Students learn "art" of living

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The WAL School is a non-profit educational institution established by parents of teenagers who live with disabilities. The letters stand for, "We Are Learning," and among the things the young people there are learning, is art. It's not just art for art's sake, though. The idea is to help the students use artistic pursuits to earn a living or at least, live.

"We're trying to shake things up," said teacher Carol Stensrud, from VSA Arts of Texas, whose work at WAL is funded by a grant from the Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities.

"There are perception barriers, getting teachers to be inclusive," she said. "Some of my teen students in WAL class were never provided arts in the regular class. They were excluded from the arts program."

But it's not just teachers and other members of the community at large who hold the kids back. There can be a self-perception issue, as well.

"I've interviewed a lot of people with disabilities in this grant research and they, themselves, never ever thought of themselves as having even the smallest career path in the arts. Therefore, they didn't pursue it."

Student Evan Robertson is among those who never dreamed of a career in art.

"I've gotten into it and it's pretty fun," Evan said. "It makes you express, you know, like the ways in art, and who knows, someday it could be something you really enjoy doing and something that you want to make a career out of."

Shaking things up, however, presents its own set of problems. What happens after the shaking, if things still don't change and you raise students' expectations and then they meet brick walls?

Stensrud is painfully aware of that possibility, but she finds solace in the specifics of the expectations she tries to create.

"We're hopefully not setting up people to have failure," she said, "but to have the opportunity to at least consider a career path in the arts as being part of their life."

After all, many able-bodied artists also struggle to make ends meet.

"It is a really sought after career," said Stensrud. "So many young people want to be in the arts nowadays. No one guarantees them a job at the end; zero, no one does. Maybe 1 percent get a career out of it. Why (are) people with disabilities are looked at as being foolish to choose those options; it's no more foolish than anybody else."

Besides, the class is meeting with success. Already, Stensrud's students have seen their work included in three art shows. A jurored show is planned for later this year, and at the VSA Arts Access gallery, several students actually sold some of their pieces.

"Someone valued their work," said Stensurd. "And like, three of the teenagers were here when the person that purchased their work was here purchasing it. You know, so it goes much more than just the money; it's, 'You're worth something; this work is worth something.

Just ask student Devin Blake if he sees artistic success in his future. You'll get a quick answer: "Just might, so let's keep our hopes up," he smiled.