Adult Education:
New Visions Dance
A two-semester class at the University of Montana serving adults with disabilities and giving UM students the opportunity to learn the basics of teaching creative movement to people with disabilities. This also allows the students to build relationships with people with disabilities and develop their understanding of disability issues.
VSA Choir Program
A two-semester class held at Big Sky High School for adults with disabilities. University students are invited to join as mentors in the program. The program provides choral music experience for participants, opportunities to perform concerts in the community, and to serve as a model in inclusive education practice for music and education students at the University of Montana.
Site Programs:
Montana State Hospital at Warm Springs
VSA Montana, with funding from a VSA Community Collaboration grant, provides a visual artist-in-residence, a creative writing program, theatre workshops and performances for patients with mental illness in treatment at the hospital. The program is in its third year.
Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, Great Falls
A visual arts program for adults with disabilities who participate in a series of arts classes and exhibit their work each spring at the Art Museum.
Custer County Art Center, Miles City
Arts programs for seniors in convalescent centers. These programs partner with school groups, including home school students, at-risk students and students in after school programs. The students assist seniors in use of materials and learn to work in a variety of arts media as well.
Children’s Art Education Programs:
Mime Residency Programs, Missoula and Great Falls
Mime Residency programs at Paxson and Russell Elem. Schools for students in the deaf education program, and for children with autism. An additional 3-5 day residency in Mime for deaf students and theatre techniques for blind students takes place at the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind in Great Falls.
This program is funded through a grant from the Silver Foundation and a VSA School Collaboration grant.
Livingston Art Museum
The program is avisual arts program for adults with disabilities served through Counterpoint in Livingston. The program meets once a week in 4-6 week sessions three times per year to provide participants with opportunities to explore a variety of artistic media and to exhibit their work at a May exhibit in the Emerson Cultural Center.