Now that this has been formally announced, we can share some great news!  Our new ARTbrain project combines a few ideas that Liz Etmanski, Susan Powell and I have been talking about for a while.  We were grateful to receive some funding from the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture to explore these ideas over the next eight months.  Our proposal read,

Access to fine arts and humanities education has been almost impossible for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and this project will involve them in thinking critically about how art works, making art, works from art history and contemporary local artists, with the goal of becoming visually literate, critical thinkers more likely to be self-determining and engage in community leadership.

You can find out more about the British Columbia provincial government Community Resilience project here and about other projects that were funded, here.

We will be working with a small group of people with disabilities who will come together to learn about art, art history, leadership, critical thinking and how our brains work!  We are still in the process of deciding who will be in the group and how we will decide, and when the group will meet.  One of our main interests is in how arts accessibility works for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities and autism.   Interested?  Here’s a video about a painting you could check out while we get more organized – Caravaggio’s Narcissus.   

Check here for updates!

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.

And,

We continue to look for more funding and would be happy to chat if you’d like to be involved in that way 🙂

Email Aaron at imagineacircle@gmail.com