Chairs fo Inclusion Artists' Talk

The Chairs of Inclusion, commissioned and created to celebrate the 10th anniversary of JSDD’s Wae Center, are objects of art that inspire a change in perceptions about what individuals with disabilities can accomplish. The Wae (Wellness, arts, enrichment) Center is an alternative learning center in West Orange where members explore avenues for maximizing independence and achieving personal fulfillment. Throughout 2014, professional NJ artists worked alongside the Center’s artists, who are adults with developmental disabilities. You can learn about the project and the lead artists’ experiences at www.chairsofinclusion.org. The chairs, a testimony to the talents that often lay hidden in people with special needs, will be on display at 1978 Maplewood Arts Center from Sunday, August 2 to Friday, August 28, 2015, 1978 Springfield Avenue, Maplewood 07040. Exhibit co-curators Onnie Strother and Mansa K. Mussa serve on the Board of Directors of the Art Center. “My partnership with the WAE Center on the Chairs of Inclusion Project has helped me to discover another teaching technique: The WAE of the Zen, a quiet, also meditative, approach to creating art,” states Mussa. “Each one of the artists who participated in the process sat at the table and used their unique talents to lift the cloak of disability to reveal the power of collaboration, the power of making art, and the power of making magic,” he added. The participating artists are: ArtShare Artists, Susanna Baker, Dan Fenelon, Tim Folzenlogen, Lisa Ficarelli-Halpern, Ellen Hanauer, Jennifer Levine, Yvette Lucas, Mansa K. Mussa, Stephen Schwartz, Gladys Barker Grauer and Onnie Strother. The gallery is open on Saturdays and Sundays, 2-5 PM, and by appointment. For more information contact Monica@waecenter.org (973) 272-7154, or mansamussa@verizon.net (973) 669-4729.