Arts Council
Kentucky Arts Council receives grant from National Arts and Disability Center

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Arts Council has been awarded a $12,000 grant to produce statewide activities promoting careers in the arts for artists with disabilities. The arts council will partner with other statewide organizations and agencies including VSA Kentucky, the Kentucky Center and the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Throughout 2012, the arts council, along with partnering organizations, will plan and produce activities to identify artists with disabilities and provide professional development and entrepreneurial skills to those artists. The activities will culminate with a Statewide Forum on Careers in the Arts for People with Disabilities in October. Since 2002, 26 state arts agencies have conducted similar statewide forums.

Kentucky individuals and organizations that would like to become involved in creating careers in the arts for people with disabilities can contact Kentucky Arts Council’s arts access director, Sarah Schmitt at sarah.schmitt@ky.gov or 502-564-3757, ext. 492.

The Statewide Forum on Careers in the Arts for People with Disabilities is a joint program of the National Arts and Disability Center at UCLA and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The National Arts and Disability Center is a program of the Tarjan Center at UCLA, a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector.

The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, creates opportunities for Kentuckians to value, participate in and benefit from the arts. Kentucky Arts Council funding is provided by the Kentucky General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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