ELYSE GRIECO
Life & Arts Editor
Aspire of western New York held their Arts for Inclusion Workshop at the Fredonia Technology Incubator last Friday morning.
Aspire is an organization that helps those with developmental disabilities learn how to live independently and recognize their full potential.
Their mission with this workshop was to show the impact of art in our community and how it creates a sense of belonging for the disabled.
iXpress is the art program that Aspire offers to the community.
It includes all forms of art from sculpting and painting to theater and videography.
The artists that iXpress works with are not always able to express how they feel.
Through the program, they are able to tell their stories and shared experiences through the artwork that they make.
One of the benefits this talk emphasized was the relationship that is built between the artists that Aspire serves and their artistic instructors.
Many of the artists in the program lack the skills to create the art they want to on their own.
Due to this, they are often linked with a mentor to help make their pieces.
Alex Glenfield, an Aspire art instructor, believes that this bond is crucial.
“There is a relationship between the artist and instructor that becomes a friendship,” he said.
This is just one of the aspects the program has that helps the disabled feel included in society.
The workshop included a tour of the gallery featuring artwork made by iXpress artists.
It also featured a screening of a short film created using humor to help explain the differences between the worlds of people with handicaps and the rest of their community.
The second part of the workshop focused on the Spirit Gallery, a new innovative idea that iXpress has developed.
Heath Bartle, also an art instructor with iXpress, proposed the idea for this new gallery.
Through this, he hopes that people with and without disabilities can integrate together and no longer be two separate worlds.
“This gallery is designed to familiarize the community with the exceptional abilities of disabled artists while at the same time showcasing artists from the community without disabilities,” said Bartle in his proposal for the Spirit Gallery. “All work shown in the gallery will go through a judging process by the gallery director and staff of the gallery who will include artists to keep the standards of the gallery unbiased.”
It will also include a store to sell merchandise, conduct workshops and run an art rental program where restaurants and businesses can rent collections to put on display.
iXpress hopes that many artists involved will also become art instructors and help artists who need it.
The development of the Spirit Gallery is currently underway.
It will not be a place for those with disabilities but a place that is open to everyone, disabled or not.
For more information on the gallery and iXpress itself contact aspirewny.com/ixpress.