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Press from The Education Foundation of Sarasota County:

I was selected to be a 2011-2012 Mentor to a local high school visual arts student, Miss Aradia Kleber. Miss Kleber is a recipient of the OC Award through the Education Foundation of Sarasota County. Four outstanding high school students are selected every year and four mentors are selected to shepherd them through their senior year of high school. Aradia is an incredibly talented young woman who excels in visual art.

Update: Spring 2012 -- Yea! Aradia has been accepted to Ringling College of Art and Design - she starts in the Fall!

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Press from VSA in Washington, DC (national press release):


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      Teaching Artists with Disabilities Selected for VSA Fellowship Program 

 (WASHINGTON, D.C.) August 31, 2010 ― VSA, the international organization on arts and disability, announces its 2010–2011 Teaching Artist Fellows: Brenda Smoak of Bradenton, FL; Carolyn Clark of Staten Island, NY; Donna Folan of Boston, MA; Anne Krocak of Prior Lake, MN; and Zazel-Chavah O'Garra of St. Albans, NY. The premier fellowship for teaching artists with disabilities in the nation, the award provides networking support for the artists and professional development opportunities, including a week-long intensive workshop in Washington, D.C., August 30–September 3.   “Through this fellowship program, now in its fourth year, VSA identifies and supports teaching artists with disabilities,” stated Soula Antoniou, president of VSA. “Artists with disabilities serve as role models to demonstrate the importance of diversity, expression, and inclusive learning in the classroom.”   These new awardees join a growing cadre of VSA Teaching Artist Fellows who are collectively expanding the voice of disability and advancing the nation’s educational goals. VSA selected the Teaching Artist Fellows for their artistic merit and prior artistic and educational experience.

  ·        Brenda Smoak, a self-taught mixed media artist, creates hand-built clay story tables and wall pieces that incorporate the mysticism of ancient symbols and talismans. Injured at birth, Smoak did not walk until she was seven years old. A second injury after the birth of her daughter led to her fifth hip surgery. Her personal goal, she says, “is to have people accept artists with disabilities as comfortably as they would accept anyone else." Smoak has worked as an Artist-in-Residence in at-risk facilities, community centers, and public and private schools. She is a certified Teaching Artist with VSA Florida, the Arts Center Sarasota, and the state of Maryland.

·        Carolyn Clark is a musician and teaching artist who asserts that “music education is one of the greatest gifts a person of any age or ability can receive.” After studying at the University of Houston, Clark moved to New York and became a professional French hornist, touring the U.S. and Canada with Broadway shows, opera companies, and symphony orchestras. She also received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music. When she became a wheelchair user due to severe psoriatic arthritis, Clark became more involved in local arts activities, writing for Grades K-8 music textbooks and founding two music groups in Staten Island. 

  ·        Donna Folan, an actor and director, uses her own experience as an artist with a mobility disability to encourage students to explore self-expression through the performing arts. “Regardless of ability, challenges, or obstacles, no one factor can solely decide for them who they are,” Folan remarks. She works to create inclusive learning environments in which all people can learn from each other. Folan studied Performance Technique and Production Management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. 

  ·        Anne Krocak currently works as a community artist in Minneapolis and the surrounding metro area. She has created public artworks with individuals of all ages and abilities that are displayed throughout Minnesota, and her pieces include clay, glass, mosaics, concrete, paint, and sculpture. As a teaching artist, she offers classes and art residencies to people with and without disabilities, and she has worked with VSA Minnesota for over five years in public art residencies. Krocak has a BFA in Fine Arts and a Masters Degree in Art Education, Special Education. After 23 years of living with multiple sclerosis, Krocak says she believes in bringing out the artist inside of all of her students and focusing on the positives instead of any perceived limitations.

·        Zazel-Chavah O’Garra is a dancer, actress, model, and teaching artist. A graduate of the High School of Performing Arts (New York), O’Garra attended the SUNY Empire State College and the University of Michigan where she received a Bachelor of Arts. A Presidential Arts Scholar, she performed with Mark Dendy Dance Company and Alvin Ailey II and in numerous stage productions in both the U.S. and Europe.In 2002, O’Garra was diagnosed with meningioma, a benign brain tumor which left her partially paralyzed. Since then, she has emerged as a teaching artist of dance and drama to children and adults who have mental and/or physical disabilities. Of her students, O’Garra comments that “by treating them as artists they have the ability to achieve anything.” In addition, for the past two years, O’Garra has been performing Inside/Out…voices from the disability community, a performance piece commissioned by VSA.   VSA’s Teaching Artist Fellowship program is supported in part by the U.S. Department of Education.

 For more information about the Teaching Artist Fellowship program, please visit www.vsarts.org or call (202) 628-2800.   About VSA VSA, the international organization on arts and disability, was founded more than 35 years ago by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith to provide arts and education opportunities for people with disabilities and increase access to the arts for all. With 52 international affiliates and a network of nationwide affiliates, VSA is changing perceptions about people with disabilities around the world. Each year, 7 million people of all ages and abilities participate in VSA programs, which cover all artistic genres. VSA is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. For more information, visit www.vsarts.org.   ###

  CONTACT: Laura Broom / VSA (202) 628-2800, ext. 3883 ljbroom@vsarts.org

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