup at the fundraiser; supervise 1-3 volunteers.
• Attend Fundraiser planning committee meetings and communicate challenges and needs to committee members.
• Help with event publicity/other tasks as needed.

Time commitment

• 2-4 hours/week
• 6+ hours the week of the fundraiser

Outreach Coordinator

Duties

• Advertise art classes and fundraiser event using online tools, personal networks, and postering
• Organize at least one postering party to canvass neighborhoods
• Post event details to community calendars and list in radio event calendars
• Attend fundraiser planning committee meetings and communicate challenges and needs to other committee members.

Time commitment

• 2-4 hours/week

Kids’ Crafts Leads

Duties

• Plan an art/craft activity for a wide range of ages and abilities.
• Write up instructions for the activity.
• Plan craft setup; supervise setup and cleanup volunteers.
• Direct 1-2 volunteers.
• Explain craft instructions to children and youths.
• Help participants with crafts as needed.
• Supervise children
• Be flexible about how and who participates.
• Clean up craft area within the time frame of the event.
• Attend one or two planning committee meetings a few weeks before the event.

Time commitment

• 4-6 hours planning
• About 5 hours on the day of the event

Interested? Want to know more? Check out our previous post on this committee and please contact Kathy Coleman at kafia2008@yahoo.com or 503-238-0723 (voice) if you can join our planning committee.

We are seeking models of any/all body sizes and shapes, genders, disabilities, races, ethnicities, and art or modeling backgrounds. Mobility devices of all kinds are welcome, as are assistive technology, service animals, and personal assistants. If you are interested in becoming a DACP model, please email Stefanie at DACPVisualArt@gmail.com or call Kathy at (503) 238-0723 (voice). You can also contact Stefanie at the open art sessions for more information.

This is a volunteer position. We would eventually like to be able to pay our models a little bit of money for each hour they pose for us. This will be possible if we receive donations from open art session participants. For the time being, however, we cannot guarantee any payment for models. Please let us know if you are interested. We could use someone for Friday, March 8, if you’re ready now!

This March we are holding a family art auction to raise funds for the Inclusive Arts Vibe  Dance Company (IAVDC) performance.  We are grateful for a grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council to fund this event, but it is not enough.

We need to raise $7000 more to cover the following:

• $4000 for costumes
• $500 for photography and editing
• $1000 for performance videography and editing
• $1000 for publicity
• $500 for set design and props

Our art auction will include art made by children, youth, and adults. To accomplish this we will be holding two free art making events for children and youth to create art for us to auction at the fundraiser.

Fundraisers require a lot of planning and many worker bees.  We are looking for individuals to join our fundraising committee who can take on multiple tasks to assist with planning and production of the event.

Committee duties include, but are not limited to:

• Finding a free or low-cost space for the event
• Getting art donations
• Getting food and drink donations
• Publicizing the event: Outreach to friends, colleagues and contacts in person, by email and through social media, poster distribution, posting on event calendars, etc.
• Working at the event itself (set up and clean up, taking tickets, etc.).

Please contact Kathy Coleman at kafia2008@yahoo.com or 503-238-0723 (voice) if you can join our planning committee. 

Also let us know if you would like to help us with the above duties but can’t join the committee.

The more volunteers we have, the easier it will be to accomplish our goals!

Or support our work financially:

Thank you!

Thank you for being part of our most successful year yet! You can help us jump-start our work for 2013 by making a tax-deductible gift to DACP before 11:59pm on December 31!

2012 was fantastic for DACP!

We had our second annual Sex, Love, and Disability fundraiser and the fifth Disability Pride Art and Culture Festival since our founding in 2005. The Festival’s theme was the power of art to cultivate social change. We had live performance, panel discussion and a Theatre of the Oppressed Workshop with The-TREE Institute. We are proud to have worked with incredible writers and performers in our community, and with Antoine Hunter, the Oakland-based African American Deaf and Hard of Hearing Choreographer, Dancer, and founder of the Urban Jazz Dance Company. Hunter performed solo dances and worked with local dancers to choreograph and premiere a collaborative piece at the Festival.

In 2012, Aireen Joven was hired as our first ever organizer. She built relationships with individuals and organizations, developed and recruited volunteers, and helped DACP set the stage to run more smoothly. She brought an invaluable artistic and racial justice perspective to her work. Your donation will help us develop new leaders and continue our racial justice work!

Since 2008, Inclusive Arts Vibe has had dance classes at Lynch View Elementary School. This year, Rachel Esteve, IAV Dance Company member, is interning there as an Assistant Dance Teacher. IAV also added dance classes at Alder Creek Middle School, perfomed in the Festival, and were featured performers at the disability-themed Colored Pencils in August. IAVDC welcomed three new dancers this fall, and the company is in rehearsal for their upcoming May performance.

This summer, we organized an online community survey and Community Listening Session at Portland Community College’s Cascade campus. DACP wanted—wants!—to hear from our community. We used what we learned to determine the direction of DACP—regular arts programming, opportunities for cross-cultural listening, continued work on anti-racism, more space for disability art and culture, education within our various diverse communities on racial justice and disability justice and their intersections. We have had rich discussions about art and social justice. The Community Listening Session also featured a presentation by artist Rupert Kinnard on race, disability, sexuality, gender, and art.

In the fall, DACP analyzed survey data, applied for and received partial funding to continue the IAV dance classes, and in November partnered with Story Minders to host Disability Comedy Movie Night. Cheryl Green premiered her film “Friending with Brain Injury!” We had an incredible conversation about disability culture, dark humor, insider/outsider dynamics, and the role of comedy in social justice work. Over fifty people got together for food, conversation, and fun!

We have a lot to look forward to in 2013:

Starting on January 11, 2013, DACP will host an accessible, low-cost life drawing group  every second Friday of the month, at Project Grow. We will break down barriers to disability art and culture making one art session at a time!

In the spring, DACP will partner with GimpGirl, In Other Words, and local and national humanities experts and Disability Studies scholars to launch a Disability Studies reading group! Expect to read academic and non-academic, fiction and nonfiction, works on intersectional disability justice and diverse disability cultures. We’ll have lectures by local and national Disability Studies scholars, and both in-person and online discussions.

We’ve started to plan a springtime art-auction fundraiser for the Inclusive Arts Vibe Dance Company performance with youth art classes facilitated by local artist Lavaun Heaster. And, of course, IAVDC’s recital will be in May!

We’re also tentatively planning a symposium on the intersections of race and disability in visual culture, and a book launch/poetry reading with local poet William Alton. With every event, we further the artistic expression of people with both non-apparent and apparent disabilities, support our communities in understanding disability culture and pride, and help the wider culture reimagine the definition of disability, art, and culture.

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 that our disability arts community is famous for. 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 2012, and we look forward to building vibrant disability art and culture with you in 2013 and beyond!

Sincerely,

Kathy Coleman, Artistic Director
Sarah Doherty and Cheryl Green, DACP planning committee