Free Statewide Meet-Up for Performing Artists with Disabilities

Posted on April 04, 2011

A Statewide Meet-Up for Vermont Performing Artists with Disabilities

Presented by VSA Vermont, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts and Burlington City Arts

Saturday, May 14, 2011
10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Hoehl Studio at the Flynn Center

Free to performing artists with disabilities
Attendance includes ½ price discount tix for participants to Flynn Center performances May 13 and May 15 of "Caterpillar Soup" by Lyena Strelkoff and "Inside/Out: Voices of the Disability Community" by Ping Chong & Company.

Come together to share work in a safe and supportive environment and learn from each other about how to deepen your art practice and further your artistic career on Saturday, May 14. In this full day session, artists will be asked to share examples of their art in the morning, and in the afternoon will discuss barriers they experience in having their work in the world.

This retreat will be co-facilitated by Judith Chalmer, Executive Director of VSA Vermont, Inc. and John Killacky, Executive Director of Flynn Center for the Performing Arts. A poet who has dyslexia, Judith most recently performed her poetry at the Flynn's LGBT Stonewall Celebration in September 2010. She also is a recipient of the Great Performances Award from the former Onion River Arts Council for her 1999 oral-history based dance/narrative, Cruzando Fronteras/Preselenje/Clearing Customs. John was the co-editor of the Lambda-Award winning anthology, Queer Crips: Disabled Gay Men and Their Stories and his disability-related films have been screened at numerous disability films festivals.

This meet-up is being held in conjunction with two Flynn events, held that same weekend.

On Friday, May 13, Lyena Strelkoff will perform, Caterpillar Soup, depicting her odyssey after being paralyzed in a fall from a tree. Then on Sunday, May 15, Ping Chong's interview-based Inside/Out...Voices from the Disability Community explores first-hand experiences from the disability community. This work was commissioned by VSA at The Kennedy Center.

Vermont artists with disabilities who attend the Meet-Up on Saturday May 14 will be given a 50% discount on tickets to Lyena Strelkoff's and Ping Chong's performances. Ticket prices are $18 for each performance, so participants will pay only $9 per show. To RSVP for the Meet-Up, please contact Judy at judy@vsavt.org.

Also that weekend: on Saturday May 14 at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Church, 130 Main Street in Montpelier, pianist Michael Arnowitt will be Master of Ceremonies and Convener of: Here We Are: A Variety Show Featuring People with Disabilities. Michael Arnowitt is a classical and jazz pianist who performs locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. He is the subject of the film, Beyond 88 Keys, which includes performance segments, audience responses and interviews covering Arnowitt's musical philosophies and his physical and emotional engagement with music including reflections on his progressive blindness. For more information write: ma@mapiano.com