Community Access to the Arts: redefining disability

Thank you to the nearly 700 people who joined CATA to celebrate its 20th Anniversary gala and performance weekend! Photographs will soon be available! In the meantime, we can share some of the feedback coming in…..

The performance was remarkable- really strong- really meaningful – just beautiful.

Great spirit, great community. Congratulations to everyone!

At this year’s annual performance, the lobby of Shakespeare & Company’s Tina Packer Playhouse will feature a photo retrospective by CATA’s event photographer, Christina Rahr Lane. We celebrate her seven years of documenting our annual performances and events. Christina studied photography with Joel Sternfeld at Sarah Lawrence College and has recently returned to her former position as Picture Editor for Orion Magazine. Her business, Christina Lane Photography, specializes in performance, portraits, and events. Click Here to visit Chirstina’s website.

The CATALOG is out — CATA’s spring newsletter is full of photographs and updates about the upcoming performance and gala, recent awards, special projects, and programs. Meet new staff, discover new products, and see the names of community members who help make CATA’s work happen. Click Here for the PDF!

What if Community Access to the Arts earned a donation every time you searched the Internet? Or how about if a percentage of every purchase you made online went to support our cause? Well, now it can!

GoodSearch.com is a Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up!

And if you download the GoodSearch toolbar, our cause will earn money every time you shop and search online – even if you forget to go to GoodShop or GoodSearch first! Add the Community Access to the Arts – CATA (Great Barrington) toolbar.

Spend a joy-filled hour with us at Berkshire South Regional Community Center on Friday, April 5th with psychologist and inspirational speaker Dr. Maria Sirois as we learn what we wish we had learned all those years ago in school:

*What Boosts Happiness
*How You Can Sustain Happiness (no matter how stressful your current days)
*Why Generosity Elevates Both Happiness and Success
*How Happiness Creates Success (and how the opposite is so not true)

Maria, an expert in the field of positive psychology, teaches around the country on this very topic and will share the latest research on happiness, enabling us to return home with tools, strategies and inspiration that can be applied immediately. And, enjoy a sweet treat on us from Peace, Love and Chocolate.

Join us on Friday, April 5th from 7pm-8:30pm at Berkshire South Regional Community Center located at 15 Crissey Road in Great Barrington. There is no admission fee but we’d appreciate an RSVP to Susannah Jolly at (413) 528-5485 x106 or Susannah@communityaccesstothearts.org.

Achievements in Arts, Humanities, and Sciences Celebrated with 2013 Commonwealth Awards

(BOSTON, MA)— The Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) today announced the winners of the 2013 Commonwealth Awards, honoring exceptional achievement in the arts, humanities, and sciences. The Commonwealth Awards will be presented Tuesday, February 19 during a Massachusetts State House ceremony. The winners include:

• Achievement: Olympia Dukakis, Lowell
• Art/Science Collaboration: The Ecotarium, Worcester
• Access: Community Access to the Arts (CATA), Great Barrington
• Creative Community: Barnstable; Shelburne Falls
• Creative Learning: The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst
• Cultural Philanthropy: Neil and Jane Pappalardo, Boston
• Leadership: Marvin Gilmore, Boston
• Media: Jared Bowen, WGBH; The Boston Phoenix

“This extraordinary group of institutions and individuals beautifully represents our state’s unique cultural fabric and tells a powerful story of the great public value of the arts, humanities, and sciences,” said MCC Executive Director Anita Walker. “Their collective and individual achievements have contributed enormously to the quality of life in Massachusetts, and I am delighted to honor them at our Commonwealth Awards ceremony in February.”

Presented every two years, the Commonwealth Awards shine a spotlight on the extraordinary contributions the arts, humanities, and sciences make to education, economic growth and vitality, and quality of life in communities across Massachusetts. The Commonwealth Awards ceremony also presents an opportunity for the Massachusetts nonprofit cultural sector to gather and assert its value and make the case for public investment in its work. Past winners include leading artists, writers, and scholars such as Yo-Yo Ma and David McCullough; world-class institutions like Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and the Peabody Essex Museum; and social innovators like the Boston Cyberarts Festival and the Barbara Lee Family Foundation.

The 2013 Commonwealth Awards ceremony continues this tradition on Tuesday, February 19 with a ceremony at the Massachusetts State House from 1 to 4 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, and registration opens this week. Details and registration information can be found on MCC’s website.

Celebrate CATA’s 20th anniversary by joining us in May for our Annual Performance & Gala!

When: Saturday, May 11 at 6:00pm & Sunday, May 12 at 1:00pm

Where: Tina Packer Playhouse, Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, Massachusetts

For more information, visit CATA’s website, call (413) 528-5485 or visit our office at 40 Railroad Street, Suite 6, Great Barrington, MA.

Get your downloadable version now! For unique, handmade gifts, shop CATAdirect, Community Access to the Arts’ crafts cooperative.  Artists with disabilities partner with community volunteers to create beautiful jewelry, note cards and accessories and earn commissions on items sold.  Every item is packaged with the CATA story so your purchase helps us spread the word of CATA’s work in Berkshire county.

Check out this video of the Moving Company’s performance of one potato, two potato at the Doris Duke Theater at Jacob’s Pillow as part of their Community Dance Program, in September 2011.

one potato, two potato draws on aspects of Irish culture & history (i.e. knitting, the famine and Irish dance) as a metaphor for examining perceptions of excess, wastefulness, having enough, or nothing. The cast includes Lorimer Burns, Jane Goodrich, Dawn Lane, Bettina Montano, Leslie Nelson, and Diane Prusha, as well as dancers of mixed abilities from CATA’s Moving Company.

The work also includes still photography of Ireland by Great Barrington photographer, Elaine Radiss, and special effects video of The Famine Road in County Clare, Ireland shot by Lane and digitally composited by John Whalan of Black Ice Entertainment.

one potato, two potato from Community Access to the Arts on Vimeo.

Read some the friendly & thoughtful words shared with us at Vital Signs!

“CATA flows in us and through us.” Participant

“The whole thing is very inspiring.  We’ve been coming for years and the first two times I cried I think from how deeply moved I was and now I know that I might cry but I know that I’ll laugh too and be so moved.  We only have missed one year I think in the last seven and it’s such a wonderful time.  I know that we’ll come back every year.”  Atendee

“We have a son who is a contributor to CATA and a beneficiary and CATA is the heartbeat of our son and he is the heartbeat of our lives.  And I’ll say it clearly this work saves lives, we truly believe that.” Parents and Supporters

 “The show is really about that wonderful song we had a chance to sing, ‘I’m a person and I have a heart too.’ The whole presentation shows the soul of each person – they were really shining through and we are allowed to remember how we have hearts as well.”  Attendee