Jack Straw provides a wide range of accessible programs and workshops, as well as educational projects regarding accessibility and inclusion.

Education for Youth with Disabilities

Accessible New Media Gallery Workshops
Since 2014 Jack Straw and Arts and Visually Impaired Audiences have presented accessible workshops for blind and visually impaired students and their sighted friends and family at Jack Straw in conjunction with our New Media Gallery program. These workshops help make multidisciplinary art more accessible and understandable to youth with and without disabilities.

Blind Youth Audio Project
The Blind Youth Audio Project, begun in 1997 by Jack Straw Cultural Center and Arts and Visually Impaired Audiences, is an annual workshop series run in conjunction with The Washington State Department of Services for the Blind (DSB)’s Youth Employment Solutions (YES) program. Blind and visually impaired students from across Washington state are housed at the University of Washington for 6 weeks while participating in job placement programs all around Seattle. As an extracurricular component to the program, students are invited to attend a series of workshops at Jack Straw’s studios.

Lowell Elementary Special Ed Workshops
Since 2015, Jack Straw has collaborated with students and teachers at Lowell Elementary School to create original songs and poems, including students from the Aspire and Focus special education classes.

Other Youth with Disabilities Projects

Accessible Art Programs

E.T. Russian: CASTING SHADOWS
This sound and video installation in our New Media Gallery included audio description for the blind and visually impaired, available via headphones or through speakers in the room.

Seattle Art Museum Sculpture Park accessible tours

Museum of Glass Audio Guide
In partnership with Arts and Visually Impaired Audiences (AVIA), Jack Straw produced an audio guide for Contrasts: A Glass Primer, a 2007 exhibition at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. The exhibit highlights different styles of glass art, and uses contrasts within the works to introduce visitors to the medium. The audio guide, designed to facilitate a museum visit for visually impaired individuals, also enhances the experience for sighted visitors. It is comprised of three parts: directions to guide you through the exhibit, descriptions of the art on view, and interpretive comments by the exhibit’s curator, Vicki Halper.

Radio Programs on Accessibility

Opening Doors
Opening Doors is a podcast about accessibility in arts and civic life, brought to you by the Seattle Cultural Accessibility Consortium and Jack Straw Cultural Center. Now in its second season, Opening Doors seeks to amplify the voices of outstanding individuals with disabilities of all kinds. Listen and subscribe via Soundcloud – or wherever you get your podcasts.

We welcome your questions and /or proposals for new and different accessible programs! Please contact us by emailing education@jackstraw.org or calling (206) 634-0919.