2004 Archive
Area Students Witness CATA on Tour in Schools
December 21, 2004
Community Access to the Arts’ singers, drummers, dancers, and jugglers performed for a total of 850 students during the week of December 13th as CATA on Tour in School was presented at Berkshire Hills, Lee, Pittsfield and Southern Berkshire School Districts. CATA’s performing arts companies – Dawn Lane & The Moving Company, Vikki True & The Serenaders, and Roger Reed & The Juggling Connection – are comprised of individuals with disabilities. Students from the Valleyhead School also participated.
CATA on Tour in Schools was underwritten by The Sellon Charitable Trust and the Great Barrington, Monterey, Stockbridge, West Stockbridge, Sheffield, Mt. Washington, Alford/Egremont, New Marlboro, Pittsfield, Lee and Tyringham Cultural Councils. “Simply put, everyone gives and everyone receives,” comments Dawn Lane, CATA’s Program Director. “Funding for CATA on Tour in Schools creates a wonderful cycle. The gift of these grants gives CATA the opportunity to extend the gift of a performance to area students, and the students give our CATA participants a gift by giving them an opportunity to perform and reveal their talents.”
CATA Receives Berkshire Life Grant to Enrich Art Cart Program
December 16, 2004
Berkshire Life Insurance Company of America has awarded Community Access to the Arts with a $2,500 grant to enrich CATA’s Art Cart Program that serves 240 residents of six Berkshire Healthcare Systems elder care facilities. The Berkshire Life grant will help purchase art reproduction posters and frames, art supplies, musical instruments, and a digital recorder.
The CATA Art Cart Team is made up of Faculty Artist JoAnne Spies and an Art Cart Assistant, a person with disabilities, whose participation is part of CATA’s mission to provide creative employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. The pair visit each of the six nursing care centers twice a month, interacting with the residents both one-on-one and in groups. Residents make a selection of framed posters to decorate their walls, a process which stimulates conversation and helps to build relationships. The Art Cart Team, equipped with musical instruments for creative expression and movement, also functions as a roving troupe of storytellers and musicians, encouraging residents to share their stories, and transforming their words into the lyrics of unique and joyful songs. Often family members and staff participate along with the patients.
Berkshire Healthcare System contracts with CATA to provide the Art Cart Program at Fairview Commons, Hillcrest Commons, Kimball Farms Nursing Care Center, Mt. Greylock Extended Care Facility, Williamstown Commons, and North Adams Commons.
“We are thrilled to have this growing partnership with Berkshire Healthcare Systems,” said CATA Board President Janet Reich Elsbach. “What began as a single program in an area nursing home has really blossomed, and it’s wonderful to have Berkshire Life’s support in offering the Art Cart on this scale. It’s a program with a simple idea that leads to really great things with lasting impact.”
