Barbara L. Gregson

With the goal of creating a visual and performing arts studio (Independence Arts Studio) for adults with mental and physical disabilities, Barbara will travel to Richmond, California and study with NIAD, a long-time arts center for people with disabilities. Her time at NIAD will help provide her with the skills to create programs that will have a positive impact on people with disabilities and engage people in artmaking and sharing in respectful ways. The center Barbara creates will have ongoing arts classes and performances. The center will also show people how to make money from their art, by putting it on sale on a website, in the gallery, or in stores.

Barbara is a performance artist who has staged her own original mime, mask and music shows since 1984. She has also directed many theater residencies in schools, community and senior centers, prisons, and hospitals that culminated in collaborative shows. Since 2000, she has taught a course at the Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in which students write and perform an original piece. Many of her students have gone on to study at the prestigious National Theatre Workshop for the Handicapped. In 2007, Barbara started the Independence Arts Studio, a design, arts production, and performing studio, where the artists can exhibit and perform their work, currently housed at Liberty Resources, an organization that advocates for people with disabilities.

Mentorship with a performance artists/mask maker at the Brushwood Folklore Center in Sherman, NY. Support towards travel and mentorship fees.