Lenox — Community Access to the Arts (CATA) held its annual gala and performance “Kaleidoscope” at Shakespeare & Company, with performances from May 9 to May 12.
The organization, founded in 1993 by dance therapist Sandy Newman, provides more than 2,200 art workshops annually—including painting, dancing, acting, songwriting, drumming, and yoga—for over 1,000 children, teens, and adults with disabilities in Berkshire County and Columbia County, N.Y.
The May 9 performance was for students at local Berkshire County schools, including the sixth grade from W.E.B. Du Bois Middle School and several special education programs. “Over the last few weeks, our adult CATA artists in the show have been visiting those classrooms,” said CATA Communications Director Chris Watford. “They have visited these classrooms with a big, tactile model of the set, giving those students a preview of what they are going to see on stage. They introduce themselves as artists with disabilities, answering questions from students about their experiences.”
Watford emphasized the experience’s impact on students with disabilities, enabling a sense of possibility and belonging. “CATAs visits to schools allow students to see adults with disabilities in leadership positions and on stage as performers,” he said. “These students have the opportunity to imagine who they can become as adults. And for students in mainstream education programs, like the students from the sixth grade at DuBois, they are getting a chance to encounter people with disabilities, sometimes for the first time, to see what their experiences are like.”
“A few years ago, CATA made a concerted goal to expand our work in local public schools and to offer CATA opportunities to children and teenagers with disabilities,” said CATA Executive Director Margaret Keller. “This is a moment where we get to share the artistry and the creativity of CATA artists with all of these school groups. A performance like this brings them into a community that is supportive and inclusive, and also celebrates their talents.”
As for the show itself, Keller said at the beginning of the performance that “our artists are asking us to enter into an experience where art, dance, music, and theater give us a lens to reimagine our world.” “This entire performance has been shaped by and for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities,” she said. “Over 100 CATA artists helped to create this show, composing music and lyrics for original songs and choreographic dances, devising original theater scenes, and designing and building the sets. The sense of pride and ownership that our artists feel is a hallmark of how we approach our mission. This work is deeply personal, and CATA artists are sharing who they are and how they see the world.”
“To me, CATA is all about creating a community partnership where we can teach inclusion and tolerance,” sixth grade Du Bois Middle School teacher Kim Cormier said after the performance. “Those are the most important lessons that children can learn. CATA teaches us and the community that it takes all different types of people to make a community beautiful and strong and inclusive and tolerant.”
