“This Morning” by Ellen Kane.

Thirteen Arts Access artists will have their visual art on display at the annual Collaborative Art Exhibition held at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark from May 17 through the end of August. Besides spotlighting the work of Arts Access artists, the exhibit features art from three other organizations for people with disabilities that have adapted the Arts Access Program and its methodology: The Arc Mercer in Ewing, NJ; Hattie Larlham Creative Arts Program in Twinsburg, Ohio; and the WAE Center of Jewish Services for the Developmentally Disabled in West Orange, NJ.

A special Artists Reception will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, May 17 to launch the exhibition, which was coordinated by Noreen Gomez, facilities program specialist at New Jersey Medical School. Arts Access provides individuals with disabilities the freedom to create in the visual, literary and performing arts. The Collaborative Art Exhibition is one of three four-month shows at the New Jersey Medical School, ranging from paintings and photography to sculpture, jewelry and textiles.

“Friend” by Dion Alston.

Jess Evans with Tim Peters and her painting, “Spiderweb.”

Several years ago, Tim Peters, president of Peapack, NJ-based Tim Peters and Company and MedActionPlan.com LLC, purchased a painting by one of Matheny’s Arts Access artists at a silent auction. “Everyone who comes into the office loves the picture and comments on it,” he says. “We love how it looks in our office. It brightens up our day.”

More recently, Peters was reading the Winter 2015 issue of Matheny Matters, Matheny’s newsletter, when he spotted an article about a visit to the Visiting Nurse Association of the Somerset Hills in Basking Ridge, NJ, by two Arts Access artists. At the bottom of the page were images of two Arts Access paintings, “Spiderweb” by Jess Evans and an untitled piece by T.J. Christian. Peters contacted Arts Access and purchased both. Then, when he came to pick up the paintings, he met with both artists, who told Peters they would like to visit his office so they can see their paintings hanging. Plans are already in the works for these visits.

Arts Access enables artists with disabilities to create art without boundaries. Tim Peters and Company creates innovative print and software-based programs for the healthcare community. The firm has been on Peapack’s Main Street for more than 30 years.

Tim Peters with TJ Christian and his untitled painting.

Jess Evans is one of six Arts Access playwrights whose works will be performed by professional actors at “Plays by People.”

“Plays by People,” a performance of original dramatic works by Matheny’s Arts Access playwrights, will be part of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance’s Stages Festival, the state’s largest annual theatre festival which provides discounted and free theatre performances, workshops and events for all ages throughout the month of March.

The performance will be held at 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 28 in the Robert Schonhorn Arts Center on the Matheny campus. It’s free and open to the public.  It will include staged readings of short plays written by Arts Access playwrights with disabilities and performed by Equity actors and Kean University’s Premier Stages professional theatre staff. The playwrights will be an integral part of the staging process, directing and instructing the actors as to how to present their work. The six playwrights are: Cheryl Chapin, Jess Evans, Amanda Kochell, Taty Manousakis, Natalia Manning and Cindy Shanks.

The Stages Festival offers more than 100 performances, workshops, classes and events at the state’s professional theatres, performing arts centers, libraries, schools, senior centers, museums and other community venues. The program was developed to encourage New Jersey’s residents to attend their local professional theatres by making the experience more affordable, accessible and fun.

Arts Access empowers individuals with disabilities to create art without boundaries. Through the use of innovative systems and techniques, participants can take part in the visual, performing and literary arts.

Jess Evans and Yasin Reddick.

For several years, artwork created by artists in Matheny’s Arts Access Program has been hanging throughout the Adult Day Center of the Visiting Nurse Association of Somerset Hills in Basking Ridge, NJ. “We are thrilled to have the Arts Access artwork here,” said Maria M. Keenan, VNA Adult Day Center manager. “Our patients may not be able to put in words what the artwork means to them, but you can see the enthusiasm in their eyes.”

On Wednesday, September 24, two Arts Access artists visited the VNA and spoke about their artwork and their life at Matheny to a group of VNA members who come regularly to the Day Center. Jess Evans pointed out that, in addition to painting, she dances, choreographs, writes drama, directs plays and acts. She told the Day Center members, “I would like to dance for you one day.”

Yasin Reddick said he writes stories, plays and is working on his autobiography. He paints and also creates computer-generated digital art. “I don’t let my disability stop me from doing anything,” he added. Evans interjected: “Anyone can paint, even you guys.”

Matheny’s Arts Access Program empowers individuals with disabilities to create art without boundaries. Through the use of innovative systems and techniques, participants can take part in the visual, performing and literary arts. Regardless of their disability, the artists are provided with the tools and materials needed to produce complete pieces of work.

The VNA of Somerset Hills has been providing compassionate, comprehensive and innovative home health and hospice care, adult day services and community wellness programs to individuals and families in Morris and Somerset County communities since 1904.

Attentive and appreciative VNA Adult Day Center members.

Untitled digital sculpture by Natalia Manning.

Matheny’s Arts Access Program will have a visual art exhibit, “Reflections,” on display at the Grounds for Sculpture in Trenton from September 21 through November 2. A special reception at 1 p.m. on Saturday, September 20, will feature live performances of drama and dance created by Arts Access artists and readings of works written by Arts Access participants. The visual art will be exhibited in the Educational Gallery.

In addition to the exhibit, the Grounds for Sculpture is currently offering scarves, neckties and note cards with Arts Access designs in its Sculpture Gift Shop. Arts Access provides individuals with disabilities the freedom to create in the visual, literary and performing arts.

The Grounds for Sculpture was founded in 1992 to promote an understanding of and appreciation for contemporary sculpture by maintaining a 42-acre sculpture park, organizing accessible exhibitions and interpreting these exhibitions through publications, lectures, workshops and other educational programs.

Necktie based on a design by T.J. Christian.

Noreen Gomez, left, and Eileen Murray in front of “The Good Arts are Special” by Ellen Kane.

Eleven Arts Access artists have their visual art on display at the Collaborative Art Exhibition at Rutgers University New Jersey Medical School in Newark. In addition to showcasing the work of Arts Access artists, the exhibit features the art of three other organizations for people with disabilities that have adapted the Arts Access Program and its methodology: the Arc of Mercer County in Ewing, NJ; Hattie Larlham Creative Arts Program in Twinsburg, Ohio; and WAE Center of Jewish Services for the Developmentally Disabled in West Orange, NJ.

The exhibition opened in May and runs through the end of August. It was coordinated by Noreen Gomez, the facilities program specialist at New Jersey Medical School, and was launched at a reception on Sunday, May 18.

Arts Access gives individuals with disabilities the freedom to create in the visual, literary and performing arts. The Collaborative Art Exhibition is one of three four-month shows at the New Jersey Medical School, ranging from paintings and photography to sculpture, jewelry and textiles.

“Oakaloni Palace” by Cheryl Chapin.

Visual art created by artists in Matheny’s Arts Access program will be featured at the Morris Museum in Morristown, NJ, as part of “Access-ABILITY,” a series of exhibitions displaying fine art created by artists with disabilities. The Arts Access artwork will be shown from April 24 through April 27. An opening reception, 5:30–7 p.m. on April 24, will also feature readings of original work created by Arts Access writers.

Arts Access provides individuals with disabilities the freedom to create in the visual, literary and performing arts. For more information on Access-ABILITY, log onto www.morrismuseum.org or email info@morrismusem.org. For more information on Arts Access, log onto www.artsaccessprogram.org.

Untitled by Cindy Shanks.

Eileen Murray, greeting Arts Access writer Jenny Durr at Full Circle 2013: Reflections, the 20th anniversary celebration of the Arts Access Program.

Eileen Murray, director of Matheny’s Arts Access Program, will be receiving Morris Arts’ “Outstanding Professional in the Arts” award at the organization’s Celebrate the Arts event on March 27 at the Morris Museum’s Bickford Theatre in Morristown, NJ. Murray is receiving the award because of her “outstanding accomplishments, commitment and contribution to encouraging and fostering the arts in our community.”

Arts Access, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, gives people with disabilities the freedom to create in the visual, literary and performing arts. Murray, a working artist for 30 years, joined the Arts Access staff in 2001. She was named director in 2011.

Morris Arts, located in Morristown, is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1973.  Its mission is to “engage and build community through the arts.”

From left, Linda Moore, executive director of the Morris Museum; Congressman Leonard Lance; and Morris Museum trustee Gerri Horn.

“This was really awesome!” That comment by Heather Kosinski, a young woman from Kenilworth, NJ, was typical of the reaction to Full Circle 2013: Reflections, the 20th anniversary celebration of Matheny’s Arts Access Program. U.S. Congressman Leonard Lance (NJ 07), honorary chair of the event, described the artwork on display as “truly magnificent,” adding his “congratulations to all of the artists and all of those who made this event possible.”

“We provide the creative freedom for the artists to express themselves,” explained Eileen Murray, director of the Arts Access Program, “but it is the artists who bring this work to life. The art you see today is a true reflection of 20 years of hundreds of individuals who have created thousands of personal reflections.”

The true stars of the afternoon were the artists and their art, of course, whether it was visual art such as “Flower Power,” an acrylic on canvas by Jess Evans, or Rasheedah Mahali’s moving tribute to the late artist Jason Christie or “Alone,” a dance piece choreographed and performed by Natalia Manning. More than 70 pieces of visual art, curated by former Arts Access facilitator Scott Beil, were on display in the gallery, and 14 performances of dance, drama, prose and poetry were presented in a multi-media stage presentation, which also visually traced the development of Arts Access from its beginnings in 1993 to today. Steve Proctor, Matheny president, paid tribute to former medical director Dr. Gabor Barabas and former president Robert Schonhorn, who founded the program after asking the question: “Can people with disabilities create fine art?”

Arts Access received a $10,000 Challenge America Fast-Track grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the Full Circle celebration, and the program also recently received an Excellence in the Arts award from the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission and the Friends of Somerset County Culture & Heritage, Inc. Major sponsors of Full Circle were: Gold, Day Pitney LLP and The Providence Bank Foundation; Silver, The Hartford; and Bronze, Affinity Federal Credit Union, The Angeletti Group, Financial Resources Federal Credit Union and ShopRite of Hunterdon County. Food sponsors were: Café Azzurro and cocoLuxe fine pastries, Peapack; Gladstone Tavern, Gladstone; 3 West and Urban Table, Basking Ridge; and Village Office Supply, Somerset.

Visual art curator Scott Beil and his wife Erin in front of an untitled acrylic on canvas by Chris Butler.

Eileen Murray, center, with Nicholas Paleologos, executive director of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and Karen Pinzolo.

Twenty years ago, the founders of Matheny’s Arts Access Program asked the question, “Can people with disabilities create fine art?” That question has been answered, and the answer is ‘yes’, said Eileen Murray, director of the program, while accepting an Excellence in the Arts Award from the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission and the Friends of Somerset County Culture & Heritage, Inc. The award, for Arts in the Community, was one of seven presented on October 24 at the Twin Brooks Country Club in Watchung, N.J.

Arts Access was nominated for the award by Karen Pinzolo, director of community engagement for Art Pride New Jersey. While introducing Murray, Pinzolo described Arts Access as an “amazing program, a national model,” adding that the art is “a celebration of life and the human spirit. I was blown away when I saw it, and you will be, too.”

Both Murray and Pinzolo invited members of the audience to attend Full Circle 2013 Reflections, the 20th anniversary of Arts Access, which will be held Saturday, November 2, in the Robert Schonhorn Arts Center on the Matheny campus in Peapack. Two Arts Access artists, Cheryl Chapin and Yasin Reddick, attended the awards dinner, and a sample of their artwork was on display.

Arts Access makes it possible for people with disabilities to create fine art, assisted by professional artist-facilitators. In a short video shown at the dinner, Keith Garletts, Arts Access outreach coordinator and program specialist, listed the four principles of the program: freedom of choice, neutrality, no preconceptions and artists assisting artists.

From left, Arts Access artist Cheryl Chapin, Eileen Murray, Nicholas Paleologos, Somerset County Freeholder Patricia Walsh and Arts Access artist Yasin Reddick.