celebrating your family’s
challenges and creativity
I began transitioning from writing full-length stage plays to creating collaborative performance works with actors, dancers and Creative Clay’s studio for artists with physical and developmental disabilities thanks to choreographer Paula Kramer, then in her 80s.
Since 2019 I’ve been fortunate to collaborate with Creative Clay on 30+ Sparks performance projects – with more in the works.
I began collaborating with Creative Clay’s artists because they are amazing visual artists. Their paintings inspire my words to stretch into vibrant colors.
Through our joyous projects, many member artists have grown into passionate and beautiful performing artists. And during our NEA grant collaboration with the USF College of Marine Science, Creative Clay’s poetry guided our performance works.
I’m honored that the story of our long collaboration is now part of Creative Clay’s website. You can read that story here.
If your family is struggling with new challenges and diagnoses, I hope you can appreciate the boundless creativity and possibility each artist at Creative Clay finds in the arts.
For a long time, I tried to avoid the word “disability” when I talked about Creative Clay. But CEO Kim Dohrman explained that they don’t want disability to feel like a bad word.
It’s a pleasure and a privilege to collaborate with the amazing artists at Creative Clay’s thriving St. Pete studio. And in these days of funding cuts, they are arts education in action.
And they sell their work, and take commissions, and they’re glad to show you around.
You can explore many of our projects on the Creative Clay Collaborations! playlist on our Sparks Creative Stories YouTube channel – including this joyous Plankton Dance Flash Mob, with artists, marine scientists and an anthropologist all dancing together.
Because together, we’re building a beautiful inclusive world.