Millersville University Receives Grant for Disability Arts Program, “Tear Down This Wall”

Millersville recently received a competitive grant for $23,500 from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters/MetLife Foundation All-In: Re-imagining Community Participation Grant Program.

Barry Kornhauser, the program manager, said, “I am thrilled that the University is being recognized by Arts Presenters and MetLife to enhance and grow the work we are doing in the disability arts. All such work reminds us that there are many different ways of being alive on this earth and that this can be celebrated in the arts.”

The program “Tear Down This Wall,” created by Kornhauser, is a multifaceted disability arts program intended to build on Millersville University’s growing involvement in the local and regional disability community.  It will do so through the development of a broad-ranging performing arts series that removes barriers to participation.  While the grant will serve to help fund a pilot program within the 2013-14 artistic season, the initiative is intended not as a single-year project, but as a sustained commitment to inclusive performing arts in the University’s outreach to the Lancaster community. “Tear Down This Wall” is comprised of multiple components: a mixture of professional art, participatory arts opportunities and arts-education.

A Disability and the Arts Forum kicked off this initiative on February 18 with presentations by disability leaders from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian Institute, VSA Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, along with a brief performance by a noted disability artist.  In April, a performance of Dancing Wheels, an integrated dance company featuring wheelchair users who perform with able bodied dancers, as well as the Cashore Marionettes, whose work is exclusively non-verbal, making it readily accessible to deaf audiences, will be presented. Included in the 13-14 season will be visiting performers with disabilities and performances for audiences with disabilities.

Along with presenting accessible disability arts performances, Millersville will engage local people with disabilities in the creation and performance of theater and dance so that they can contribute more fully to the cultural life of the Lancaster community. Beginning in March, the University will host the local Cobalt Dance Company at the Winter Center.  Cobalt is a new associate of the Mark Morris Dance Company’s Dance for PD program that offers dance classes for people with Parkinson’s disease.  Millersville will also host MU Theater, a mixed ability drama program for area teens.  Ensemble members include students who are deaf, visually-impaired, living with intellectual disabilities, those with autism and others with conditions that cause various impairments. These young people create and perform original theatrical works based on social justice issues that impact their lives and those of their peers.  In addition to the opportunities for community, Millersville students will be deeply involved in this project in a variety of meaningful ways, further strengthening the University’s engagement with the community. The Ware and Winter Centers will expand access services to include audio-description (including pre-show sensory tours) and ASL interpretation offered regularly at these Millersville’s performing arts venues, opening the doors to more disabled audiences.

Founded in 1957, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (Arts Presenters, or APAP) is the national service organization for the field of arts presenting. The organization is dedicated to developing and supporting a robust performing arts presenting field and the professionals who work in it. Arts Presenters has nearly 2,000 organizational members and brings nearly 4,000 performing arts professionals together from around the world at the annual APAP Conference NYC. Members range from the nation’s leading performing arts centers, to civic and university performance facilities, to the full spectrum of artist agencies, managers, national consulting practices that service the field and a growing roster of self-presenting artists.

MetLife Foundation was established in 1976 to carry on MetLife’s longstanding tradition of corporate contributions and community involvement. The Foundation is committed to building a secure future for individuals and communities worldwide. Through programs focusing on empowering older adults, preparing young people and building livable communities, MetLife Foundation increases access and opportunities for people of all ages. Since it was established, MetLife Foundation has made more than $500 million in grants and $75 million in program related investments. For more information visit www.metlife.org