“The Siege of the Cultural City Is Underway:” Adolescents with Developmental Disabilities Make “Art”

As art educators are asked to broaden their scope to include children with a variety of abilities, they are beginning to seek answers from sources that might traditionally be outside their field. In an era of hybridization, appropriation, and bricolage, the divide among fields has become anachronistic and unfruitful. A new form of scholarship in art education might be derived from lessons learned in disability studies. This essay shows how this relatively new field has given way to first-person narratives. A pilot program called Arts-2-gether for preservice teachers puts theory into practice that illuminated and transformed learning. Through trial and error art educators encouraged non-verbal adolescents with developmental disabilities to communicate their own stories.