People with disabilities express creativity
Access Arts teaches a wide variety of classes, from basket weaving to Photoshop.
Feb. 8, 2008
Ten-year-old Access Arts student Elliot McGlew shapes a pot, one of the many pieces he made on Saturday at the studio. Ceramics is his favorite part of any day at the studio.
Fourteen-year-old Kit Webster smoothes a bone-dry plate ready to be fired in the kiln under the instruction of volunteer Mary Potzmann on Saturday. Volunteers make up most of the teaching staff at Access Arts.
Ceramic works made by young students at Access Arts hang on a wall in one of their studios. The campus includes three buildings that house departments for ceramics, digital photography and other arts.
Access Arts Executive Director Chris Sharp examines a sample of ceramic glaze combinations on Saturday in the studio. Ceramics is the studio’s most popular program, which teaches techniques ranging from throwing to sculpting.
Access Arts Executive Director Chris Sharp glances at the studio’s variety of looms that accommodate a large range of projects and students. Area schools donated most of the studio’s looms.
(Click graphic to enlarge)
Though he has to stand on his tiptoes to wash his hands in the sink, 10-year-old student Elliot McGlew is a pottery master.
“We have fun here a lot,” McGlew said, wringing a pile of clay in his hands.
He has been a student at Access Arts for six years, and like many of his classmates, the young artist is a beneficiary of one man’s dream.
What began as an art class for 28 natives in the basement of a house has now expanded into an impressive campus. Columbia architect Hurst John originally founded Access Arts in 1971 as a charitable educational organization after watching his son, who suffered from cerebral palsy, create numerous works of art. His son’s determination and ability inspired him, and he wanted other people with disabilities express their creativity.
The school gives children and adults a chance to learn and grow as artists. Following the dream of their founder, the Americans With Disabilities Act approves all of the Access Arts buildings. They offer classes for children and adults with special needs, and some of the equipment is specially designed to accommodate wheelchairs.
The organization has grown over the years. What started as a small community group now makes a statewide impact. Access Arts offers 250 classes and workshops, has an enrollment of more than 2,000 students and 100 volunteers and gives more than 300 scholarships annually. There are classes for toddlers and their parents who are interested in spending some time together on the weekend, as well as more advanced classes for older teens and grown adults.
The organization is involved with numerous schools and groups in Columbia, but Access Arts’ impact is also felt across the Midwest.
“Our art show’s focus is on the entire region - really almost every school in a 40-mile radius,” Access Arts Executive Director Chris Sharp said. “It’s a community-type presentation to increase the participation level.”
Access Arts sells students’ and instructors’ work at these events, and the profits go toward equipment and scholarships for the school. The list of items for sale includes blankets, pottery, rugs, bowls, mugs and jewelry. Although the income isn’t huge, it helps the school enhance its learning environment.
Sharp has led the staff since 2005. Their goal is to push the foundation to new limits.
“We’ve been a word-of-mouth program almost completely for our first 20 years or so of existence,” Sharp said. “So another goal that we’ve had lately is to increase marketing.”
That approach has seen results in the form of a long list of classes, including pottery, drawing, sculpting and weaving on a campus that includes three buildings. Since 2005, Sharp and staff have upgraded the facilities. These upgrades include new pottery kilns, a completely remodeled dark room for a photography class and a new computer lab.
Access Arts’ plans for the new computer lab include software that allows the school to offer new classes on digital photography and Photoshop. Sharp said the new programs would teach students valuable skills other art forms don’t always teach.
“I’ve tried to integrate a little more technology into our program here,” Sharp said.
The new computer lab is a perfect example of the studio’s combination of art and technology to help extend liberties to students. In 2005, Access Arts offered one photography class, which Sharp admits, “was about half full.” Now, the four classes of digital photography that the school offers are full, and with the added technology, the regular black-and-white photo classes are filling up.
“The Columbia Computer Center actually donated all the computers and monitors,” Sharp said. “The computer lab will hopefully be a catalyst to a whole new dimension for our school. There’s a strong correlation and connection to even a job opportunity in the future with some of these computer programs.”
Because 60 percent of the funds gained by Access Arts are obtained through grants, that kind of generosity is not only one of the founding principles of the school, but also a crucial part of what makes the program continue to function.
Volunteer Mary Potzmann is an example of two of the studio’s staples: commitment and caring. Her favorite part of volunteering is when students spend extra time working on their projects for an approaching art show.
“Everybody pulls together like a big family, and you can try new techniques and ideas that you learn from other people around you,” she said. “The students really care about their work, and you know that your work here is for a good cause. The pots and art represent a voice for yourself.”
McGlew said he liked the time between class sessions after a lower-level class ends and before students move into a higher-level course.
“We have parties together,” McGlew said. “There are games and sometimes hot chocolate, but only in winter.”
Norleen Nosri, an art student from Malaysia, has visited the school for more than four years now. After she met former program director Naoma Powell on what Nosri calls “the biggest day of my life,” she joined the school first as a volunteer and then as a teacher.
Nosri has directly benefited from her involvement at the school through contests and even her own show last summer. “She’s really gotten the kids captivated and inspired,” Sharp said. “A lot of the kids have been with her for years, and they keep coming back.”
Nosri has seen firsthand the school’s changes over the years.
“It’s much more of a school, and many more new people who have heard about us are coming in,” Nosri said. “We’re a lot more active of a school because we’re getting out to places like festivals where we can promote the work we are doing.”
In the recent 48th Annual Boone County Art Show, five Access Arts students won awards.
“We basically owned the ceramics division,” Sharp said with a smile.
The facts support this claim, with members of the school winning first, third and honorable mention in the category. But the students don’t feel any pressure to succeed.
“As long as I’ve been here, I’ve never once felt like the studio was a competitive place,” Potzmann said. “It’s not like a school where you’re obligated to go there and earn grades. It’s a complete studio and you feel like it’s a privilege to go there.”
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