Clovernook Center Receives $500K Grant

Clovernook Center, in partnership with Proclaiming Disability Arts (PDA) collective, recently received a $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to produce Disability Arts, a multiformat book of art that will be published in multiple print volumes and released online through a groundbreaking website.

“We’re excited to partner with PDA and honored to receive this grant from the Mellon Foundation,” said Samuel Foulkes, Director of Braille Production and Accessible Innovation at Clovernook Center. “The resources that will be created because of this grant will be life-changing for disabled artists and art lovers alike.”

This book will act as an anthology of dynamic and powerful writings, illustrations, paintings, conversation pieces, and more from disabled artists across a wide spectrum of backgrounds. Part disabled art anthology and part accessibility advocate itself, the book in its physical form, as well as online, is designed to appeal to multiple senses and offer many avenues of access for readers of any physical or cognitive ability.

Clovernook Center will produce multiple boxed sets in two different formats including:

• Printed books with select braille pages, tactile graphics and 3D models.
• Braille books with select tactile graphics and 3D models.

A portion of the Mellon Foundation grant will fund the production and free distribution of 1,500 copies of Disability Arts to disabled readers, disability-centered community spaces, and libraries across the United States. Disability Arts will also be available for sale online and in museum bookstores.

“This multifaceted project supports cutting-edge artistic, technological, and community-building activities that prioritize disability culture, advance accessible design in art and publishing, and honor the exceptional cultural contributions of disabled artists,” said Charles Eppley, principal investigator (PI) and co-director of PDA, a disability and arts and culture initiative housed in ASU’s School of Humanities, Arts & Cultural Studies (SHaRCS) on the ASU West Valley campus, where Eppley is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts & Performance.

About Proclaiming Disability Arts (PDA):

Proclaiming Disability Arts (PDA) is a disabled-led artist collective and publishing initiative directed by Charles Eppley and Simi Linton. Our core mission is to cultivate and publish dynamic and provocative writing, imagery, and performance from disabled artists across a wide spectrum of geographies, backgrounds, and training. Our web accessibility and technology development partners are Lichen Community Systems (Toronto, Ontario) and CyCore Systems (Decatur, GA). PDA is housed at Arizona State University’s School of Humanities, Arts & Cultural Studies (SHArCS) in Glendale, AZ. Previously, PDA was housed at New York University’s Center for Disability Studies (CDS) with support from NYU’s Media, Culture & Communications (MCC) program. Our work has been supported by funding from the Mellon Foundation and Ford Foundation. For more information, contact: allison@proclaimingdisabilityarts.org