Art Abilities at Vista Vocational | October 11, 2013
By Rachel Berliner
Madison, Conn. —– Vista Vocational, a nonprofit vocational and life skills organization for students with developmental disabilities, autism, and learning disabilities in Madison and Westbrook, Conn. is offering a visual and performing arts variety of arts and musical theatre classes to their students at the satellite campus in Madison through the Vista Arts Center.
On October 15 and 17, the arts center is having auditions at the Madison location for the musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Performances will begin in February at the Ivoryton Playhouse.
Starting this fall, the Vista Arts Center will now be open to the Conn. shoreline community to residents ages 18 and older looking for a way to learn new art skills in a non-competitive environment. This will be a way for current Vista Vocational students to interact with their community.
Tod Van Kirk, director of development at Vista Vocational said that they “received an overwhelming response” from their students to have the arts initiative after they had partnered with the Ivoryton Playhouse for a talent show.
Vista Arts Center unveiled its official programming last fall. Vista students from the dormitory and residence hall in Westbrook and transition housing in Guilford, as well as students from the surrounding towns in the shoreline community participate in the arts initiative.
The organization has partnered with local artists and performing arts instructors to help the Vista students learn about arts through their community, including Pat Souney (performing arts instructor) and Kelly Kapfer (visual arts instructor). The program allows for students to be creative and express themselves in new forms of communication.
The art students sample different types of art including abstract painting, watercolor painting, mixed media, cartooning for comic books, and cartooning for anime/manga. Students are shown different examples of art to inspire and guide them in the artistic process. For example, if students are learning about anime and manga style drawing, they will look to the anime show Sailor Moon as an example to help them in the creative process.
In March, the final works of the art students were prominently displayed at a gallery showing at the Scranton Memorial Library in Madison. Finished framed pieces can be purchased at the Vista campuses. Other pieces were turned into notecards that can be purchased through the organization’s website.
The musical theatre class learns about the history of musical theatre and the process of creating a musical through movies and field trips to the Ivoryton Playhouse. The students are shown musicals like “Oklahoma” and “Pippin” to serve as their inspiration. Students also explored hip-hop and ballroom styles of dance.
After developing a plot and a list of songs, the class rehearses to create a final performance based on what they learned, which is staged at different community venues in the shoreline. A separate recital in the style of “Dancing with the Stars” was also performed.
Jeanean Cox, the arts program manager, feels the students have a lot to be proud of and has seen an overall increase in self-esteem in the students that have participated in arts programming so far. Cox said that “the students love being creative and being able to show or perform their works.”
The Vista Arts Center hopes to expand their horizons in the future with increased course offerings through a diverse pool of instructors. Some courses the center is considering include set design, graffiti- style art, music recording, notecard design, video editing, and computer graphic design classes.
Note: For more information about Vista Arts Center or how you can participate in classes, please contact Jeanean Cox or Tod Van Kirk at (203)-318-5240. Please visit the arts initiative’s website at http://www.vistavocational.org/programs-services/vista-arts-center/index.aspx
About the author: Rachel Berliner is a Public Relations Assistant at Law Office of Lawrence W. Berliner, LLC. She is currently studying journalism and communications in college.