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“The Arts Access Award from Arts Presenters/MetLife has continued to raise the visibility of Victory Gardens Theater: its commitment to Access and its mission of inclusion both onstage and off. The grant was extremely helpful in producing Love Person by Aditi Brennan Kapil, a bilingual play in ASL and English, on our Mainstage this spring, as well as adding to the support of our Access services, available for each production in the season.” – Sandy Shinner, Co-Director of the Access Project and Associate Artistic Director, Victory Gardens. Theater Victory Gardens Theater received the 2008 Award for Excellence and Innovation in Arts Access

2010 Arts Presenters/MetLife Arts Access Awards

Arts Presenters is now accepting applications for the 2010 Arts Presenters/MetLife Arts Access Awards, honoring organizations that have either been exemplary in its dedication and approach to engaging individuals with disabilities to experience and value the performing arts or engaging underserved individuals and communities that lack access to the performing arts and cultural life in the community. These awards aim to identify those performing arts venues that have demonstrated a depth and breadth of inclusion in the arts that permeates every fiber of the organization - from planning and evaluation to mission, leadership, budgeting, outreach and programming.

Through this program, our goal is to increase knowledge and encourage participation by providing connections to the works of exemplary awardees and highlight leaders in the field of presenting who consistently demonstrate dynamic accessibility initiatives.

Arts Presenters/MetLife Arts Access Award: Engaging Individuals with Disabilities

How to Apply

  1. Review the project guidelines and application. Click here to read the guidelines.
  2. Complete the electronic application. Click here to access the application.
  3. Submit the online application by 5:00 pm (Eastern Standard Time) on Tuesday, September 29, 2009.

Arts Presenters/MetLife Arts Access Award: Engaging Underserved Communities

How to Apply

  1. Review the project guidelines and application. Click here to read the guidelines.
  2. Complete the electronic application. Click here to access the application
  3. Submit the online application by 5:00 pm (Eastern Standard Time) on Tuesday, September 29, 2009.

Need assistance with these grant applications? Contact Alison McNeil, toll free at 1-888.820.ARTS or amcneil@artspresenters.org.

Expanding Access to the Arts

Since 2005, Arts Presenters has recognized eleven performing arts organizations that have demonstrated innovation, leadership and a commitment to accessibility in the arts. Both current and past recipients reflect programs or practices that have created an on-going dialogue to engage community members in planning for and providing access to the arts, and have used new technologies and responded to the shifting demographic changes in their communities to expand accessibility to the arts. It is our hope that the Expanding Access to the Arts project will encourage all presenters to:

  • highlight the importance of an organization-wide commitment to accessibility;
  • describe effective practices in community engagement, implementation and evaluation; and
  • share advice from their own experts.

Arts Presenters invites everyone in the presenting field to explore and learn from the resources below and encourages every presenter to get involved in the movement to make the arts accessible to all.

Organizational Profiles

American Musical Theatre of San JoseSan Jose, CA
Arvada Center for the Arts and HumanitiesArvada, Colorado
Citi Performing Arts CenterBoston, MA
Flynn Center for the Performing ArtsBurlington, VT
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing ArtsWashington, DC
The Kentucky CenterLouisville, KY
Mixed Blood Theatre CompanyMinneapolis, MN
Museum of Contemporary ArtChicago, IL
Paper Mill PlayhouseMillburn, NJ
Victory Gardens TheatreChicago, IL
Wheelock Family TheatreBoston, MA

Background

Accessibility is often thought of in conjunction with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed into law by George W. Bush in 1990, to ensure an equal opportunity for persons with disabilities. According to a 2006 report from the U.S. Census Bureau, 6.5 percent of the non-institutionalized civilian population ages 5-20 have a disability; 13 percent of those between the ages of 21-64 have a disability; and 41 percent of people age 65 and over have a disability.

However, after more than 18 years, accessibility is no longer a new concept. It should not be a surprise that people with disabilities want to attend performances, appear on stage, create dance and music, write plays or otherwise be engaged in the performing arts. Just as art evolves over time and in response to our world, so does accessibility. According to Betty Siegel, Director of Accessibility at the Kennedy Center,

    Accessibility efforts are never finished. New technologies introduce new opportunities for creating more accessible environments and programs. Changes in community and changes in perspectives within the disability community make it impossible to ever say that one is done. Accessibility isn't static.

In interviews conducted by the Roan Group, Inc., in 2006, as part of Arts Presenters' Strategic Review, representatives of the presenting and performing arts fields identified values that are important to growing future audiences for the performing arts. These include diversity and inclusiveness.1 Recent research by Brown and Novak (2008) identifies audience engagement as critical to making the arts accessible for all:

    One might even go so far as to suggest that the results indicate a shift in the traditional role of arts presenters from one of simply marketing and presenting to one of drawing audiences into the experience (i.e., an engagement approach) through a combination of education, outreach, marketing and interactions with artists.2

As 21st century presenters, we are committed to engaging all people, including those with disabilities, barriers, or other challenges, in the unique experience of live performance.

How to Demonstrate Accessibility in Your Community

The following resources provide an overview of best practices used by the MetLife/Arts Presenters grant recipients to create accessibility in the arts. We have highlighted effective strategies, identified the challenges encountered and overcome, and shared the accomplishments of each project.

Performing arts organizations that are committed to access and inclusion share the following effective practices:

1. Commitment and Strategic PlanningPerforming arts organizations have an organization-wide commitment to access and inclusion, and proactively, routinely and consistently engage people with disabilities and organizations that serve this segment of the community in planning.
2. Community Engagement Performing arts organizations proactively, routinely and consistently engage the community in planning, programming and advocacy for access beyond the walls of the facility.
3. Programming and ServicesPerforming arts organizations engage staff, artists and audience members with disabilities by routinely providing professional development and a wide range of physical and programmatic accessibility services.
4. EvaluationPerforming arts organizations continuously assess their physical and programmatic accessibility.

Additional Resources:

National Endowment for the Arts’ Office for AccessAbility
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and organizations like VSA arts and the National Arts and Disability Center feature downloadable publications that highlight issues of arts access and review strategies for planning successful and accessible arts programming.

Inside Arts article: Expanding Access to the Arts
When arts organizations extend a knowing hand to their community members and understand neighborhood history, accessibility become part of their success.

Arts Presenters would like to acknowledge Johanna Misey Boyer, JMB Arts Management, for her assistance with the development of this report.

1 The Roan Group, Inc., "Executive Summary-Strategic Review: Final Engagement Report" (Washington, DC: Association of Performing Arts Presenters, April 2007), 3.

2 Alan S. Brown and Jennifer L. Novak, "Assessing the Intrinsic Impacts of a Live Performance" (Fairfax, VA, Cambridge, MA and San Francisco, CA: WolfBrown, January 2008) 21.

About MetLife Foundation
MetLife Foundation was established in 1976 by MetLife to support various educational, health and welfare and civic and cultural organizations across the country. Recognizing the arts' contribution to the health, vitality and development of our communities, the Foundation is committed to increasing access to the arts and promoting diversity and inclusion. For more information about MetLife Foundation, please visit www.metlife.org.

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