Join our next MN Access Alliance Hour

Are you curious about the LEAD Conference (Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability) and highlights from this year? Join Minnesota Access Alliance for our next virtual gathering. We’ll hear from folks who attended LEAD in August as they share back actionable learnings and resources. There will also be time for open discussion and questions.

Access Hours are drop-in, informal spaces for anyone invested in expanding arts and culture access for people with disabilities to meet peers, share resources, unpack challenges, and celebrate successes. 

MN Access Hour
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Virtual – Online
Free

ASL interpretation and live CART captioning will be provided. ASL interpreter: TBA; CART/Captioning: Veritext

Registration required: or contact MNAA at: info@mnaccess.org, or voicemail: 651-539-2689 or 800-866-2787. Upon registration, you will receive a confirmation email with the Zoom link and other details.

We hope to see you there!

September MNAA Access Hour

Are you curious about the LEAD Conference (Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability) and highlights from this year? Join Minnesota Access Alliance for our next virtual gathering. We’ll hear from folks who attended LEAD in August as they share back actionable learnings and resources. There will also be time for open discussion and questions.

Access Hours are drop-in, informal spaces for anyone invested in expanding arts and culture access for people with disabilities to meet peers, share resources, unpack challenges, and celebrate successes.

MN Access Hour
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Virtual – Online
Free

ASL interpretation and live CART captioning will be provided. ASL interpreter: TBA; CART/Captioning: Veritext

Registration required: or contact MNAA at: info@mnaccess.org, or voicemail: 651-539-2689 or 800-866-2787. Upon registration, you will receive a confirmation email with the Zoom link.

We hope to see you there!

Two Accessibility Resources Designed for your Arts Organization

What does it mean to empower people with accessible information? How can we amplify without duplicating efforts and overproducing? 

Over the past months, staff at Arts Midwest faced those questions before launching a new project called the Ideas Hub. For context, Arts Midwest is one of six Regional Arts Organizations, guided by a mission that centers creativity, leadership, and Midwestern communities. Based in Minneapolis, we grow, gather, and invest in creative organizations and communities throughout the nine-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin and beyond.

The Ideas Hub

Icon of an idea featuring a lightbulb centered on a green circle.

The Ideas Hub is a collection of free, curated articles and tools meant to help creative leaders foster growth within their organizations. Some of the resources come from Arts Midwest’s ArtsLab curriculum, and some were newly created to amplify pre-existing information. The project sparked from a shared belief that everyone deserves meaningful arts experiences and has a right to access information to help them advance creativity in our region and beyond.  

In hopes of encouraging others to embrace that idea, we engaged two partners who are forging the path in accessibility work to author articles for the Ideas Hub. Here is what came out of it! 

Creating an Accessibility Plan for your Organization 

Icon of planning featuring a clipboard with arrows pointing to X and O.

As someone new to moving accessibility forward in an organizational setting, I’ve found the number of checklists and handbooks can feel overwhelming. It can be hard to know where to jump in. In the name of access, working with these resources should be inviting to folks at any entry level. The experience should offer clarity on the importance of accessibility and concrete steps for advancing it within one’s unique organization.  

Something like that does exist in the form of Metropolitan Regional Arts Council’s DIY Access Planning Workbook, created by Scott Artley (Accessibility Program Director, MRAC). MRAC improves arts access for communities in the seven-county metropolitan area through support to artists and organizations. Among their guiding principles is advancing accessibility in all aspects of their work.  

In researching access plans, Scott’s do-it-yourself workbook stood out to me with its welcoming tone and digestible format. The workbook is also unique in that it is designed for organizations of all sizes, capacities, and resources. Soon after exploring it, I spoke with Scott about creating a resource to further contextualize the workbook and welcome arts and cultural organizations interested in this work. 

In “Creating an Accessibility Plan for your Organization,” Scott introduces the concept and importance of accessibility planning for organizations working to meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) laws and make their programming, culture, and services more inclusive:  

  • Scott walks you through the workbook and describes the main categories of access to consider in an organizational setting.  
  • They guide you through three key steps for each of those categories: Audit, Plan, and Coordinate. 
  • Within these categories, he gives guidance on naming your current efforts, known barriers, and short- and long-term goals in accessibility work.  
  • In addition to this easy-to-follow structure, he provides context and real-life examples which help to visualize how you can improve accessibility within your organization.  

As Scott notes in the article, there is no previous expertise or formal process needed to start this work. Dive in – you are in good hands with this workbook! 

Embracing the Social Model of Disability for Arts Organizations

Icon of social model featuring a person using a wheelchair, a female and male in a circle.

Please note: in this section, the phrase “disabled people” is used instead of “person with a disability.” This phrasing aligns with the Social Model of Disability understanding that people are disabled by environmental and societal barriers. 

While getting grounded in accessibility work, it is helpful to learn about frameworks in which people view disability and access, and to understand the ways in which we perpetuate ableism in our society. This deeper understanding can complement and inform the work that comes with an access plan.  

As the larger disability community is diverse in their experiences, views, and preferences, there are many different understandings of disability. Some folks go by the Social Model of Understanding Disability. This model is a way of viewing the world created by disabled people and it says that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by impairment or difference. Barriers can be physical, social, attitudinal, and more. It is important that arts and cultural organizations are aware of this model as they work to make their programs, services, and communications inclusive.  

I had the chance to meet and work with Colin Hambrook and Dave Lupton of Disability Arts Online as they agreed to write a piece on the Social Model for the Ideas Hub. Disability Arts Online is an organization that strongly embraces the Social Model. DAO is led by disabled people who advance disability arts and culture through their online journal and collaborations. 

In “Embracing the Social Model of Disability for Arts Organizations,” DAO starts by describing the Medical Model of Understanding Disability and how it harmfully frames disability as an individual’s burden and problem to be solved. They explain how the Social Model was created in response to this to challenge society’s negative perceptions of disability and barriers that it creates. As the Social Model defines disability as the lived experience of barriers, it advocates for the shared, social responsibility of removing barriers and improving access. DAO describes examples of societal barriers and how those may specifically appear within arts programming and experiences, including first-hand accounts from disabled artists, and multiple possible solutions for making your programs and offerings more accessible.

I recommend reading this piece while working through the “Audit” and “Plan” section in Scott’s workbook. This may help to identify the barriers in your organization and get an idea of how you are uniquely positioned to improve access. 

Questions on this article or the Ideas Hub? Reach out to Carly Newhouse

3 logos Arts Midwest, Metro Regional Arts Council, and Disability Arts Online
Person with short blonde hair and purple, flowery blouse stands smiling in front of a red brick wall

About the Author

Carly Newhouse (she/they) is a Program & Accessibility Manager at Arts Midwest and helps to advance accessibility, connectivity, and capacity building across its programs and communications. Carly has 6 years of experience in arts management, community engagement, and events management. She is excited about the recent shift to facilitating accessibility efforts in her organization and looks forward to connecting with more folks advancing accessibility in the region.


The Minnesota Access Alliance (MNAA) works to raise the bar for accessibility across the culture and arts sectors in Minnesota. Accessibility resources and a calendar of accessible arts and cultural events in the state are available at mnaccess.org. You can also share your expertise and learn from others in the MNAA Facebook group.

Stay connected about accessible events, learning opportunities, and resources that may be of interest to you by joining our email list.

Events with Disability and Arts in the Spotlight

Care Work graphic with tree roots and mushrooms
[Graphic with title “Care Work Workshops” appears in a box surrounded by an image of white Mushrooms growing out of the left corner and a tree growing on the right side with an extensive root system, intertwined with sprouting white mushrooms and green reeds]
Graphic design by Jaffa Aharonov
instagram: @_._jaf_._
website: https://www.jaffaaharonov.com/#/

A strange thing happened in the last few months. Three efforts, by three different organizations, aligned to uplift artists with disabilities. The timing was a coincidence, but the timeliness for these conversations was clear. What follows are some brief recaps on what I learned, and how you can stay connected to future conversations.

Care Work Workshop Series

In the Heart of the Beast Puppet & Mask Theatre (HOBT) produced a multi-faceted series of workshops based on Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s book Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice. “This dynamic book,” says the HOBT website, “is illuminated by the wisdom and labor of disabled queer femmes of color, and is chockful of dreams, schemes, and invitations for all of us to grapple with in our day-to-day lives.”

The series, which ran weekly from October to early November 2021, was facilitated by aegor ray, with instruction on four do-it-yourself arts projects designed and led by artists Nailah Taman and Julie Boada. Rubin Hardin served as in-house accessibility support. The series culminated in a Guest Speaker Panel and Celebration, featuring artists Kenna Cottman, Lonnie Shaw, and Teighlor McGee. Questions posed to the panel included: What does disability justice mean to you? When was a time when you experienced care? What are your disability justice dreams? Their answers were wide-ranging and generous, describing limitations and spaces for hope.

Recordings and transcripts, including ASL interpretation, of the panel and all workshops are available on the HOBT Care Work Workshops page. Care Work Workshops graphic design by Jaffa Aharonov (Instagram: @_._jaf_._)

Artists with Disabilities Virtual Social & Discussion Series

In October, Springboard for the Arts hosted the first event in its three-part series of virtual discussions designed for artists with disabilities to connect, share, and learn from each other. Led by artist, performer and Springboard for the Arts artist career consultant Alison Bergblom Johnson, the first session focused on accessing grants with three guests.

Sculptor Donna Ray’s rosy but realistic perspective about making art work balanced candor and optimism. I talked about the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC)’s grantmaking and the place of Disabled artists and groups led by people with disabilities in opening up philanthropic institutions. Finally, Lauren Gower from Disability Hub MN gave detailed information about the complicated impacts of grant income on disability benefits through helpful hypothetical examples.

Two more events are planned for January and May 2022, which will focus on artists with disabilities navigating mainstream arts institutions, and accessing a daily artistic practice and disability-specific spaces. Details for these upcoming events are available on Springboard for the Arts’ Artists with Disabilities Virtual Social & Discussion Series page. ASL interpretation and automated captioning will be available.

Twin Cities Metro Arts & Disability Forum

Hosted by the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC), the Twin Cities Metro Arts & Disability Forum on November 19th was a public conversation exploring how people with disabilities are making, sharing, and experiencing art in the Twin Cities Metro region––and what we need to do next to fully include disability communities in the region’s cultural fabric. My colleague Sam Stahlmann and I were thrilled to partner with KFAI’s Disability & Progress radio show, led by Sam Jasmine, broadening the reach of this event to the audiences of the live radio show and their podcast. Four artists with disabilities served as panelists: Nicole Noblet, Teighlor McGee, Minda Mae, and Nicole M. Smith.

The event started out with questions I asked panelists. For example: How does access and disability show up in your work? Nicole M. Smith said, “the art of being a person with disabilities is how I show up.” We also asked questions submitted by the audience, including: Who defines “artist with disabilities?” Teighlor responded, “I genuinely believe most people are disabled, and a lot of folks just aren’t in a place where they realize that yet.”

The art of being a person with disabilities is how I show up.

Nicole M. Smith

You can now access the recording of the TC Metro Arts & Disability Forum, which includes ASL interpretation, edited captions, and a text transcript. Listen to the episode on the Disability & Progress radio show website, also available by searching Disability & Progress wherever you get your podcasts. To stay in the loop about future events, join the MRAC mailing list.

Recording from the Twin Cities Metro Arts & Disability Forum held November 18, 2021 on Zoom. The recording includes ASL interpretation and closed captions. A text transcript is available.

The Twin Cities Metro Arts & Disability Forum, is a public conversation with four Twin Cities artists with disabilities. Panelists will explore how people with disabilities are making, sharing, and experiencing art in the Twin Cities Metro region––and what we need to do next to fully include disability communities in the region’s cultural fabric. This hour-long virtual event is appropriate for arts groups seeking to be more accessible, arts groups serving and/or made up of people with disabilities, and individual artists with disabilities who want to learn from peers who have found some success at MRAC.
Sam Jasmine and KFAI simulcasts the Twin Cities Metro Arts & Disability Forum hosted by MRAC on Disability & Progress radio show. 
Image of a man with glasses smiling wearing a plaid collared shirt.

About the author

Scott Artley, CPACC (he/they) is the Accessibility Program Director for the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (St Paul, MN), a role designed to develop and oversee accessibility grant programs for arts organizations in the Twin Cities, and to develop resources targeted to artists with disabilities and organizations serving artists/audiences with disabilities. Scott has over a decade of leadership experience in the arts, with a special focus on community-based initiatives and social justice, emerging (in part) from his own experience as a queer person with disabilities. He is a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies by the International Association of Accessibility Professionals.


The Minnesota Access Alliance (MNAA) works to raise the bar for accessibility across the culture and arts sectors in Minnesota. Accessibility resources and a calendar of accessible arts and cultural events in the state are available at mnaccess.org. You can also share your expertise and learn from others in the MNAA Facebook group.

Stay connected about accessible events, learning opportunities, and resources that may be of interest to you by joining our email list.

A Livestream Call to Action with Jess Thom

Jess Thom is co-founder of Touretteshero and may or may not lead a secret double life as a superhero. Artist, activist, writer, and performer, she shares her message of inclusivity with audiences around the world.

She has had tics since she was a child but wasn’t diagnosed with Tourettes until she was in her 20s. With encouragement from her friends, she decided to turn her tics into a source of imaginative creativity and the Touretteshero project was born.

Head shot of Jess Thom
Photo captured from https://www.touretteshero.com/

Head shot of Touretteshero wearing blue super hero mask and cape.