ABLE Assembly Explores Arts Education for Individuals with Disabilities
The Berklee Institute for Accessible Arts Education (BIAAE) is excited to announce the 2023 ABLE Assembly: Arts Better the Lives of Everyone conference, an in-person and hybrid event taking place April 21–23. The three-day conference offers individuals and artists with disabilities, as well as educators, administrators, policymakers, and researchers, the opportunity to connect, learn, and share, and will also feature the first-ever ABLE Showcase concert.
This year's ABLE Assembly returns to the in-person format of the pre-2020 conferences, but it will continue to offer virtual access for remote attendees to view live and prerecorded video of keynote presentations, workshop sessions, and other supporting materials.
“The excitement and anticipation for the ABLE Assembly is off the charts,” said Dr. Rhoda Bernard, founder and managing director of the BIAAE. “Our esteemed presenters and the level of expertise they bring to this event, along with the beautiful artistry that will be on display during the concerts, embodies the essential nature of our mission: to ensure that the arts are accessible to all individuals. Our professional development offerings like the ABLE Assembly conference provide artists, educators, and more with opportunities to grow and advance within the field.”
The ABLE Showcase concert takes place from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 22, at the Red Room at Cafe 939. The lineup features a diverse group of disabled artists, including the BIAAE Rock Band and Precious Perez B.M. ’21, a blind vocalist, songwriter, and disability rights advocate who will perform in a duo with blind percussionist Shane Lowe. In addition to the showcase, a Berklee chamber music group will perform the original work of BIAAE student Adam Walden, who composed a suite of pieces based on the bestselling book The Reason I Jump at David Friend Recital Hall.
Ming Yuan Low, assistant professor of music therapy, is a keynote presenter at the 2023 ABLE Assembly.
“The ABLE Assembly conference is special for me and my student ensembles this year because they will be featured in performances,” said instructor Miles Wilcox, who co-teaches the BIAAE Rock Band and leads the Ukulele Ensemble. “Music is such a powerful way that all of us can share parts of ourselves with others. It’s very exciting that so many of my students will be featured performers at the ABLE Assembly this year.”
The 2023 program features Liz Byron and Berklee’s own Ming Yuan Low as the keynote presenters. Byron is a noted author and a K1–8th grade visual art, special education, and ESL teacher in the Boston public school system. She has presented and taught graduate-level courses on universal design learning, most recently as a teaching fellow for the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and shares many of her experiences in her book Art for All: Planning for Variability in the Visual Art Classroom. Low, a music therapist and assistant professor of music therapy at Berklee, focuses his clinical work on community-informed music therapy practices and supports for people with marginalized identities.
Registration for the 2023 ABLE Assembly is open through Thursday, April 20, via the conference website. The full conference schedule is available here.