CAN Awarded for Acccessibility Leadership

Each year, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies presented three of its five annual awards to honor the accomplishments of state arts agencies and leaders in the public arts support field. This year’s National Accessibility Leadership Award was given to the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for the creation of the Cultural Access Network, which has assisted more than six hundred cultural organizations in making their programs, operations and facilities accessible to the more than 1.4 million individuals in the state with disabilities.

The award, co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Coca-Cola Company, and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, recognizes exceptional and effective programs or initiatives that make the arts accessible and inclusive to individuals with disabilities and to older adults. Paula Terry of the National Endowment of the Arts says, “I have held the New Jersey Arts Cultural Access Network as a model for some time now for other state organizations to replicate.”

The New Jersey State Council on the Arts (NJSCA) formed the Cultural Access Network in 1992, in partnership with the New Jersey Theatre Alliance. Since it began, the Cultural Access Network has been the primary resource for New Jersey’s arts community for making structural and programmatic changes in order to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and ensure access for all. In addition, they modified their grant evaluation criteria to emphasize that all applicants would be measured on their attention to increasing accessibility.

The award was presented by Dana Gioia, NEA chairman of the board and Curtis L. Etherly, Jr., Vice President, Public Affairs, Mid-Atlantic and Eastern Great Lakes Divisions of the Coca-Cola Company. Executive Director David Miller and Director of Programs and Services, Steven Runk accepted the award on behalf of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Also there to accept was John McEwen, the Executive Director of the the New Jersey Theatre Alliance.

The event took place at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC on July 18, 2004.

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