Dancer/choreographer Dion Alston, performing “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall” with dance facilitator Elizabeth Zelesny.
For the 18th consecutive year, Matheny’s Arts Access Program has received a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. The grant, in the amount of $34,267, is for the first year of a three-year grant cycle beginning in fiscal year 2014.
Along with the grant, Arts Access received a Citation of Excellence, honoring “New Jersey arts organizations, programs and projects that receive the highest possible assessment of their Council grant applications by esteemed, independent panels of their peers.” The program once again was also named a Designation of Major Impact.
According to the NJSCA, “Arts organizations are designated by the Council as Majors in recognition of their long history of artistic excellence, substantial programming, broad public benefit and a superior review through the panel process.”
Arts Access empowers individuals with disabilities to create art without boundaries. Through the use of innovative systems and techniques, participants can take part in the visual, performing and literary arts. Regardless of their disability, the artists are provided with the tools and materials needed to produce complete pieces of work.
Earlier this year, Arts Access received a $10,000 Challenge America Fast-Track grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support the Full Circle 2013: Reflections, the program’s annual event, which will celebrate Arts Access’ 20th anniversary on November 2. Congressman Leonard Lance (NJ-07) will be honorary chair of Full Circle.
Arts Access artist Ellen Kane in front of her painting, “Half Circle.”
