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Festival Aims to Change the Perception of Disability

April 8, 2015

Chris Smit, professor of communication arts and sciences at Calvin College, said art is one of the best ways to change people’s minds — and this includes when it comes to how they perceive people with disabilities.

“It gets people thinking and questioning things that they maybe take for granted,” said Smit.

As director of the inaugural DisArt Festival, an event that showcases art created by people with disabilities, Smit hopes to show that disability is part of the human condition and not something to be feared.

Smit was part of the conversation that inspired the DisArt Festival in Grand Rapids, Mich. that opens this weekend.

“The stereotype is that to be a successful disabled person, you have to overcome your disability rather than live through it,” said Smit.

Smit partnered with various individuals and local organizations and groups to organize the first-ever DisArt Festival.

He said that “what we’re trying to do is figure out ways to get people’s imaginations changing, perceptions changing. I took that idea and ran with it.”

The festival has been in development for 18 months and will take place April 10-25 in Grand Rapids.

The festival comprises several exhibits such as photography and painting, a film festival, fashion show, theater, dance performances, and other family-oriented experiential learning opportunities. The goal is to have around 20,000 people attend the different events.

In DisArt’s early development stages, Smit received a phone call from Amanda Cachia, an internationally known curator, regarding an art festival in Liverpool titled Art of the Lived Experiment (ALE).

ALE showcases 38 internationally renowned disability artists expressing their experience through world class contemporary art.

Cachia wanted to bring ALE to the U.S. so Smit highlighted Grand Rapids as the perfect location.

“They loved the idea and all of a sudden we have this world class art exhibit coming to Grand Rapids, and DisArt really helped broker that deal,” Smit said.

From there, DisArt organizers began building the festival around the ALE exhibition, making it the heart of the festival. This marks the first time an international disability art exhibit of this magnitude will come to the United States.

When asked where to bring ALE, Smit told Cachia, “Well, you could go to Chicago, New York or L.A. and get swallowed up by a big city. Or you could come to Grand Rapids where we have citizens that love art festivals and understand how they work.”

DisArt plans to encompass the theme of arts and access through academic symposiums and public talks in addition to the art festival, which organizers hope will be a biennial event.

DisArt is also committed to making the festival 100 percent accessible by providing accommodations for people with hearing and visual impairments, social anxiety and those with physical access limitations.

This commitment echoes Smit’s desire for disability to flourish in community, between all types of people.

“DisArt is not interested in the idea of eradicating disability,” Smit said. “We would rather celebrate it.”

Rev. Mark Stephenson, the CRC’s director of the Office of Disability Concerns said he is thrilled that Grand Rapids is hosting this exhibition.

“We all face limitations in every area of our lives. Some people live with limitations to the degree that we call them ‘disabilities,’ but limitations are part of what it means to be human,” he said.

“A lot of people think of disability as a deviation from the human condition, when in fact disability is part of what it means to be human. Instead of hiding or stigmatizing disability, the DisArt festival will recognize and celebrate this aspect of what makes us human.”

 As an added bonus, he said, the ADA Legacy Tour will be making a stop April 23 through 25 during the festival in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the groundbreaking civil rights legislation passed in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act.