VSA Arts for All
All arts, all ages, all abilities

A VSA arts of New Mexico Core Program

All arts, all ages, all abilities---this VSA arts credo is spread statewide through our Arts for All component. 

This outreach program assists local communities in developing accessible arts programming through training workshops, bi-annual conferences, networking, newsletters, festivals, and presentations of the work of emerging and established artists with disabilities.  More than 100 program coordinators and 5,000 New Mexico households, schools, and businesses stay up to date on issues impacting arts, education, access and human service needs of the disability community through our website, publications, and national special projects such as Start with the Arts, the Young Soloists Competition, and the Playwright Discovery Award.   VSA Arts for All also provides a forum for animated discussions of emerging ideas and arts access issues including disability culture, inclusion, human rights, and freedom of expression.

"It is not that we, as persons with disabilities, want to be like the able-bodied any more…We want, instead, to create a new consciousness and thinking for society…and invite the able-bodied to share it with us." 
-Andre Dubus,Meditations from a Moveable Chair

With your help, VSA arts brings the power of the arts into the lives of at least 50,000 New Mexicans each year.  Approximately 24% of New Mexicans have a significant disability, one of highest rates of disability in the country.  VSA arts of New Mexico, formerly Very Special Arts, is the only statewide source of arts programming and services for thousands of New Mexicans not regularly given the opportunity to participate in the arts.

  VSA arts of New Mexico staff and consultants are available to provide technical assistance and training in cultural access, universal design, and program design and development.  Hands-on training in creative learning strategies and accessible arts curricula and techniques, such as the use of the Arts for All adaptive art tools created by Dwayne Szot, are also offered.

  "This is the best, most useful, mind opening experience and conference I have ever been to!  Thanks!"
-Meiling Po McKay
1999 Arts for Life Conference participant

The mission of VSA arts of New Mexico is to celebrate the creative power of individuals with disabilities and educate through the arts.

For additional information on programs and services or information in alternative formats please contact:

  VSA arts of New Mexico

4904 Fourth Street NW · Albuquerque, New Mexico 87107-3906

Phone:  505-345-2872; NM Relay Network:  800-659-8331; Fax:  505-345-2896

E-mail:  [email protected]