Careers in the Arts for People with Disabilities

One-Day Conference
Monday, March 12, 2007
8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Over the past decade, VSA arts has worked to address the specific needs of artists with disabilities and improve employment opportunities in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Arts and Disability Center at UCLA, and the Social Security Administration.

The Statewide Forums on Careers in the Arts for People with Disabilities program is a model collaboration of 20 state arts agencies and VSA arts affiliates from the United States and Puerto Rico. These sites conducted successful forums that involved more than 2000 artists with disabilities, arts employers, educators, and service agency representatives.

The findings are clear—artists with disabilities face a myriad of challenges when pursuing a career path. This one-day conference offered a chance to generate ongoing conversations about how to build alliances and sustainable methods for support.