2013 and 2012 FAAE Compendium of Best Practices for Arts Integration:
EcoScapes, my waterfall project, was selected for the Florida Alliance for Arts Education Compendium for Best Practices for Whole School Change! Happy and Humbled. Here is the link:
http://www.faae.org/2013-florida-compendium-of-best-practices-in-arts-integration#mural
Press from The Governor's Commission on Volunteerism:
Update 2013: I am honored to create trophies for these worthy non-profit organizations for the past 3 years.
http://www.volunteerflorida.org/disability/bcie.html
October 25, 2011: Here is a link to this year's awards ceremony for The Governor's Commission on Volunteerism. The Commission asked me to make eight awards for them this year for their BCIE winners. The Commission also had me host an art show for artists living with disabilities during their meeting in Orlando.
http://www.volunteerflorida.org
Trophies
Press from The Education Foundation of Sarasota County:
Update: Spring 2014 - Aradia is truly an amazing artist! Bright future ahead for her!
Update: Fall 2013 -- Aradia is going strong with her 2nd year at Ringling!
Update: Spring 2012 -- Yea! Aradia has been accepted to Ringling College of Art and Design - she starts in the Fall!
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.
Aradia May 2012
Press from VSA, the Kennedy Center, 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
This was a wonderful show that I hosted at Alchemy in 2011 -- lots of very cool artists out there just waiting to be discovered!
Press Release - Art Opening at Alchemy
Art Show for Artists Living with Disabilities
October is National Disability Employment Month and in honor of that, Alchemy, located in the Village of the Arts in Bradenton, FL, is hosting an art show for artists living with disabilities. The grand opening coincides with the Village’s monthly ArtWalk on Friday, October 1, 2010. Several artists will be at Alchemy to discuss and sign their work.
Proprietress Brenda Smoak recently received national recognition as a VSA** Teaching Artist Fellow. After spending a week at the VSA headquarters in Washington, DC immersing herself in “all things disabled”, Smoak returned to Florida with a personal commitment to help artists living with disabilities. Conceiving of the idea for this art show was “a touch of synchronicity” Smoak says “because October is National Disability Employment Month and the timing was perfect to test the waters and see who wanted to sell their work.”
Originally planning to help out a few local artists she knows, Smoak put out a call for visual art on social media sites and was stunned by an overwhelming response. Artwork is arriving daily from artists throughout Florida, as well as the East and West coasts. “Come see this artwork, it is truly amazing – there is a 5 foot tall giraffe made from coat hangers, a four foot mermaid that will knock your socks off, paintings, pastels, clay masks and sconces, jewelry and so much more. Alchemy is bursting with beautiful art”, Smoak says. “Disability is a matter of perception - these are some of the most able-d and talented artists I have met in a long time.”
The opening is October 1st, 6pm – 9pm, at Alchemy, 1215 12th Street W., Bradenton, FL 34205. The show runs for the month of October on Saturdays from 11 am till 4 pm and by appointment. For further information, contact Brenda Smoak at 941-201-7282.
# # #
**VSA is the International Organization on Arts and Disability and is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. VSA was started by Jean Kennedy Smith in 1974 to create a community where people with disabilities can learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts.
Press Release - Art Opening at Alchemy
Art Show for Artists Living with Disabilities
October is National Disability Employment Month and in honor of that, Alchemy, located in the Village of the Arts in Bradenton, FL, is hosting an art show for artists living with disabilities. The grand opening coincides with the Village’s monthly ArtWalk on Friday, October 1, 2010. Several artists will be at Alchemy to discuss and sign their work.
Proprietress Brenda Smoak recently received national recognition as a VSA** Teaching Artist Fellow. After spending a week at the VSA headquarters in Washington, DC immersing herself in “all things disabled”, Smoak returned to Florida with a personal commitment to help artists living with disabilities. Conceiving of the idea for this art show was “a touch of synchronicity” Smoak says “because October is National Disability Employment Month and the timing was perfect to test the waters and see who wanted to sell their work.”
Originally planning to help out a few local artists she knows, Smoak put out a call for visual art on social media sites and was stunned by an overwhelming response. Artwork is arriving daily from artists throughout Florida, as well as the East and West coasts. “Come see this artwork, it is truly amazing – there is a 5 foot tall giraffe made from coat hangers, a four foot mermaid that will knock your socks off, paintings, pastels, clay masks and sconces, jewelry and so much more. Alchemy is bursting with beautiful art”, Smoak says. “Disability is a matter of perception - these are some of the most able-d and talented artists I have met in a long time.”
The opening is October 1st, 6pm – 9pm, at Alchemy, 1215 12th Street W., Bradenton, FL 34205. The show runs for the month of October on Saturdays from 11 am till 4 pm and by appointment. For further information, contact Brenda Smoak at 941-201-7282.
# # #
**VSA is the International Organization on Arts and Disability and is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. VSA was started by Jean Kennedy Smith in 1974 to create a community where people with disabilities can learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts.