Lenox — This is the 15th year that the much-beloved Community Access to the Arts (CATA) is showcasing its performers for what is always a successful fundraising benefit. Tickets to the event, held at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, are still available for the Saturday evening, May 14, and Sunday afternoon, May 15, performances, but they typically sell out so don’t tarry if you plan to attend.
Margaret Keller, executive director of CATA, notes that the organization enjoys a large group of supporters. “Our gala attracts a loyal group of supporters who attend every year, but there are always new faces, too.” For first-time attendees, it can provide an eye-opening moment for those who do not have a primary experience with disability. “We want to expand people’s perception of disability,” says Keller.
Keller goes on to say that their annual gala “…is our most public moment, and an important opportunity to draw people into our mission.” Like all other performers, CATA’s need an audience so they can step into their role. Thus the annual fundraiser plays a crucial role in their activities. This year there will be 50 artists performing.
CATA has two distinct and equally important components. One is to nurture the CATA artists’ creativity in intensive arts workshops. The individual CATA artist might be involved in dance, tap, creative writing, singing, drumming, painting, yoga, theatre, and improvisation. The other component is to draw the wider community into CATA’s work so people can appreciate the talents the CATA artists have to share. “We want our public programs to shine a spotlight on the ability within the disability,” says Keller.
CATA nurtures and celebrates about 600 people with disabilities all over Berkshire County. Although it began in South Berkshire County and remains a significant presence there, it is now active in Pittsfield and North County. “We have 30 program partners across the county,” says Keller, “and we draw upon the population of every town, from Williamstown down to Great Barrington.”
What makes CATA such a well-respected part of the Berkshire community is that it provides people with disabilities the opportunity for creative self-expression. By giving the public the opportunity to witness that encounter, it creates a two-way street, giving both to those with disabilities and to the broader community. “It is beyond charity and beyond sympathy. CATA is a reciprocal opportunity,” says Keller.
About 60 percent of CATA’s work happens in residences, schools, and elder care centers such as nursing homes. The remaining 40 percent of the programs are held in the CATA studio space in Great Barrington, which is open to anyone who enrolls in a workshop series. These include students who come in from Monument Mountain High School, Mt. Everett, and Riverbrook Residence.
CATA workshops are sustained opportunities to explore a particular art form, and for the participants to be challenged, stimulated, and grow. Typical participants are adults, but there are programs involving teens in school. “Most of our work in high schools is with life skills, or special education,” Keller says. The skills taught in CATA workshops help the participants learn to express themselves to others, to develop new ideas, help them be comfortable in larger groups, and a host of other skills. These workshops are typically life-changing for teenagers, and can also be the same for adults.
Artsin/Artsout, CATA’s core workshop model, provides workshops in its studio, but also includes classes in residences and schools. Additionally CATA hosts an Art on Tour program, which shares the participants’ visual art with the wider public in galleries, museums, and cultural centers throughout the county. In recent months art shows have been mounted at No. Six Depot, the Good Purpose Gallery, and at Pittsfield City Hall. Coming up are shows at the Lichtenstein Center and at the Clark.
There are seven members of CATA’s full-time staff. An additional 22 artists lead workshops and are paid as independent contractors. “They are gifted artists in their own right,” says Keller. Dawn Lane, the program and artistic director, has been with CATA almost since its beginning. Jeff Gagnon, the program coordinator, has been with the organization for six years, beginning as an intern from MCLA. Their newest employee is Kara Smith, the CATADirect Studio manager, and a program associate.
CATADirect is a craft cooperative, where CATA artists work side by side with community volunteers to make handcrafted objects. The proceeds from the crafts sales is split in half, with 50 percent going to the artist, and the remainder helping to support the program.
Margaret Keller moved from Chicago to the Berkshires when her husband, Brendan Matthews, became a professor of creative writing and literature at Simon’s Rock. Prior to becoming executive director of CATA, Keller was the foundation relations manager at Simon’s Rock, managing grant writing to foundations and relations with grant funders. Before that she headed the public programs for the Chicago Humanities Festival, the nation’s largest festival of arts and ideas.
Keller succeeded CATA founder Sandy Newman, who created and nurtured the organization. And while Newman enjoys her free time now, the day I attended a rehearsal for the gala performance, she was happily situated in the audience, smiling as she watched this year’s crop of actors strut their stuff. So will you if you choose to attend.
