St. Paul, Minn. (Jan. 25, 2016) — Since 1996, the Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts has had a mission to create art that challenges perceptions of disability. That effort has opened doors for artists with disabilities and audiences eager to experience their work, who might never have seen the arts as a life choice, but who now see the arts as essential to their humanity.
Interact has since become a multicultural, intergenerational theater and studio arts that embraces the entire spectrum of disability labels. It serves more than 125 artists today.
Jeanne Calvit, Interact founder and director, said that when she started Interact back in 1996 she knew that art making here would transform artists’ lives.
“What I didn’t realize then that there would be a huge ripple effect — the families, the staff and all of the community that experienced the work of our artists would shift their perceptions of disability,” Calvit said. “They would see human potential and creativity. That ripple effect would extend way beyond our own community and beyond as our artists became leaders and traveled the world. The initial vision has grown so much – the power that creativity can bring to an individual and the human experience cannot be measured.”
Interact’s work is driven by a vision of radical inclusion, she said. Interact collaborates with artists with and without disabilities, from mainstream and marginalized communities, whose stories and life experiences are the grist for our original, ensemble-generated theatrical work, and inspire the spectrum of media that are created in our studio. Interact was the first – and remains the only -visual and performing arts organization for artists with disabilities, nationally or internationally, that is creating full-time at the professional level, and sharing exciting seasons of performances and exhibitions with our audiences.
A 20th anniversary celebration is scheduled for Nov. 30, 2016 at the The LAB Theater located at 700 North 1st Street Minneapolis, MN 55401. For more information visit http://interactcenter.com.
Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts is a non-profit organization (IRS section 501 (c) (3)).
Interact’s work is driven by a vision of radical inclusion. It collaborates with artists with and without disabilities, from mainstream and marginalized communities, whose stories and life experiences are the grist for our original, ensemble-generated theatrical work, and inspire the spectrum of media that are created in our studio. Interact was the first – and remains the only -visual and performing arts organization for artists with disabilities, nationally or internationally, that is creating full-time at the professional level, and sharing exciting seasons of performances and exhibitions with our audiences.
