Tour Guide Training in Access Living’s Permanent Art Collection

Access Living’s permanent art collection features work that captures aspects of the disability experience, culture and history. Displayed on the walls of our building, the collection showcases pieces created by artists with disabilities from across the nation including Riva Lehrer, Sandie Yi and Mat Fraser.

This impressive and important collection remains mostly unknown to the general public in Chicago. Our goal is to train members of Chicago’s vibrant disability community to act as tour guides for the art collection. Once trained, the tour guides will have the skills and information needed to lead tours, educate the public about the collection and hopefully spark dialogue about disability identity, culture, pride and history in Chicago and across the country.

In three sessions, participants will learn about Access Living’s art collection and gain marketable employment and life skills and experience*, including public speaking skills and community engagement experience.

Ideal participants should have an interest in interacting with the public and talking about art as well as disability identity and culture. Previous experience with art, public speaking, and tours is awesome but not required.

$300 Stipend available for those who complete the tour guide training.

*Future employment cannot be guaranteed.

Registration

You can also RSVP by contacting Beth Bendtsen at bbendtsen@accessliving.org or (312) 640-2156 if Google Forms is not accessible to you.

Accessibility:

Access Living is a scent free building. Please refrain from wearing scented products, such as scented lotion, perfume and cologne. All areas of the building are wheelchair accessible.

Due to high demand for live captioning (CART) and ASL interpretation services during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are asking participants to submit access requests for ASL and/or CART 2-3 weeks in advance.

Please contact Beth at bbendtsen@accessliving.org or (312) 640-2156 with access requests and questions.

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This event is brought to you by the Arts and Culture Project at Access Living, an independent living center for people with disabilities, Bodies of Work: Network of Disability Art and Culture, Shirley Ryan Abilities Lab, and the Disability Culture Activism Lab (DCAL), a teaching lab housed under the department of art therapy and counseling at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Bodies of Work is a part of the Department of Disability and Human Development within the College of Applied Health Sciences at University of Illinois-Chicago.

The contents of this training were developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90RTCP0005).  NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  The contents of this training  do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.