Mission:
Our mission is to create art and challenge society’s view of disability. Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts was founded to provide artists with disabilities a place to pursue and develop their art to its highest potential. Staffed entirely by professional actors, musicians and artists, we are one of the few art centers in the world designed to facilitate adult artists with disabilities as they explore and expand their creativity as actors, painters, sculptors and musicians. Now their voices are heard, and through the vehicle of art, they bring awareness of life on the periphery to the mainstream and promote cross-cultural understanding.
Program Description:
Activities: Our two major objectives are to nurture artistic growth, and to affect systemic change for artists with disabilities. Programming focuses on Performing and Visual Arts. The Interact Theater company is comprised of 30 actors with disabilities, producing two original, fully staged productions per year. All material is developed collaboratively. The Performing Arts staff act as teachers and peers in areas such as improv, movement and songwriting. Actors are paid for rehearsal and production time. The Visual Arts staff offer instruction and advocacy to 47 visual artists, who work independently in their chosen medium. The studio offers painting, drawing, sculpture, clay, fiber, and weekly seminars, visits to museums, galleries or other studios. Artists have opportunities to exhibit work in curated shows in Interact's public gallery, the Inside Out Gallery, and receive 50% of proceeds when work is sold. Alternative venues for exhibition are sought, and artists are alerted to outside calls for entries to show or sell work. Of the nearly 100 artists at Interact, approximately 60% are developmentally disabled, 40% physical disabled, and roughly 70% suffer from chronic mental illness.
The Interact model is based on the approach that disabled artists create theater and art with professional, practicing artists, not social service workers, and have opportunities to collaborate on projects of high artistic merit with noted artists and arts organizations. Artists earn a competitive wage comparable to their non-disabled peers in the arts community. Interact supplies studio and performance space, all art materials, and promotion. Interact also pays to transport artists to and from the center. These costs are paid through government and foundation funds. Without these services, these artists would not have access to participation in the arts, and would be at home, or employed doing menial labor for sub-minimum wages.
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