About CTIA

CT Inclusive Arts was founded in 2018 by Jane Woodcox and an all-volunteer steering committee, with the mission to profoundly influence youth of all abilities and the Greater Hartford community through an innovative and inclusive performing and visual arts education program culminating in a major public performance. Thanks to community and program partners who believed in our mission, CTIA successfully launched a pilot class in the spring of 2019 and by that fall, local class offerings began.

One of the major inspirations for our work came from LIVE ART, a groundbreaking inclusive arts education program created in 2012 by Erin Thomas-Foley and founded by SPARC, a performing arts school in Richmond, VA. This program grew over the years to include nearly 300 students who annually performed alongside acclaimed local and national performing artists in a much anticipated major public performance.

In essence, CT Inclusive Arts was established to replicate the amazing experiences that students and the community in Richmond had been experiencing over the last decade, but with special attention to the uniqueness of Greater Hartford. Due to Jane’s unique involvement with LIVE ART that began in 2012, and with the support and contribution of other former LIVE ART creators, CTIA proudly enrolled and collaborated with roughly 60 students in our inaugural (2019-2020) program year.

CTIA’s performance/concert host was the Kingswood Oxford School, where students were set perform in the beautiful, Roberts Theater in West Hartford, CT on March 21, 2020, that due to COVID-19, was cancelled. While the public did not have the opportunity to see the magic in our program, and students did not have the opportunity to shine on-stage, we take comfort in the knowledge that the impact of our work was realized in class settings and in a full company rehearsal hosted on February 29, 2020.

Learn more about LIVE ART

CTIA Spring 2019 Pilot Group

In the spring of 2019, CT Inclusive Arts hosted a pilot group of students who were invited to perform in SPARC’s LIVE ART FAMILY concert in Richmond, Virginia on June 2, 2019.

Students in this first CT Inclusive Arts class met weekly in the spring of 2019 at the American School for the Deaf, exploring ASL and story-telling through modern movement. Through visual art and other relationship building exercises, this group bonded and ultimately performed an interpretation of the song, “Give a Little Bit” in a human story with Virginia musician, Susan Greenbaum, and other SPARC student music makers, before an audience of 3,500 people!

Congratulations to these student ambassadors for representing CT Inclusive Arts so beautifully. Look for these student role models in upcoming classes in Connecticut coming soon!

The History of LIVE ART

In traditional programming, youth with disabilities are often denied life changing performance experiences and LIVE ART’s unique public performance that features nationally and regionally recognized artists who volunteer their time to perform alongside students, creating an unforgettable production & community celebration.

LIVE ART was developed not only to profoundly influence the lives of those in the program, but also to inspire the larger community to come together and to embrace inclusion. CT Inclusive Arts shares the same goals and aspirations for our programming in Greater Hartford and our organization is stronger thanks to our work with SPARC and the LIVE ART team in a pilot program in the spring of 2019.