Heritage Centers After School Program
Young Audiences of Western New York has been partnering with Heritage Centers’ After School Program for the past six years to provide programming for young people who are developmentally disabled. This past fall Jennifer Russo and Miriam Minkoff were in residence with visual arts and drumming workshops.
Youth who attend Heritage Centers After School Program participate in one of Heritage Centers’ Education Programs during the school day, and are all considered developmentally disabled by New York State Department of Health or Education (depending on age) and some are serviced by the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Development Disabilities; however, they tend to be much lower functioning and have much higher individual needs (whether medical, physical, cognitive, behavioral or dually-diagnosed) than peers who can attend special education classes within municipal school systems.
Jen Russo is a certified New York State Art Teacher and artist. She has done extensive research and learning in Yoga, and combines the two in her work with people with developmental disabilities. In her work with the young people at Heritage Centers, she emphasizes inner peace, breath, health and meditative and repetitive practice. Working with printmaking and creating repetitive images like Mandalas, she ties the visual arts to movement, music, each individual’s heartbeat and breath. In the fall, students went outside and used nature as our medium in creating mandalas out of fall leaves, small flowers, pine cones, etc. We looked at the art of Andy Goldsworthy for inspiration and guidance.
Miriam Minkoff is a percussionist in the ensemble No Word Spoken, a music group comprising individuals with autism and staff from Autistic Services, Inc. She began teaching Dance with individuals with disabilities at People Inc. in 1983. She soon discovered that both clients and staff were more inspired to move when they made their own music. She began drumming with everyone at work, developing into the percussion ensemble known as Beats Me. Check out a recording of the participants drumming here.
