Creativity Beyond

By Adrianna Gamble

Have you ever wondered how an artist manages to make ends meet in the real world? The competition is stiff, the list of requirements and expectations, gruelling enough to make anybody’s hair stand on end!

Once a masterpiece is complete (a process which could take weeks, months or even years of creative concentration), the really hard work begins. After all, the long road to success isn’t just a "tiptoe through the tulips." It takes determination, drive and boundless energy. Finding a promoter, mounting a show and taking that show on tour may be an overwhelming prospect for the most able-bodied artist.

But what about those of us who are artists with disabilities? Sure, we share the same creative gift, and certainly have the drive and determination. But what of it if the energy isn’t there? Low energy (or energy that comes in spurts and surges) is our most exhausting barrier and the most difficult one to transcend.

What we needed was to form an artists’ association that would address the unique needs of artists with disabilities, and protect their right to earn a living in their chosen discipline. This idea is nothing new, but has remained undeveloped until recently.

In April, 1994, a government-funded project entitled "Upward Mobility for Artists with Disabilities" became reality and, through it, an organization called Creativity Beyond (which later became the Creativity Beyond Association) was established in Richmond, B.C.

The mandate of the Creativity Beyond Association is to serve "professional-by-right artists with mobility-limiting disabilities" by offering customized marketing packages as part of a portable library ("ArtMobile") which serves as a vehicle to promote individual or group tours.

("Professional-by-right" means self-taught, unable to attend formal training because of a disability, and also, perhaps, because demographic location greatly limits mobility and prevents participation in the arts community. "Mobility-limiting disabilities" refer to disabilities resulting in a lack of energy -- or a lack of energy resulting in disability, as in the case of chronic fatigue syndrome.)

Hope for the future is that the Creativity Beyond Association will find enough private sector backing to support its Art-Mobile program so that the incredible work done by artists with disabilities can find its rightful place among other treasures of our Canadian national heritage!

For more information, please write to Adrianna Gamble, Director, Creativity Beyond Association, #444-8155 Park Rd., Richmond, BC V6Y 1Y4.