As of the Fall 2012, The Disability Resource Center is part of the Office of Diversity, and one of the six Centers for Cultural Understanding and Social Change (CCUSC) at UIC. The other Centers include: African American Cultural Center, Asian American Resource and Cultural Center, Latino Cultural Center, Gender and Sexuality Center and the Women's Leadership and Resource Center. The Disability Resource Center has created a new position and hired Cheryl Kaplan Zachariah to be the Disability Arts and Culture Consultant where she will plan and promote disability arts and culture events, serve as the liaison between the DRC, the UIC Disability Studies Program and other Centers for Cultural Understanding and Social Change and develop partnerships with organizations on campus and within the surrounding community.
According to Bodies of Work, Disability Arts and Culture events illuminate the disability experience in new and unexpected ways. Disability art refers to the creative work by people with disabilities that reflects a disability experience, either in content or form, and can be found in every artistic media from the performing arts, literature, and visual arts to comic books, film, and design. Disability culture events may include recreational events, disability rights promotion, and social gatherings. Disability art plays a key role in articulating what disability means politically, personally, and aesthetically, and that meaning translates into what many in the disability community consider to be our “culture.”
For more information about Bodies of Work, an umbrella organization that promotes Disability Arts and Culture events throughout the city of Chicago, please go to www.bodiesofworkchicago.com
To find out about more Disability Arts and Culture events at the Disability Resource Center at UIC, subscribe to the Disability Arts and Culture listserv. Please go to the Disability Resource Center webpage at drc.uic.edu, scroll to the bottom, and subscribe. You will need to confirm with an email through your inbox.
You may also get involved with the Disability Arts and Culture program by contacting Cheryl Kaplan Zachariah at czacha4@uic.edu or by calling (312) 413-7397
