Kennedy Center to feature artists with disabilities at 2010 festival

From The AP:

WASHINGTON -- Artists with disabilities from around the world will convene in 2010 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for the largest ever showcase of their work, the center announced March 3.

The festival will feature appearances by Claire Danes, Marlee Matlin and comedian Brett Leake, (pictured) who appears regularly on PBS, as well as theater, musical acts and an art exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution, to mark the center's 2009-2010 season. It also celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Organizers said they hope the International VSA arts Festival in June 2010 can change perceptions of disabilities by highlighting what people can accomplish, despite their challenges.

"The single biggest challenge people with disabilities continue to face is stigma," said Soula Antoniou, president of VSA arts _ formerly Very Special Arts _ a nonprofit Kennedy Center affiliate devoted to artists with disabilities. The festival will focus on the "largest underserved community in the world," which includes 54 million Americans and 650 million people with disabilities around the world, she said.

Danes, who will play an autistic woman in the upcoming HBO biopic "Temple Grandin," will introduce a performance at the festival created by her family friend, choreographer Tamar Rogoff. A dance created by Rogoff for the festival includes a dancer with cerebral palsy.

The festival is part of a full programming slate announced Tuesday by Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser, despite a $10 million reduction in the center's $160 million budget due to declining private donations and endowment revenue. Kaiser trimmed the budget by 6 percent -- including $30,000 in savings by eliminating free coffee for the staff -- to avoid any cuts to programming, he said.