Sunlight pours through the giant windows at the former Idaho Candy Company warehouse on the corner of 8^th and Myrtle Streets in Boise’s BoDo district. Quirky paper maché masks adorn the walls and a stack of wooden easels leans precariously in the lobby, which also houses the candy company’s antique money vault, now filled with tubes of paint, much-loved brushes, reams of paper and other art supplies. Artworks of all sizes and mediums decorate the warehouse, and bright voices fill the air from within cozy offices in the middle.

        While the Creative Access Art Center moved into the historic warehouse in December 2010, it took Executive Director Evelyn Mason and her small staff several months to get things organized. “The building hadn’t been used for years, so we had a lot of cleaning, renovating, painting, and moving to do, and we still have a ways to go,” shares Mason.

        One of the first and most crucial changes to the building was to make the main entrance accessible to people of all abilities and needs. The space houses the headquarters of VSA/Idaho Parents Unlimited (IPUL), which employees Mason and a staff of eight. VSA is the International Organization on Arts and Disability and its local affiliate is Idaho Parents Unlimited, a nonprofit organization founded in 1985 to assist Idaho families with special needs in advocating for the rights and needs of their loved ones.

        With a devoted group of volunteers, Mason and the staff have adapted a defunct warehouse into a useable, creative work and education space. The large, mostly open floor plan allows for traditional meeting spaces, an art gallery, and a small retail space, delineated by newly constructed moveable walls. “We’re still learning how best to use the space and like the flexibility of using the walls to create small, intimate rooms for artist talks or lectures or large, free-flowing classrooms for kids’ art projects,” explains Mason.

        The mission of Idaho Parents Unlimited is to empower and enhance the quality of life among Idahoans with disabilities. That mission, combined with the VSA’s philosophy that the arts, and the creative process, are a universal language that all can understand are what inspired the formation of the Creative Access Art Center. While combining all these ideas and activities into one large space is new for the VSA/Idaho Parents Unlimited groups, the notion of providing access to the arts for the disabled is not. “Since 1998 we’ve developed around 100 different artist in residency programs around Idaho—either putting professional artists in schools to provide fine arts education to classrooms with special needs children or getting art supplies to willing teachers already incorporating it into their curriculum,” says Mason.

        The inaugural exhibition at the Art Center was titled Helpers, and local artists were invited to submit artwork that dealt with the important role of caregivers in the lives of those with disabilities. This past May the Art Center celebrated its first fundraising art event and silent auction titled Chair-ity, and artists were invited to donate handmade chairs. “Our future exhibitions will also somehow combine ideas about special needs, [and] we’re open to proposals from the community,” shares Mason.

        In addition to reaching out into the communities around Idaho, the Creative Access Art Center will provide a forum and facility for artists with disabilities to come to. From drawing to printmaking, and playwriting to dance, the Art Center offers classes to all ages and levels of expertise. “We want to foster creativity in amateurs as well as provide some professional services, like how to properly photograph your artwork and build frames, and [we will offer] portfolio development workshops to more advanced artists,” Mason explains. By bringing in local arts professionals and pairing them with someone with special needs, the Creative Access Art Center will continue its mentoring program and hopes to foster a sense of a community based on shared interests rather than differences.

        In addition to working with individual artists, the Art Center has been collaborating with other organizations and groups in the Treasure Valley, like Ballet Idaho and the Treasure Valley Artists Alliance, and would love to do more. As the Creative Access Art Center continues its mission to grow, create, and educate on the importance of art for all, the entire Treasure Valley community benefits. If you are interested in offering your skills, services, supplies, or donating, please check out their Facebook page or their website: www.ipulidaho.org.

Amy Pence-Brown is a writer, mother, and artist living in Boise and hopes you, too, are inspired by the work the Creative Access Art Center is doing.