Guided by the belief that all people should be able to share in the power and beauty of the arts, the Institute's Media Arts & and Culture unit works collaboratively with the university and our community to develop original, innovative, and accessible arts programming.
Our work includes oral history, archival preservation, documentary, exhibition and public performance.
Over nearly eight decades, more than 10,000 people lived at the Pennhurst State School and Hospital. Their lives contain its history. Who are they? What do their stories have to say to us today?
File/Life is a community-led exploration of the Pennhurst archives. Seven archivists (all people with disabilities and/or family members) share stories from the archives that made them listen, feel, imagine, and remember. In doing so, they ask the question: Can a file ever contain a life?
File/Life invites visitors to read and interact with archival material, listen to audio and watch video. Content is ASL interpreted, audio described, captioned, and available in Braille and though QR codes. Some video content is accessed through headphones.
January - April, 2024 Helix Gallery at Thomas Jefferson University
July 2023: File/Life was on view at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC.
April 2023: File/Life was on view at Arch Street Meeting House, Philadelphia PA.
File/Life has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
Renowned choreographer Susan Marshall and Tony Award-winning set designer Mimi Lien combine forces to create Rhythm Bath, an immersive and inclusive dance installation. Rhythm Bath blends performance, meditation, and wonder, inviting you to sense the dance happening around you. Come and go as you like—explore the accessible, transporting space of shifting fabric, light, sound, and movement.
Rhythm Bath was developed in conversation and collaboration with neurodiverse individuals and communities, and produced by the Institute on Disabilities and Studio Susan Marshall.
Support for Rhythm Bath has been provided to the Institute on Disabilities by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
A compilation of works about gun violence by members of the Youth Advisory Council.
Band Aids Don't Fix Bullet Holes web and PDF versions
We Will Talk About These Days is collection of interviews about living with disability while navigating a pandemic.
Interviewees include an ASL interpreter charged with communicating health and safety information to the Deaf community; an artist with Down Syndrome unable to work in her studio; a young woman hoping to leave an institution for a new life in the community; an essential worker weighing the risk and rewards of his work; and immigrants in search of better lives for their children with disabilities. The stories they tell contrast systemic inequities with moments of hope—even joy.
Punch Light is a virtual performance project that highlights minute-long original works created by local artists with disabilities and their creative collaborators. Performers include Dawn States; Erin McNulty and Lee Ann Etzold; Michael Mclendon and Bethlehem the Vocussionist; and Shawn Aleong and Tenara Calem. All respond to the theme of resilience.
Smart Caption Glasses allow people who are Deaf or experience hearing loss to view captions at any performance, from any seat in the theater, using Open Access Smart Capture technology. The Institute is collaborating with People's Light theater in Chester County, Pennsylvania and the National Theatre of Great Britain, on a project that will bring this technology, developed by the National Theatre and Professor Andrew Lambourne, to the United States. The Smart Caption Glasses display a synchronized transcript of the play's dialogue and sound from the production directly onto the lenses of the smart glasses (manufactured by Epson).
In Pennsylvania alone, 1.1 million residents experience hearing loss, representing 8.58% of the Commonwealth's population. Most theaters only offer a handful of open captioned performances during the run of any given show.
Smart Caption Glasses make it possible for all performances to be captioned.
Theater goers in the Philadelphia area can experience the smart caption glasses during the 2019/20 season at People's Light, located in Malvern, Pennsylvania.
Smart Caption Glasses will be available to the general public in January, during People's Light production of The Children. They are free to patrons and can be reserved in advance or they may be requested on show day, but are subject to availability.
This video demonstrates the Smart Captioning Glasses at work.
In early October 2019, the Institute along with People's Light theater and the National Theatre, London, introduced Smart Caption Glass, a new technology to aid theater-goers who are deaf or hard of hearing. Philadelphia's local NBC affiliate covered the story in its evening news broadcast.
On October 17, 2019, People Light theater hosted members of the press and select consumers to introduce the Smart Caption Glasses. Here are a few of the stories: ABC 6 - People's Light theater's smart caption glasses allow for enhanced experience for people with disabilities | WHYY News - Adapted for the stage: Glasses that stream captions in real time improve access for hearing impaired
The Smart Caption Glasses project is made possible with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Barra Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Institute on Disabilities at Temple University, College of Education – The Institute on Disabilities is one of 67 national University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD). The Institute trains provides technical assistance and engages in inclusionary research for Pennsylvanians with disabilities, their families, professionals and community organizations. The Institute’s Media Arts & Culture Programs create inclusive, welcoming and accessible cultural experiences for people with and without disabilities.
People's Light – People's Light is a nationally acclaimed non-profit professional regional theater in Chester County, Pennsylvania. People's Light is a local leader in producing open captioned, relaxed and sensory friendly performances. With the Smart Caption Glasses project, People's Light deepens its commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
The National Theatre of Great Britain – The National Theatre's mission is to make world class theatre that's entertaining, challenging and inspiring - and to make it for everyone. It aims to reach the widest possible audience and to be as inclusive, diverse and national as possible with a broad range of productions that play in London, on tour around the UK, on Broadway and across the globe. The National Theatre's extensive UK-wide learning and participation program supports young people and schools through performance and writing program like Connections, New Views and Let's Play. Public Acts creates ambitious new works of participatory theater in sustained partnership with theaters and community organizations around the country. The National Theatre extends its reach through digital programs including NT Live, which broadcasts some of the best of British theater to more than 2,500 venues in 65 countries, and the free streaming service On Demand In Schools. The National Theatre invests in the future of theater by developing talent, creating bold new work and building audiences, partnering with a range of UK theater companies.
A discovery project to illuminate the complex history of institutionalization through the personal experience of those who live it.
Many institutional residents do not communicate in a traditional method and their voices often go unheard. Artists may be uniquely positioned to gather and interpret their stories. Working with a group of multidisciplinary artists and historians, the Institute developed an arts-based methodology and artist residency program. During the year-long project, pilot residencies were established on the grounds of Selinsgrove Center in central Pennsylvania, home to more than 220 people with intellectual disabilities. Participating artists included oral historian Nicki Pombier Berger, public historian Donna Graves, dancer KC Chun-Manning, and documentary photographer Ruddy Roye.
Funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
A Fierce Kind of Love, a play written by Suli Holum, is a collage of stories of Pennsylvania's Intellectual Disability Rights Movement. A Fierce Kind of Love uses word, movement and song to examine this remarkable and largely untold history and to celebrate the struggle, activism and fierce love that fuels the desire for dignity.
Directed by David Bradley. Performed by a mixed-ability cast. Major funding for A Fierce Kind of Love was provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
Here. Stories from the Selinsgrove Center and KenCrest Services introduces 19 people with intellectual disabilities who live and work in segregated settings in Pennsylvania. The settings are a state center and a sheltered workshop. These settings are unknown to many but are a real and often divisive part of our history. Here. provides insight into the lives of these Pennsylvanians through "narrators," 18 interviewers who visited the Selinsgrove Center and KenCrest Services in the spring of 2015.
Photographs by JJ Tiziou. Major funding was provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
Hear or Read the HERE. stories
Interviews with the leaders of Pennsylvania's Intellectual Disability Rights Movement.
A collection of stories from advocates, self-advocates and family members who took great risks to ensure the safety and freedom of people with disabilities in Pennsylvania. From the Right to Education, to the closing of institutions and the move toward self-determination, Pennsylvania has paved the way for national policies that have led to widespread reform.
Browse Visionary Voices Interviews
Preservation of personal papers collections significant to Pennsylvania's Intellectual Disability Rights Movement. In collaboration with Temple University Urban Archives, the Institute is engaged in the collection and preservation of personal papers collections that enhance our understanding of Pennsylvania's Intellectual Disability Rights Movement.
The Urban Archives is currently home to the personal papers collections of parent-advocates Dennis Haggerty, Leona Fialkowski, Eleanor Elkin and Audrey Coccia.
Lisa Sonneborn, Director, Media Arts & Culture
[click-for-email], Voice: 215-204-9542
