Welcoming All: Accessibility Design for Festival Settings, St. Paul

Create a festival environment that actively welcomes, supports, and engages individuals of all abilities!

Explore how the elements of accessibility and inclusion can be applied to festival settings through the stages of planning, design, and implementation. This workshop will provide an overview of disability awareness and highlight many of the successful frameworks of accessibility and inclusion.

Participants will have the opportunity to consider a wide range of topics including:

• design and construction
• structure and implementation of accessibility services
• community outreach
• utilizing volunteers
• preserving the priority and integrity of your accessibility vision while collaborating with internal and external agencies

Gain tangible strategies and resources for your organization no matter where you are starting on your journey of inclusion.

Presenter: Diane Nutting

Working as a consultant at the intersections of disability, arts, and education, Diane provides training, project coordination, and strategic planning services for a wide range of cultural arts institutions as well as state and local arts agencies including recent collaborations with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the High Museum of Art, Ford’s Theatre, and the United States Botanic Garden. Since 2016 she has worked with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage to serve as the Accessibility Coordinator for the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the grounds of the National Mall, as well as other festival partnerships and events across the Smithsonian campus.

Accessibility:

• CART captioning and ASL will be provided, speaker will be amplified and assisted listening devices are available.
• Contact (651) 539-2689 or info@mnaccess.org to request other accommodations, with accessibility inquiries, or to register outside of EventBrite.
• Additional venue specific access information can be found on the access page of the Bell Museum website: https://www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/access/

Location and other:

• Event is offered FREE, registration is required.
• Light refreshments and snacks will be served.
• Directions and parking information can be found on the Bell Museum site: https://www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/directions/

Thanks to:

This session is made possible through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, in partnership with the Minnesota Festival Events Association, and with support from the MN Access Alliance.

Space generously provided by the Bell Museum, Minnesota’s official natural history museum.

The Minnesota Festivals and Events Association (MNFEA) is a nonprofit organization specializing in professional development and networking events for those in the festival and event industry. The mission of the Minnesota Festivals and Events Association is to support the people who organize Minnesota's festivals and events. To learn more or to become a member, visit www.mnfea.com.

The Minnesota State Arts Board is a state agency that stimulates and encourages the creation, performance, and appreciation of the arts in the state.To learn more visit http://www.arts.state.mn.us/.

Image descriptions:

Event image is a photograph of the festival scene, a several people in front of a stage, musicians on the stage along with two people wearing orange and black costume butterfly wings, and a large sign hanging over the stage with the words "Monarch Festival". Trees and blue sky in the background.

Image 2: Diane Nutting, Festival Accessibility Consultant depicts a woman with light colored skin, shoulder-length, wavy brown hair, wearing a red and white scarf around her neck and a red shirt.

Image 3: Accessibility symbols; American sign language, universal symbol of access (wheelchair), Assisted listening, and open caption symbols.

Image 4: Minnesota Festival & Events Association logo; from left to right, the shape of the state of Minnesota in blue, block letters MNFEA, all under a sweeping yellow line, ending and on the far right side a pink flag and three progressively larger spirals over the letter A.

Image 5: Minnesota State Arts Board logo; several lines depicting the arts above the words Minnesota State Arts Board.