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Mission Statement

The mission of Accessible Arts, Inc. is to unlock the arts for children with disabilities and advocate access to the arts.

Values and Beliefs Statement

Accessible Arts values children and the arts. Above all, access to the arts for children with disabilities is our core principle.

Advocacy, education and collaboration are essential components in accomplishing our objectives. Our beliefs are encompassed in the concept known as ‘universal design’ that does not disadvantage or stigmatize anyone.

We believe that through the arts, children develop critical thinking skills, take risks in a safe environment and experience successes.  The challenge of creating something of value instills hope and self-confidence in children.

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Staff & Volunteers

All staff members are available as speakers

Martin English, Executive Director - Email Martin

Martin has served as the Executive Director for Accessible Arts since March of 2000. He directs all arts programming, facilitates advocacy efforts, oversees all aspects of fiscal management and supervises Accessible Arts staff and consultants. From 1997 to 2000, Martin served as the Executive Director for FilmFest Kansas City and the KAN Film Festival. His experience includes managing not-for-profit organizations, fund raising, grant writing and promoting the arts. With an MFA in Acting/Directing from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, he has extensive experience in theatre including the creation and performance of many workshops in Kansas and Missouri schools. Martin has maintained a long-term relationship with Young Audiences and Arts Partners of Kansas City to ensure artist residencies in the schools. He has also directed and produced several training video projects for corporate and non-profit clients.

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Kit Bardwell , Program Director - Email Kit

Kit is responsible for coordinating Accessible Arts' programming for children with disabilities. This includes public presentations, teacher/parent training, and presenting a variety of arts experiences for children with disabilities and their non-disabled peers across the state of Kansas. Kit will also develop programming for the new accessible art studio to be housed in the historic Carriage House located close to our office on the campus of the Kansas State School for the Blind.

Kit has twenty years of experience working with children and adults through music, drama, and visual art. Her credits include: Founder and Artistic Director of the Pocket Theatre, a touring company that offered participatory theatre for children from 1987 to 1993; Program Specialist for Young Audiences of Kansas City; and General Manager for Paul Mesner Puppets. Kit also has experience as a freelance performer, director, and playwright. She has presented numerous presentations at national and international conferences and is well known for her work as an Orff Schulwerk clinician. Her experience working with individuals with disabilities includes teaching music at the North Carolina School for the Deaf and working as a Program Coordinator for Triality, a provider of day habilitation for adults with developmental disabilities. Kit's music degrees are from the North Carolina School of the Arts and the University of Missouri – Kansas City.

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Veronica Hope, Office Manager/Bookkeeper- Email Veronica

Veronica joined the staff in February 2008. She is responsible for day-to-day banking and cash handling, various office administrative tasks, and financial reporting. With an Associate in Business Arts & Science degree and over ten years accounting experience, Veronica has spent most of her life volunteering and working with various non-profit and other community organizations. Before moving to Kansas City, she assisted in the development of a community center in Texas that celebrates and explores cultural diversity. As an artist, she enjoys painting, drumming and dancing. Recently, Veronica has started exploring the world of recycling through arts and crafts.

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Beverly Johnson, Communications Coordinator- Email Beverly

Beverly helps behind the scenes with events planning, media communications, public speaking, web site maintenance, data base management, and grant writing. She has Associate in Fine Arts and Bachelor of Music Education degrees. With previous experience as a marketing coordinator, Beverly has done fund raising, public speaking, and has written newsletters for several non-profit organizations. She has raised three children whom she started in their musical training, has worked as a substitute teacher in kindergarten and elementary music, and is a former family hiker and camper.

When asked about her work, Beverly says, "I tell people how impressed I am with the outstanding work being done by a very small staff."

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Eleanor Craig, Executive Assistant - Email Eleanor

Eleanor Craig is a life-long learner and educator whose passion for the Oregon Trail and the 19th Century began in 1972 and has included two Trail treks guiding high school students the full 2000 mile length of the Oregon Trail. Eleanor’s interest, experience, and expertise in experience-based learning and teaching spans thirty-five years. Her early professional training in mathematics education at Webster and Harvard Universities occurred in the 1960s when use of hands-on materials and experience-based problem solving were an essential part of the "New Math." Eleanor was the founding Director of the Webster University Master of Arts in Teaching Program in Interdisciplinary Studies, a program for in-service elementary and junior high teachers which focused on thematic studies uniting the core disciplines, including the arts. The program introduced Kansas City public school teachers to the methods of integrated studies used in the British open classroom and to Montessori methods of curriculum development.

With the support of a Danforth Foundation Fellowship, Eleanor completed doctoral studies at Boston University in Adult Education, conducting participant observation research on the process of adult learning and change in daily-life settings. For six years, Eleanor worked with a group of Kentucky farmers, using her skills in non-formal teaching and learning to help working farmers master the art of community organizing and political lobbying. Returning to Kansas City in 1995, Eleanor joined the staff of Accessible Arts as Executive Assistant, a position that gives full play to her organizational and writing skills. A chance remark to the Superintendent of the Kansas School for the Blind, where Accessible Arts has its offices, re-ignited Eleanor’s Oregon Trail interests...And the rest is a wonderful adventure in history!

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Board of Directors

Officers
Jen Talley, President
Project Manager, Intronic Solution

Arnie Abels, Ph.D., Vice President
Associate/Training Director, UMKC Counseling Center

Jane Rhys, PH.D. - Secretary
Executive Director, Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities

Barb Keim - Treasurer
Children's Advocate

Directors
Caleb Fey
Curator, American Century Companies

Belle Harris
Disability Program Specialist
Missouri Governor's Council on Disability