NAC NEWS
Open to All
NAC now accessible to people with disabilities!
The beauty of the arts is their universal appeal. The arts help us achieve personal insight at the same time that they connect us to the world outside ourselves. No one should be denied the uniquely enlivening opportunity that the arts provide.
Until very recently, the two Norwich Arts Council gallery entrances were inaccessible to people with disabilities. Both had steps that could not be ramped because of sidewalk restrictions. But now, thanks to an enterprising NAC Board member, the NAC Director and Norwich Public Works, the entrance at 64 Broadway has been leveled off to provide smooth, unobstructed entry.
The chronology of NAC access improvements is interesting to review. When, years ago, NAC created an accessible bathroom, it may have seemed a counterintuitive gesture that wasted money. Why create an accessible bathroom when the exterior entry was not accessible? But this kind of incremental modification makes good sense.
First, the accessible bathroom benefits people with a variety of mobility disabilities, not just wheelchair users. People who use walkers or crutches, for example, find an accessible bathroom, with its roomier dimensions and grab bars, much easier and safer to use. And second, one never knows when an opportunity to create greater access in another part of a facility will present itself. In this case, the sidewalk renovation on Broadway presented the possibility of leveling off the entry area of the NAC Gallery II, which connects inside to the main gallery.
How did a possibility become a reality? Carol Dunn, the artist co-op representative to the NAC Board of Directors, had been concerned about NAC accessibility issues for some time. When she noticed the sidewalk construction on Broadway, she approached some workers, who referred her to the sidewalk coordinator at the Public Works department. NAC Executive Director Diane Taylor called the Department and asked if the renovation could be designed so as to create accessibility at one of the entryways. The sidewalk coordinator agreed to find a way to do so.
And, in this wonderful example of seamless cooperation between a private nonprofit that fulfills a critical mission and a city department that recognizes the value of equal opportunity, a solution was found.
NAC is now Open to All.
Thank you Carol Dunn, thank you Diane Taylor, and thank you City of Norwich!
60-62 Broadway,
Norwich, CT 06360
(860) 887-2789
administration@norwicharts.org
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