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KC Cares
ARTISTIC LICENSE FROM IMAGINE THAT! KANSAS CITY
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By Beth Lipoff
Artistic expression is for everyone, and imagine That! Kansas City is working to make sure adults with developmental disabilities get a chance to shine in whatever art medium they choose.
Imagine That! is part of an organization called Resources for Human Development based in Philadelphia. Another branch of Imagine That! started in St. Louis before they expanded to Kansas City in 2012.
Clients of Imagine That! are adults who have graduated from high school and currently range in age from 20 to 60 but need the support of a day program.
Photo by Beth Lipoff
While the focus of Imagine That! is art, they’re also there to help with the typical needs met in a day program environment, such as hygiene, medication, or social development.
“The cool thing that we get to do is help them be creative during the day,” says Kansas City Imagine That! Program Director Amy Norman.
Everyone on staff has some sort of art expertise, and many are graduates of the Kansas City Art Institute.
“They help people be creative in whatever way they can be. Some people like to write stories or paint or weave or wrap yarn around objects they find in their houses. Whatever it is, we do it if we are able to,” Norman says. “Our goal is to help the people we support to be seen as artists and not a person with a disability.”
One person who’s seen some of that success is Austin Dearth of Brookside, who participates in the Imagine That! program once a week. In December, Dearth’s black and white line drawings were displayed for a month on billboards at 125 Southwest Blvd. as part of an art collaboration between the Charlotte Street Foundation and the Crossroads Community Association.
“When we did the application for that, it wasn’t because, ‘This is Austin, and he has X disability.’ It was, ‘This is Austin. Here’s his art. Please consider.’ We showcase their talents rather than their disability,” Norman says.
The billboard was a major accomplishment for Dearth.
“I feel really proud of myself,” he says.
Dearth isn’t the only one to have developed more confidence as a result of having his art on display. Another Imagine That! client had his art printed on a streetcar stop when it first opened.
“I just saw that guy blossom after that. You could tell he had inner confidence. He was happy his art was recognized,” Norman says.
That impact isn’t a one-way street.
“People are being introduced to folks that have a story to tell, and they show it through their art,” Norman says.
Dearth has tried watercolors, printmaking, ceramics, and more, but he often comes back to drawing. At Imagine That! he likes “being around all my friends and learning new things,” he says.
His days at Imagine That! aren’t about art all the time, though. A group of participants including Dearth have split off some social time revolving around their love of professional wrestling—gathering to watch old wrestling matches in a room at Imagine That! Some even started making a toy-based stop-motion film based on the sport.
People come to Imagine That! anywhere from one to five days a week, usually for about six hours each day. It isn’t a drop-in program; participants keep a schedule and come at the same time each week.
They can handle about 40 people at any one time, but because not everyone comes in every day, they have had up to 60 clients in a week. The numbers are a bit smaller at the moment, due to the pandemic, but Norman expects to be getting more participants soon.
“We provide that space for people to be who they are and what they want to be. We’re not judgmental whatsoever. If somebody’s like, ‘I want to draw this picture of this nude lady,’ fine. That’s OK. If somebody happened to cuss, fine. It’s OK,” Norman says. “We’re letting them be adults. So often I’ve had some people refer to them as children, and they’re not. They’re adults like you and I.”
Finding volunteers to help has been a challenge because Imagine That! is only open Monday through Friday during the day, and many potential volunteers are only available evenings and weekends. For more information on how to volunteer, visit imaginethatkc.org/contact
For more information on MO Hives KC, visit mohives.org
