Millersville University is engaging new audiences in the performing arts, with a goal of increasing accessibility for all.

The university — which recently received a $23,500 grant through a partnership of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters and the MetLife Foundation — is developing projects that go beyond conventional audience-engagement strategies.

The university was one of six grantees selected from a highly competitive pool of more than 60 applicants that proposed cutting-edge plans to increase local community participation in the arts.

Funds from the grant will benefit the university's Tear Down This Wall initiative, a multifaceted disability arts program that includes a mixture of professional art, participatory arts opportunities and art education.

To that end, the university on Monday hosted a community forum — titled Disability and The Arts — designed to bring together artists, advocates and community organizers to envision how to effectively incorporate people with disabilities into public arts and humanities programs.

"With our new Visual and Performing Arts Center, we're thinking a lot and having conversations about integrating students with disabilities into a holistic educational experience, and so art has become part of that conversation," said Diane Zimmerman Umble, interim dean of Millersville's School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

"This is about finding out what are the potential collaborations the university can get involved with, and finding out what we can do to increase the quality of life of people with disabilities," Zimmerman Umble said.

Monday's forum featured regional and national experts in the field, including Betty Siegel, director of the Department of VSA and Accessibility at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; Beth Ziebarth, director of the Smithsonian Institution's Accessibility Program; Mimi Kennedy Smith, director of VSA Pennsylvania; and Amy Gabriele, deputy director for administration at the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

A highlight of the event was a musical performance by actress, comedian and singer Shannon DeVido and a presentation by Dramability Works, a unique theater program for teens and young adults with cognitive disabilities.

Under the direction of Michelle Fogel, Dramability presented short poems written by each member of the group on what it means to be a person with a disability.

One concept that seemed to resonate during the discussion was accessibility.

"This is not about aesthetics. It's about respecting human rights and making things accessible to all people. It's about bringing together artists and audiences from a diverse community, including people with disabilities," Siegel said.

A core concept in accessibility, Siegel explained, is that "what was not available yesterday will be available tomorrow."

"We need to see this as a human-rights rather than a social-rights issue. Human rights cannot be taken away," Siegel said.

Barry Kornhauser, who oversees Millersville's Family Arts Collaborative initiative, said his office will be focusing on three main areas — creating art opportunities for local people with disabilities, broadening accessibility programs and bringing in more performers.

"Today's forum is just the beginning. We have a series of events planned for this year that will advance this initiative," Kornhauser said.

Among them are a festival for families that will feature the Dancing Wheels, a professional, physically integrated dance company that unites dancers with and without disabilities; a puppet theater that doesn't use any spoken words; and a special class offered by Lancaster-based Cobalt Dance Company.
ebetancourt@lnpnews.com