National Accessibility Leadership Award

The National Accessibility Leadership Award is administered through a partnership  between the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies

The purpose of this competitive award is to recognize state and regional arts agencies that conduct exceptional and highly effective initiatives or programs for making the arts fully accessible and inclusive.

The award includes a $ 30,000 NEA grant that must be used to further advance the agency’s access efforts. Review criteria stipulates that the program or initiative:

• May serve as a national model;
• Demonstrates long-term impact;
• Is of high artistic merit; and
• Involves the targeted populations in its planning and implementation.
  

National Accessibility Leadership Awardees

2007 Minnesota State Arts Board
2006 Maine Arts Commission
2005 Massachusetts Cultural Council
2004 New Jersey State Council on the Arts
2003 New York State Council on the Arts
2002 Ohio Arts Council
2001 Arizona Commission on the Arts
 

2007 National Accessibility Leadership Award
Minnesota State Arts Board

This award recognizes the Minnesota State Arts Board's exceptional leadership and highly effective work to make the arts fully inclusive throughout the state. Over the years, the Arts Board has built accessibility into every aspect of the agency's work, from its programming to its office space, its requirements for grantees, and its efforts to reach and serve artists with disabilities, including:

• In March 2002, the Minnesota State Arts Board joined with VSA arts of Minnesota to present the first-ever statewide forum on “The Art of Employment: Careers in the Arts for People with Disabilities." As a result, the Artists with Disabilities Alliance was formed in the Twin Cities, which brings artists with disabilities together to work on projects for advancing arts training and career opportunities.
• Based on Artists with Disabilities Alliance’s success, the Arts Board, in partnership with its regional arts councils, organized and created six regional artists' networks throughout Minnesota.
• In August 2007, the Minnesota State Arts Board co-hosted the "Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability" conference with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts that brought together 180 artists, arts administrators, educators, and access consultants to advance their skills in making the arts fully accessible. Access to Minnesota's art and programming was highlighted at this highly successful, national gathering.

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2006 National Accessibility Leadership Award
Maine Arts Commission

This award recognizes the Maine Arts Commission’s exceptional leadership and highly effective work to make the arts fully inclusive throughout the state by:

• Appointing a standing committee on arts accessibility-where over50% of the members are people with a disability-to provide guidance on the agency’s policies and activities;
• Convening a series of 16 open forums throughout the state in 2004-2005 to find solutions to accessibility challenges, with 11 additional forums in 2006-2007;
• Creating a series of Governor’s Awards which resulted from their organizational development program that assists Maine’s arts organizations in planning and complying with ADA standards;
• Ensuring that all of the commission’s public meetings are fully accessible;
• Implementing technology upgrades such as a fully compliant listserv, website and a permanent wireless T-coil ready assistive listening system for the agency’s historic building.

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2005 National Accessibility Leadership Award
Massachusetts Cultural Council

This award recognizes the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s exceptional leadership and highly effective work for inclusive arts programming as demonstrated by The Healing Arts:  New Pathways to Health and Community.

The Massachusetts Cultural Council, in partnership with the Vermont Arts Exchange and a consortium of local arts and healthcare providers, developed this remarkable initiative that employs the arts to improve the quality of life for adults of all ages living with chronic illness in rural and urban healthcare facilities throughout New England.  Through professional artists’ residencies and intergenerational arts programs, Healing Arts integrates dance, writing, music composition, filmmaking, ceramics, painting, photography, printmaking and technology into participants’ care, and provides training and wellness programs for healthcare staff.

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2004 National Accessibility Leadership Award
New Jersey State Council on the Arts

This award recognizes the New Jersey Council on the Arts’ (NJSCA) exceptional leadership and highly effective work for inclusive arts programming as demonstrated by the New Jersey Arts Access Task Force that was created by NJSCA in 1992 to assist more than 600 cultural organizations in making their programs, operations and facilities accessible to the 1.4 million individuals in the state with disabilities.  The task force is composed of a NJSCA board member and staff person, leading 504/ADA Coordinators of arts groups, directors of consumer groups and people with disabilities who are involved in the arts.

Working in partnership with NJSCA, the task force convenes ongoing regional accessibility workshops throughout the state; publishes a quarterly newsletter, Cultural Access News; created a statewide directory of nonprofit arts groups; and developed a self-assessment compliance tool for cultural organizations.

As a result, all organizational grantees of NJSCA have

• An accessibility plan that includes short- and long-term goals for improving accessibility in the areas of physical access, policy employment, marketing, effective communication, programs and services;
• A staff person designated to coordinate 504/ADA compliance;
• A grievance procedure; and
• An Accessibility Advisory Committee

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2003 National Accessibility Leadership Award
New York State Council on the Arts

This recognizes New York State Council on the Arts’ exceptional leadership, commitment and sensitivity to inclusive arts programming as demonstrated by Beyond Access to Opportunity, a statewide education, information and technical resource program created to encourage and assist grantees in making facilities and programs more innovative and usable by people of all ages and individuals with disabilities.  This comprehensive and highly effective effort includes:

• Regional accessibility workshops
• Web-based accessibility resources
• A bimonthly electronic accessibility newsletter
• The Beyond Access to Opportunity guide
• A statewide network of accessibility experts who provide on-site consultations to grantees
  

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2002 National Accessibility Leadership Award
Ohio Arts Council

The honor recognizes the Ohio Arts Council’s exceptional leadership, commitment and sensitivity to inclusive arts programming that makes the arts fully accessible to individuals with disabilities and to the entire arts community of Ohio.  The Ohio Arts Council:

• Has continued to recognize disability as a diversity and civil rights issue
• Pioneered the inclusion of persons with disabilities on all review panels
• Organized, supports and sustains an ongoing, statewide network of artists with disabilities
• Makes access issues the responsibility of all staff
• Educates staff and grantees, through ongoing, direct technical assistance and funding for change
• Has continued to serve as a model, influencing state and regional arts agencies to advance access to the arts
  

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2001 National Accessibility Leadership Award
Arizona Commission on the Arts

The Arizona Commission on the Arts received the 2001 award for its work to help establish, as a founding member, ARTability - Accessing Arizona's Arts, a consortium developed to serve as a bridge between arts organizations and individuals with disabilities -- by promoting and assisting fully accessible arts programming, and facilitating connections to services and resources.

The Arizona Commission worked to convene arts and disability service organizations in the Phoenix and Tucson areas to assess the opportunity for, and design the initial staffing and programs for ARTability; provided staff to serve on ARTability's founding board; provided leadership funding to ARTability; and worked with the arts community to encourage support for, and partnership with, ARTability.

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National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506