Arvada Center For The Arts And Humanities
Arvada, CO

Main Website: http://www.arvadacenter.org

Accessibility Web Page: http://www.arvadacenter.org/the-center/accessibility

Point of Contact

Mickey McVey
Education Director
Email Address: mickey@arvadacenter.org
Phone: 720-898-7235
TTY: 720-898-7203

Overview

The mission of the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities is, "We Open Worlds to You." The facility opened in 1976, and was renovated and expanded in 2006. Yearly attendance is approximately 320,000, including over 6,000 subscribers. The budget in 2007 was $10.3 million. Education programs serve over 65,000 adults and children in more than 800 classes a year.

The Arvada Center offers theater, concerts and dance performances in two theatres seating 500 and 224, and one amphitheater seating 800 covered and 600 lawn; art galleries; a historical museum; and classes in ceramics, dance, writing and visual arts.

The Arvada Center has been nationally recognized for their accessibility program. In 1991, VSA arts recognized the center's accessibility program with the VSA arts/MetLife Cultural Access award. In 2005, their education director received the award for excellence in accessibility leadership from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Christopher Reeve Foundation. With the leadership of a performing arts sign language interpreter who graduated from Gallaudet University, the Arvada Center shadow-interpreted it's first performance in 1981 and started its deaf access program in 1983.

Strategic Planning

The Arvada Center's commitment to accessibility starts with its mission and flows through its core objectives—being a leader in diverse and accessible programming, and serving as a regional and national model for excellence in the arts. The goal of their accessibility program is to ensure that all adults and children with disabilities have the opportunity to experience the arts by eliminating physical and programmatic barriers.

Professional Development

At any given time, approximately 75 to 80 percent of the staff is trained in accessibility. The Arvada Center provides its staff with periodic, in-depth sessions conducted by VSA arts of Colorado; training videos, group and one-to-one trainings conducted by the education director; and diversity trainings and manuals that include accessibility topics for their staff.

Community Engagement

Partners and focus groups serve as community liaisons to enhance communication in the community, market directly to people with disabilities and to connect with community leaders. The center's primary partners include:

• VSA arts of Colorado – which provides professional development for center staff. The Arvada Center provides exhibition space in its emerging artists' gallery for VSA arts Colorado artists.
• Students – from the interpretation program at Front Range Community College attend shadow-interpreted performances.

In addition, Arvada shares its expertise in accessibility, particularly shadow interpretation, with other arts organizations in the greater Denver area and across the country. Specifically:

• the education director is a resource to her peers through the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District in the greater metropolitan Denver region and nationally;
• the center developed and copyrighted a shadow training manual and CD that is available to groups, both locally and nationally; and
• the center shares its group of trained, shadow interpreters with other performing arts facilities in the community.

Programs and Services

The center is accessible to everyone with a disability. The center offers the following services:

• An American Sign Language interpreter "on call" in the center for three hours a day
• Shadow interpretation
• Touch tours of permanent museum exhibits
• Arts Day workshops designed for students who are blind or deaf
• A ramp between the stage and audience.
• Squiggles – a play environment that is wheelchair accessible and has a variety of textures that provide a tactile experience for people who are blind or have low vision
• A website that is 100 percent ADA compliant to Conformance Level AAA
• Theater performance materials that indicate ASL-interpreted performances and audio-described performances
• Information on programmatic accessibility embedded in marketing and outreach materials for the theater, gallery and education programs
• Separate press releases for accessibility performances for mainstream media contacts and targeted disability contacts

Evaluation

The Arvada Center measures the success of their accessibility program through the following methods:

• Focus groups comprised of members of the deaf and blind community that discuss existing practices as well as visions for the future
• Feedback and evaluation forms where teachers, students and audience members, specifically those that use large print programs or assistive listening devices, share reactions and offer suggestions

Tips for Success

• Convene a separate focus group with representatives from the deaf community. Other focus groups can include representatives of different disability communities.
• Provide food for your focus group.
• Engage your focus group or access committee in making art; for example, center staff asked a focus group to create a photo journal, the last page of which is information on the accessibility program.
• Be consistent in making people with disabilities feel welcome as audience members. If you are inconsistent in any one year because of staff changes, lack of enthusiasm from leaders or other priorities such as facility expansion, you will have to begin again.
• Find a mentor. He or she doesn't have to be from a similarly-sized organization.
• Move forward with new programs or services when the environment is supportive and the staff is ready. File ideas away until the time is right. It took the center seven years, for example, to complete Squiggles.
• Be honest about your limitations and ask for help from the community that you are trying to serve.
• Identify one or two staff members who are passionate about accessibility and they can be the conscience of your organization.