Career development among young disabled artists

Abstract

This paper reports on the experiences of 47 young disabled artists and the interaction between disability, impairment and the arts in their educational and career pathways. The artists were finalists in the VSA arts/Volkswagen of America Inc. Program, an arts‐based program intended to showcase the talents and accomplishments of young disabled artists aged 16–25. A few artists found their impairment to be a barrier to making art. Many, however, did not think their impairment affected their ability to make art, and a few thought it actually enhanced their artistic ability. These finalists often cited art as a tool for overcoming impairment‐related, disability‐related and other barriers. In this paper we identify effective strategies that these young artists used to further their arts careers. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings and provides recommendations to support young disabled artists in their educational and career efforts.

Keywords:

• affirmative model of disability
• art
• career development
• disability
• impairment
• youth

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank VSA arts for the grant that made this research possible. The development of this manuscript was in part funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), US Department of Education (grants nos H133P060003 and H133A040007). We thank the finalists who participated in this study. We are also grateful to our colleagues in the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at the University of Massachusetts, Boston for their assistance with this research, specifically Alberto Migliore, Ph.D., David Clark, David Temelini, Soheila Lopopolo, Veronica Palmer‐Segal and Jodi Comeau. With respect to this manuscript the authors would like to thank Stephanie L. Moore and Don Glass, Ph.D., from VSA arts, Maria Paiewonsky, M.Ed., and Matthew Kusminsky from the ICI and Doria Pilling from City University, London, UK, for their constructive feedback and invaluable advice on drafts of the manuscript. We are also grateful to Katherine Skipper, Angelica (Angel) Busque, Catron Peterson Burdette, Isaac Powell and Jonathan Wos, who gave permission for their artwork to be published in this article. Please note that the views expressed and any errors or omissions are those of the authors.