For some, art is a form of empowerment. It transcends both time and circumstance, providing bridges of communication through creativity.
Artists at Arts & Services for Disabled, Inc. (ASD) are an inspiring example of this capacity.
Chief Executive Officer of ASD and Cal State Long Beach alumna Helen Dolas began the non-profit organization in 1982. She said her mission was “to provide life-long learning, community service and career opportunities through the creative arts for people with disabilities in an environment of warmth, encouragement and respect.”
Dolas said that art can be powerfully influential.
“Music therapy [alone] could be powerful but imagine all the creative arts combined,” Dolas said.
Through a variety of workshops, ASD students are engaged in creative media ranging from painting, printmaking, sculpting and drawing to movement, music and radio production.
ASD employees collaborate with local volunteers, including many CSULB students, to help artists build memory and cognitive ability, as well as communication skills and self-esteem.
ASD Program Director and CSULB art education alumnus Colin Carri said ASD artists also learn to participate in their community through active performances, installations and sales of their art through the organization’s “Go!” Store.
ASD students earn 50 percent of sales from their art and the remaining provides funding for exhibits such as a new mural ASD students recently installed on the walls of a clinic at the Community Hospital Long Beach, according to Carri.
“There [are] no hang-ups in personality or attitude in this population, just a genuineness that is so often missed in the larger sector of society,” Carri, who originally volunteered at ASD to fulfill requirements for a class, said.
Carri’s professor, Carlos Silveira of the CSULB art department, said that the 10-year partnership between CSULB and ASD has both solidified the organization within the community and provided an invaluable learning experience for his students.
“Art can be a wonderful instrument to empower a community … and it helps students see the whole perspective of what art can do,” Silveira said.
Dolas, a recipient of the Arts Council for Long Beach 2013 Distinguished Arts Leader Award, said her organization’s motto is “love before learning.”
“When an individual is fully accepted and respected with dignity, when they are given that human right to envision a life of quality and share that life with others — the doors to learning fly open,” Dolas said.