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Annual Appeal

Dear Friends,
Imagine every human being noticed for their ABILITIES!??Community Access to the Arts (CATA) notices every day; nurturing and celebrating the creativity of people with disabilities through the arts.??Each year over 1,000 classes in the visual and performing arts encourage people to find their passion, express their true selves, and share their talents with the community. Their journeys tell the story of our success:??From David Gardner, an adult with Cerebral Palsy, painting his first brushstroke, to the exhibition of his artwork at the Princeton University Art Museum.
From Eric Schumann, an adult with developmental disabilities, suggesting CATA might offer a poetry class, to our annual poetry reading with guest readers like four time National Poetry Slam champion, Taylor Mali.??From a chance meeting with dancer Marisa Yudkin, a woman with Huntington’s Disease, to a performance of her work at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.??The simple act of your support helps us to continue our definition-defying work, transcend disability, and invite genuine social change. We are all served by acknowledging the unique perspectives of people with disabilities and advocating for them in their creative process. ??Your gift ensures we continue serving 600 people with disabilities in Berkshire County and helps underwrite our handicapped accessible studio, our wonderful staff, and provide employment for the 26 area artists who make up our faculty.??We thank you for supporting our mission to understand, respect, and honor differences and similarities.??With appreciation,
Sandra Newman
Founder & Executive Director
Ben Silberstein
Board President

Dear Friends,

These are difficult times. Support for both the arts and services for people with disabilities are especially susceptible, so CATA is feeling the pinch more than ever.

We need your support for our crucial advocacy for individuals with disabilities. We need your support to bring light, color, motion and sound to people in therapeutic settings. We need your support for our ground-breaking work uniting people across all boundaries.

CATA’s work is a model for how the world should be: people honored and noticed for their abilities, communities that recognize how limitations and challenges can be a source for the creative process, places where people are unafraid to connect to others who may seem different.

Our theme this year, Sticks & Stones, invites us to simplify, to rethink the structures we have perhaps taken for granted and to summon pure creative energy. From the simplicity of raw materials in our art-making to the very personal meaning of the old schoolyard taunt, our visual artists and performers are delving into the theme, rediscovering basic elements, creating with astonishing imagination. How they see the world continues to inspire us, and we are renewed in our effort to share this work with an ever-widening audience.

We deeply thank all of you who have continued to support CATA through these uncertain economic times, and invite those of you who are new to our work to consider a contribution at this crucial time. A gift of any amount helps to make sure our valuable work can go on to serve hundreds of people with disabilities in Berkshire County, to serve all of us who witness it, and to continue to act as a model for communities everywhere.

With deep appreciation,

Sandy Newman, Executive Director
Ben Silberstein, Board President