VSA Florida
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3500 East Fletcher Avenue |
Marian Winters |
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Tel.: (813) 558-5095 |
Website: |
Organizational Profile:
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Full-time Staff: 2 |
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The mission of VSA Florida is to create a society where people with disabilities have the opportunity to learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts. VSA Florida meets its mission through a statewide network of program partners that provide services to children, youth, and adults with disabilities, and programs including professional development opportunities, rotating exhibitions, performances, and artists’ residencies.
Programming Partners and Other Funders:
Florida Department of Education, Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services; Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs; Department of Juvenile Justice; National Endowment for the Arts; University of South Florida; State of Florida Department of Vocational Rehabilitation; Florida Inclusion Network; Florida Diagnostics Learning Resource Services; Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation, Easter Seals of Volusia County; Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens; The Miami-Dade School District, Miami–Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs; Arsht Center for the Performing Arts; Centers for Independent Living, ARC Centers; school boards of the 67 Florida counties; museums and performing arts centers including Tampa Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg; Florida Craftsmen, St. Petersburg; Fine Arts Center, St. Petersburg; Dunedin Fine Arts Center; Miami Museum of Art; Vizcaya Museum, Miami; Wolfsonian Museum, Miami; Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland; Playground Theater, Miami; Great Explorations Children’s Museum; Glazer Children’s Museum, Tampa; Explorations 5 Children’s Museum, Lakeland; Historical Museum of Southern Florida; Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center; Broward Center for the Performing Arts; and Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater
Educational Programs and Artist Residencies
Statewide Program Partners
VSA Florida has implemented an innovative regional approach to provide inclusive arts experiences statewide. Based on Florida’s Department of Education regional breakdown for transition students, VSA Florida has placed five regional program coordinators out in the field. The coordinators are based in Bay County, Marion County, Hillsborough County, Osceola County and Collier County. The primary goal of the coordinators is to act as the liaison between the region and the state office to develop sustainable relations between school district ESE and Arts supervisors, district administrators, local/regional arts organizations, parents of children with disabilities and social service agencies. In addition, VSA Florida has five long term program partners located in Lake County, Duval County, Volusia County, Brevard County and Palm Beach County. The program partners are responsible for VSA programming in their area such as inclusive performances, art classes or festivals.
Exemplary Participant Program
The Exemplary Participant Program is a statewide initiative to nominate students with disabilities who have excelled in the arts and/or have developed leadership skills through the arts. The winning students and their teachers each receive a cash award. The award is presented to the winning student and teacher during the end of the year awards school board meeting in their district.
Artists in Residence
VSA Florida provides an artist in residence program in an inclusive classroom in every Florida County. In addition, another 30 residencies are provided in inclusive early childhood classrooms for youth at risk, and adults with disabilities. VSA Florida has over 200 teaching artists with and without disabilities on their registry. Teaching artists are required to complete curriculum mapping. Residencies run from eight to ten weeks and include an extensive evaluation of skills learned. Fifteen percent of the residencies are evaluated through the Observation Protocol developed by VSA. Data is shared on the local and national level to provide continuous feedback to improve the learning experiences for students.
VSA Florida also provides Hand ‘n Hand residencies. These residencies pair a teaching artist with a disability in a classroom for seven weeks, after which time the artist joins the class to produce a collaborative piece during the eighth and final week. The entire body of work from the residency is then exhibited at a local venue along with a piece from the teaching artist.
Parent Connection
VSA Florida works actively with parents of students with disabilities. Monthly teleconferences with parents are held to plan and develop new initiatives to reach parents about the impact of the arts on their children.
Calls for Art
VSA Florida disseminates over 50 different calls for art for local, regional, or national exhibitions to students and adults with disabilities.
Professional Development and Technical Assistance
Start with the Arts™ Workshops
Start with the Arts™ trainings are held regionally and on request. Sessions include hands-on activities that relate to the lessons in the Start with the Arts© book for each art form; adaptations for students with disabilities; links to benchmarks; and writing sample lesson plans. VSA Florida partners with the Early Childhood Coalitions, the Office of Pre-Kindergarten Education, and University of South Florida early childhood initiatives.
Inclusion Workshops
VSA Florida will provide at least 25 different inclusion training sessions specific to teaching artist and to art, music, movement, and drama specialists. The full- or half-day sessions include breakout workshops on disability awareness and behavioral issues led by arts specialists with expertise in adaptations and inclusion in the classroom. Ongoing professional development is offered to members of the VSA Florida Artists Registry on how to build and sustain a successful career in the arts.
Careers in the Arts Workshops
VSA Florida will provide 10 separate workshops on careers in the arts, which will raise awareness of the growing field of the creative industry and give participants insight into pursuing a career in the arts. The workshops are offered to school-based transition specialists and job counselors, and placement specialists at agencies that serve adults with disabilities. Each workshop includes a survey of different careers in the arts and a personal story from a successful artist with a disability. A middle school course of study on careers in the arts, developed in partnership with the Florida Department of Education and Florida Alliance for Arts Education, is available on the Web at www.exploringartscareers.net.
Artist Registry
VSA Florida has an online Artist Registry database for Florida artists with disabilities. Membership is free and entitles artists with disabilities to access resources, receive technical assistance, and learn about exhibition opportunities. Artwork created by registry members is shown on the Web site. Registry members meet via teleconference once a month to network, find ways to work together on similar activities and for training. Webinars are developed based on the needs elaborated in the teleconferences. The artists will self produce their own VSA Artist e-newsletter. Registry members represent VSA Florida at numerous community outreach events.
Cultural Access and Inclusive Arts Services
Cultural Access
The VSA Florida cultural access coordinator works one on one with arts organizations statewide to assist them in developing access initiatives. The coordinator provides ten workshops for staff and volunteers of arts venues on disability awareness and how to increase participation of individuals with disabilities in programs, audiences, and as volunteers. Webinars are presented on the State Cultural Access Survey. Developed in partnership with VSA Florida, the state’s Division of Cultural Affairs requires that all organizations that receive state arts dollars must complete the survey yearly. An aggregate evaluation of the surveys provides information to VSA Florida on the kinds of access trainings that the field needs. Another partnership opportunity with the Division of Cultural Affairs is the Access Initiatives Award Program which provides support to continue or implement new access initiatives.
Public Awareness and Outreach
Exhibitions
VSA Florida tours Feel the Art, an exhibition that reproduces well-known pieces of art in tactile, touch-friendly form for audiences with visual impairments, and Art on the Move, which showcases best practices in accessible exhibitions. Yearlong exhibitions are held at the State Department of Education and the University of South Florida, College of Education. VSA Florida operates two sites for its Open Door Gallery. The primary gallery site is at the West Tampa Center for the Arts and hosts six major exhibitions yearly of new works created by adult artists from the registry. The second gallery is located at the state office and rotates quarterly exhibitions of children’s art submitted from our residency programs and calls for art.
Statewide Communications
VSA Florida distributes their annual report in print and alternative formats. The report is accessible through the organization Web site. VSA Florida also distributes Arts Access, a quarterly e-newsletter that highlights local VSA Florida events.
Web Site
VVSA Florida’s Web site (www.vsafl.org) is regularly updated to provide information on all program aspects. It is accessible to people with a wide range of abilities.
Young Soloist
Now in its fourth year VSA Florida conducts the The Florida Young Soloist Program. A statewide call for musicians and vocalists with disabilities age 25 and under is sent each Spring. Three prominent music professionals adjudicate the applications and select the top two as Florida’s nominations to the VSA International Young Soloist Program. The Florida finalists appear in the Fall and Spring along with the Florida Orchestra at their community performances.
(F) 202-429-0868