The Arts Experience, Geneva, NY

I've written before about The Arts Experience, a festival at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY. The festival is a joint effort between the Colleges and the Collaborative of the Finger Lakes. The festival kicked off yesterday, April 16th and is already off to what looks like a great start. The festival is a nice example of not only collaborative efforts but more importantly inclusionary practices where people with and without disabilities mix, mingle, learn, teach and experience together.

I have had the pleasure of being involved as a member of the steering committee that has lead the organizing effort. I must say that Mary Kelly from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Jean Jensen from The Arc of Steuben have done the major work of organizing, communicating and pulling people together and they really do deserve the credit for that. There have been many others, behind the scenes, working hard to make the event both enjoyable and valuable.

For those who aren't aware, The Collaborative of the Finger Lakes is an organization made up of 12 Chapters of NYSARC, Inc., a statewide organization that provides supports to people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities across New York State. The Collaborative represents those Chapters in the Finger Lakes region. They formed a regional organization a number of years ago to explore and identify ways that they, as separate organizations, could share and collaborate on various projects and in various operational areas. Over the years I served on the Collaborative Board as the executive director of one of the participating organizations. This group deserves a lot of credit for their initiative and their efforts toward collaboration. Their success has been limited, in my opinion, but they've certainly put forth the effort and hopefully will continue to explore all of the possibilities of collaboration. The Arts Experience is one of their successes and it is something that could easily be duplicated by other educational institutions and organizations across the country - and it should be.

To watch students, faculty and people with disabilities interact on a campus, helping each other get the most out of a particular event or workshop is something that is pretty significant. It's also very natural. If you're close by, find a time to visit and participate in one of the many events over the next few weeks. There is a link to an article here and a listing of events here. Take a look at these and you'll get a sense of the collaboration and inclusionary aspects of what's going on. And finally, if you can, visit The Arts Experience in person.