Big(er) cities should have everything, right? I'm always amazed when some tucked away pocket in my adopted homestate of Tennessee has some innovative service that our capitol city, Nashville, does not. One such case would be the work that Cookeville area Pacesetters does with artists with developmental disAbilities. Visual artist Merritt Ireland has been in residence, cooking up creative ideas for artists in this outer Middle Tennessee region for more than a decade.
What we do have in Nashville, is a national Center for Excellence at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. Former director Travis Thompson, MD, also a stained glass artist and an art visionary, left an important legacy at the center, where the lobby entrance serves as the region's only disAbility arts gallery. (Take note!) (Thompson writes about the connection between art and autism here. My daughter's artwork adorns the cover of his book, Making Sense of Autism. More GraceArt at www.GraceGoad.com)
The work of the current Kennedy Center exhibit was compiled for a beautiful cover of the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities magazine, Breaking Ground:
This current exhibit, at the Kennedy Center now through August 31, features works of art published in Birds of Tennessee + One, an alphabet book produced by artists and writers of Pacesetters, Inc. The book, (I purchased a copy,) illustrates 40 bird species native to Tennessee and features poems, text, and images for each letter of the alphabet.
Pacesetters, Inc., is a nonprofit agency with five centers providing services to people with disAbilities. Pacesetters’ “Painting the Tale” art program is led by visual artist Merritt Ireland and storyteller Marcia Donovan as artists-in-residence. “Painting the Tale” began in 2000 with a grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission. Since 2007, the program has been completely supported by Pacesetters, Inc.
The exhibition located at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Exhibit Area in the lobby, on the 2nd Floor of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center/MRL Building, Corner of 21st Avenue South and Edgehill, Vanderbilt University campus, 7:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Monday – Friday.
