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Presenter(s)
Eileen Kempf
Carolee Kamlager
UCP of Cincinnati/ Visionaries & Voices
3601 Victory Parkway
Cincinnati, Ohio 45229
Phone: 513-221-4606
Fax: 513 872-5262
Email: ekempf@ucp-cincinnati.org
Visionaries and Voices' vision is to cast a spotlight on self-taught artists, especially those with disabilities. Visionaries and Voices also has an eye cast toward finding out how art can improve the lives of people normally not mentioned in conversations about "arts" and "culture", including people with disabilities, people from lower income backgrounds, and people who have not had the privilege of a traditional education. Visionaries and Voices expands, educates and improves the cultural community at large.
A definition may be in order regarding outsider or visionary art. "Outsider art" refers to art by those who are self-taught, outside the established art world, unencumbered by profit, artistic standards and others' visions of what constitutes art. The absence of these artists in the larger community, particularly those with severe disabilities, stems from our inability to move past barriers of communication and self-expression. Providing a space to create art gives individuals freedom and movement of the spirit. Using the creative arts to give a voice to those whom have been voiceless, literally as well as figuratively, is key to this project.
Visionaries and Voices is a collaborative project in the disability and arts community, developed from two independent art projects, Experience Art! a self-contained art program at UCP of Greater Cincinnati and Art Thing Project, a grass-roots efforts directed by artists with disabilities and staff from county boards of mental retardation and developmental disabilities, who themselves are artists.
The collaboration began with a shared art show. Visionaries and Voices is currently in the process of incorporating and acquiring its own 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. UCP will remain actively involved through fund-raising efforts, provision of art classes and assistance in securing adaptive/accessible equipment. Another UCP venture twinning with Visionaries and Voices is World Images Unlimited, a microenterprise run by persons with disabilities.
In July 2003, Visionaries and Voices after several months of successful fundraising, opened its 1,200 sq.ft. studio doors. It is part of a larger community artist space of approximately 80 other artists. The Visionaries and Voices studio is run as a cooperative endeavor. Artists can contribute at their own level of monetary and time commitment. The building and the studio are accessible to all. Tables comfortably accommodate persons in wheelchairs and other equipment helps persons with restricted arm and hand movement. Accessible Macintosh computers will allow for computer generated art. The studio/gallery is also a central space for self-taught artists to sell their works, as well as produce resumes, portfolios, and slides to send out to other galleries across the nation.
Future goals of Visionaries and Voices are to offer the opportunities art can give to people normally shut out of "arts education programs" in sheltered workshops, psychiatric centers, developmental centers and special education classes, for example, in order to find other artists and other forms of expression we have never seen before. We plan on developing a web-site featuring upcoming exhibits and self-taught artists' new works.
Visionaries and Voices: How we see the world
Instructional Method:
Visionaries and Voices will take the audience on a guided tour, through power point presentations. Actual art work will also be shared. There will be ample time for discussion and questions.
Session Description:
Through power point and video you see the incredible art and hear how Visionaries and Voices, a grass roots organization, has successfully navigated the waters of funding, collaboration, studio set-up, marketing and putting on a great arts party for all to experience the world of artists with disabilities. This is about how outsider artists can stretch the art world's boundaries.
Presenters' Biographies:
Carolee Kamlager LISW is Director of Adult Services at UCP of Greater Cincinnati. Carolee is one of the founders of Visionaries and Voices.
Eileen Kempf MEd OTA is the Instructional Manager at UCP of Greater Cincinnati and was involved in the intial set up of the art studio.
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