Center gives disabled an artistic outlet

Crystal Bader, left, communicating with Jessie Dunahoo, is the art coordinator at Minds Wide Open and a certified theraputic recreation therapist at Arc of the Bluegrass.

Late on a cold and cloudy afternoon, shoppers at Victorian Square rush around, oblivious to the people creating bold artistic statements in an area across from Lexington Children's Museum.

At Minds Wide Open Art Center, people with mental disabilities have been working for a year to craft visual and performing art that expresses ideas and visions that they can't easily verbalize.

``Every day I saw the potential in the people I worked with, but there wasn't an avenue to explore it,'' said Crystal Bader, a certified therapeutic recreation therapist at Arc of the Bluegrass and art coordinator at Minds Wide Open. ``This is that avenue.''

The artists, who come individually and from groups such as Arc, take a variety of roads.

Ralph Reynolds, considered one of Minds' top talents, mixes drawings of everyday subjects such as churches and license plates with words.

Words are Beverly Baker's medium, too, as she weaves letters around her pages in unique ways and shapes.

Jessie Dunahoo, who is deaf and blind, sews together brightly colored cloths to make shelters on the property at his home and banners for the center's workshop on Friday, which will celebrate the first anniversary of Minds Wide Open.

The workshop will include keynote speaker Dante Ventresca, director of Indianapolis' Level Playing Field and Edyvean theaters. The workshop is open to the community and designed to show people how to help people with disabilities express themselves through the arts.

It's something center director Bruce Burris has been working on for 20 years.

Worth a try

To make ends meet, Burris, a local artist, frequently took part-time jobs at group homes and other facilities for people with mental disabilities.

Over time, he started to see the artistic potential of the people he worked with. Increasingly, he worked with adults who had mental disabilities, and he decided to open an art center for them.

The artists liked the idea, with some conditions.

``Everyone said they would be interested in a program if they could figure out a way that it would not just be for people with disabilities,'' Burris said.

He liked the concept, but ``there was no model for that. No one in the country has created a program where people considered to have disabilities worked side-by-side with the general community. We looked, but it's not something most people are comfortable with.''

"There are 50-plus art centers that encourage people with special needs, but this one  is unique." Bruce Burris director Minds Wide Open art center

Carol Busse read over one of the letters she
likes to write while at Minds Wide Open art
center.

Still, it was worth a try.

The center is an arm of Arc of the Bluegrass, which pays Burris and Bader. They are the center's only paid staff.

Minds Wide Open hasn't achieved the goal of completely integrating the communities, but, Burris said, it has taken strides to bring them together.

One glorious night was Extreme Weather, a performance piece staged at Lexington's Mecca dance center before a sold-out crowd.

The title came from Minds Wide Open artist Todd Shepherd's interest in stormy weather and included pieces such a dance based on lines strung around Dunahoo's property that help him find his way around. The show was conceived and directed by Shepherd.

``That was the amazing thing,'' Burris said. ``A guy considered to have a disability called the shots. Anyone could be in the show, but they had to do what Todd said.''

Seeing a change

From walking around Victorian Square and introducing themselves to people, to displaying works at mainstream venues such as the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, the artists at Minds Wide Open try to mix in with the community as much as possible.

And they also try to learn about non-art things such as voting.

Jessie Dunahoo likes to sew, and he spends his
time connecting pieces of colored cloth that he turns
into shelters and banners. Dunahoo is blind and deaf.

``They say, `I have this, now I want this,' '' Burris said. `` `My art has been displayed and people have bought it, what about this voting thing? I want to do that.'

``In the United States, there are 50-plus arts centers that encourage people with special needs, but this one is unique. The pinnacle of those programs is getting work displayed. This is the only one I know of that has a community component.''

But one of the themes of Minds Wide Open is that people with disabilities can be, first and foremost, artists.

``The concept that Bruce has is that art is not diversional,'' Bader said. ``It is incredible to see the change in someone when you take what someone else saw as trivial and make it a viable thing for them.''

Bader noted that Baker's parents used to throw away Baker's papers because they looked like scribbling. But Burris saw impressive symmetry and intriguing uses of space in Baker's writing, and Baker, along with Reynolds, is one of the artists who uses Minds Wide Open as a studio, not therapy.

Burris said Reynolds shows enough promise that he could get studio space with other artists.

Not that Reynolds sounds eager to leave.

``I do most of my work here, and I think I'll continue to come here and do more work,'' he said.