Universal Participation Initiative Receives LEAD® Award
Charles G. Baldwin, Program Officer
Mass Cultural Council’s Charles Baldwin and Anita Walker with Betty Siegel, Director, Office of VSA and Accessibility at The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts at the 2019 LEAD award ceremony.
The Award recognizes outstanding arts leadership in the field of accessibility, demonstrating success by improving access at cultural institutions and by providing access to individuals with disabilities. Over the course of five years, the Universal Participation Initiative has stewarded a growing network of more than 60 organizations; hired more than 100 people with disabilities as speakers, consultants, teachers, panelists, and adjudicators; implemented and disbursed 40 Innovation and Learning Network stipends, 30 Innovation Grants, 10 LEAD stipends, and presented the first biennial UP Award; and facilitated creative learning workshops across the Commonwealth. This scope of work additionally recognizes the critical importance of diversity within the disability community.
Part of a suite of plans developed by the Agency and its stakeholders to center equity as a guiding principle and a strategic practice; directing advancement and investment