This is a great article in theWisconsin State Journalwritten by Jill Carlson about VSA Wisconsin (the State Organization on Arts and Disability). She explains what VSA does and how it got started in Wisconsin. This sounds like a great organization for people with disabilities.

Defining individuals by ability, not disability

By Jill Carlson

VSA Wisconsin conducts arts programming for people with disabilities in more than 20 locations throughout Wisconsin. Field offices are strategically located in Madison and Milwaukee to benefit the nearly 1,900 people who use the services.

Thirty years ago, students with disabilities were educated in self-contained classrooms and many individuals with disabilities were institutionalized.

We have learned so much since then and educating students with disabilities is now a much broader field, especially since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, said Kathie Wagner, VSA Wisconsin president.

VSA Wisconsin embraced the integration of people with disabilities into classrooms alongside typically developing peers. The majority of VSA programing is done at early learning centers, schools and organizations that provide day services to people with disabilities.

VSA Wisconsin is a member of the VSA Affiliate Network, a program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The organization was founded by Jean Kennedy Smith in 1974 and was originally called the National Committee, Arts for the Handicapped (NCAH). Renamed Very Special Arts in 1985, VSA in 1998 and VSA arts in 1999, the international organization is dedicated to enriching the lives of children and adults with disabilities by providing opportunities in the arts.

Many volunteers from across Wisconsin helped launch the state organization. Individuals from the Madison area that were part of that effort include Mary Ann Shaw, Bob Brennan, Herbert Grover, Mike George, Sue Ann Thompson and Mike Leckrone. Kay Lindblade was hired as the first executive director and led the organization for 15 years.

The participants served by VSA Wisconsin range in age from 3 years old to the senior population.

Participants cross all disability categories including physical cerebral palsy, spinal bifida, muscular dystrophy, visual, speech or hearing impairment, epilepsy, mental emotional and behavioral and cognitive disabilities such as autism, ADHD, Down syndrome, Fragile X, brain injury and other developmental disabilities.

The first Very Special Arts Festival in Wisconsin took place at the Milwaukee Art Center in l977 prior to incorporation.

This festival was one of only 27 pilot sites selected for festivals in 1977 by the National Committee, Arts for the Handicapped. Between l977 and l984 festivals were held in cities including Racine, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Wausau and Sheboygan.

VSA Wisconsin opened an art gallery in Madison in 2011 that enables artists with disabilities to sell their artwork and get public recognition.

VSA Wisconsin also operates a booth at Madisons annual Art Fair on the Square each summer. Artists receive 70 percent of the sales proceeds to encourage continued artmaking efforts.

Disability awareness training and professional development for artists, educators and cultural venues are other services provided by VSA Wisconsin.

The creative arts are a universal language and have the ability to level the playing field and change lives, socially, academically and vocationally, Wagner explained. People with disabilities want to have the same opportunities as everyone else, and they want to be recognized for what they can do, not what they cant do. We take individuals with disabilities who society has told are spectators and we help them transform themselves into performers and visual artists.

Dan Sullivan, a wood carver with a visual impairment, says it best, It continues to amaze me how much my artwork has taken off since associating with VSA Wisconsin. It is such a wonderful experience that as a result of being labeled an artist through your organization, I am now defined more than ever by ability rather than disability.

Source: http://host.madison.com/wsj/business/defining-individuals-by-ability-not-disability/article_5d6717d3-c068-5d9c-8a77-233b5a5eef5c.html