VSA arts of Vermont
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20 West Canal Street |
Judith Chalmer |
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Tel.: (802) 655-7772 |
Website: |
Organizational Profile:
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Full-time Staff: 2 |
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VSA arts of Vermont (VSAVT) is dedicated to making the world of the arts accessible to Vermonters of all abilities.
Programming Partners and Other Funders:
Burlington City Arts; Catalyst Theater; Central Vermont ARC; Champlain Community Services; Children's Trust Fund; Committee on Temporary Shelter; Colchester High School; Echo Environmental Center; Elley Long Music Center; First Methodist United Church; Frances R. Dewing Foundation; Flynn Center for the Performing Arts; Anne Slade Frey Charitable Trust; A.D.; Henderson Foundation; Health Care and Rehabilitative Services; HowardCenter; Green Mountain Self-Advocates; Imani Health Center; J.F.K. Elementary School; Lincoln St., Inc; Northern Lights Career Development Center; Springfield Adult Day Services; Springfield Housing Authority; Springfield School District; Turrell Fund; United Counseling Services; UVM Center for Disability and Community Inclusion; Verizon Foundation, Vermont Agency of Human Services; Vermont Arts Council; Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired; Vermont Association of Childcare Resource and Referral Agencies; Vermont Center for Independent Living; Vermont Coalition for Disability Rights; Vermont Community Foundation; Vermont Council of the Blind; Vermont Parent Information Center; Vermont Protection and Advocacy; Vermont State Department of Education; Vermont Developmental Disabilities Council; Vermont Special Olympics; Vermont State Independent Living Council; Visiting Nurses Association; Windham Foundation; IBM; People’s Academy; plus 48 home child care providers each year
Educational Programs and Artist Residencies
High School Self Advocacy Theater Project
High School Self-Advocacy Theater uses theater games and the shared challenge of creating an original performance to give students confidence in describing their goals, solving problems, and working as a team. This program, linked to Vermont Learning Standards, will serve approximately 45 students in three high schools in Vermont.
Start with the Arts™ (SWTA)
VSAVT presents Start with the Arts at 48 sites per year serving the most needy, most rural children in registered home childcare sites throughout the state, for 12 weeks each, with activities linked to Vermont's Early Learning Standards.
Home in the Arts
Home in the Arts is an after-school program for children whose families are homeless or are residents of public housing projects. This year Home in the Arts will be presented at two shelters in Burlington and three sites in Springfield. In addition, Home in the Arts will offer after-school poetry writing to English Language Learning students in five schools in two counties where refugee populations have been settled.
Can Do Arts
Can Do Arts is a year-round series of visual, musical, and performing arts workshops for adults with developmental disabilities. Each eight-week workshop culminates in a public performance or exhibition integrated with members of the general public.
Telling My Story Prison Theater Project
Telling My Story is an artist residency at the Vermont Southern State Correctional Facility and the Southeast State Correctional facility in which inmates create original theater and read testimony about the process for a mixed audience of inmates, staff, and community members.
Professional Development and Technical Assistance
Start with the Arts™ (SWTA) Training Program
VSA arts of Vermont conducts ongoing training for artists who teach the SWTA resource, and for 48 childcare providers. Each registered home childcare provider receives six hours of instruction linked to Vermont's required Core Competencies for Early Childhood Educators, a copy of the manual Start with the Arts at Home, books, art supplies, and a toolkit with local resources.
Workshops for Teaching Artists
VSA Arts of Vermont works annually with the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts to bring the talents of world-class visiting artists to our community of participants and instructors. This year the Awareness Theater Company will be working with Australia’s Back To Back Theater Company.
Exhibitions
Display and sales of artwork by artists with disabilities at festivals, including a memorial for the late Alex Chirelstein, director of VSA Arts of Vermont for 10 years.
Cultural Access and Inclusive Arts Services
Ticket Distribution
VSA Arts of Vermont distributes tickets to venues statewide including the Flynn Center, Weston Playhouse, Dartmouth’s Hopkins Center and at museums such as the Shelburne Museum. A total of 200 tickets will be distributed in 2008.
Access Development
VSA arts of Vermont will develop creative programming to increase access to cultural events and venues in different parts of the state, particularly Springfield, for an estimated 30 low-income, rural Vermonters with disabilities.
Public Awareness and Outreach
The Awareness Theater Company (ATC)
The Awareness Theater Company is composed of adults with developmental disabilities. Its mission is to bring to the public the vast array of life experiences, viewpoints, and artistic excellence of adults with developmental disabilities. ATC performs approximately 15 times a year throughout Vermont. This year (2007), ATC will present shows on abuse prevention, new one-person shows, and a new original production based on a script developed through assistive technology on the perspective of a man with autism. ATC will also create a made-for-video production of Bill's Bill, an original television show about the history of special education in Vermont and the success of Vermonters with disabilities in participating in the civic process.
5-College Tour of One Woman Show, Crazy
VSA Arts of Vermont presents Gail Marlene Schwartz in Crazy, a one-woman interdisciplinary show on the experience of anxiety and depression, to five college campuses across the state. Each show will be followed by a discussion with local community members representing mental health consumer groups, professionals in the field of mental health, and community advocates, as well as arts workshop for students and faculty.
Festival Workshops
Festival workshops are activities led by VSA arts volunteers, often student interns, at various community festivals, usually in Chittenden County, including the Imani Health Center, Sara Holbrook Community Center, Echo Environmental Center, and Vermont Special Olympics. These single-day activities take place throughout the year.
(F) 202-429-0868