ART PROGRAMS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Our Community Arts Program began April 1, 1993. While art programming has been available within rehabilitation services for some time, the focus of this Opportunity Resources, Inc. (ORI) program is to go beyond facility-based art instruction. Individuals in ORI Services are given the opportunity to attend community art classes, cultural events, and audience-based performances with the support of ORI program staff.

Highlights of Opportunity Resources, Inc. Community Arts program in the past 14 years:

Over 100 individuals from ORI have participated in programs including Missoula Writing Collaborative, UM Dance Programs, Missoula Museum of the Arts courses, Continuing Education Art offerings, individual work with community artists, and ongoing classes at ORI.
Washington D.C. based NISH selected an ORI participant watercolor for their 20th Anniversary commemorative poster.
Two ORI artists’ work were selected for exhibit in Belgium (May ’94) as part of the VSA International Conference.
An ORI artist’s work was selected to be part of the Missoula Museum of the Art’s permanent collection.
An ORI artist had a solo exhibition at the Beall Park Art Center in Bozeman (September ’99).
ORI participants in the Common Ground Poetry Workshop have had their writing published in the Common Ground Poetry Anthology, and posted in Missoula Mountain Line Buses.
ORI artists have had their work displayed at various Missoula venues, including the University of Montana and Community Medical Center.
Kate Davis of Raptors of the Rockies led a workshop in May, 2002. Participants had the opportunity to draw from a golden eagle, a harris’s hawk, and a great horned owl.
Opportunity Resources, Inc. has created gallery space at the main facility at 2821 S. Russell and at the Palace Hotel, featuring works by Community Arts Program participants.

Dinosaur Opportunities are not limited to learning but include chances to attend cultural events and to show work. Exhibitions have been well received in Butte, Billings, Bozeman, and Missoula. Poetry readings have occurred in Helena and Missoula, as well as dance performances in Missoula.

Currently, Opportunity Resources, Inc. offers two on-going art classes on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3:30-5pm. In addition to learning various processes of art making, participants also regularly make visits to the Art Museum of Missoula and other local galleries, as well as field trips to draw in parks in and around Missoula.

Other opportunities for learning in the arts include:

Workshops with local artists Francis Pearson and Bev Beck Glueckert, the Common Ground Poetry Workshop taught by Sherly Noethe of the Missoula Writing Collaborative, and the New Visions Dance Class taught by Drama/Dance Department Professor Karen Kauffman, at the University of Montana.

For more information please contact Emmy Cho, 329-1755, emmyc@orimt.org

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