I-dArt, art education curriculum for persons with special abilities

Our project works with a group of people with different abilities such as people with physical challenges, intellectual disabilities and elderly with visual impairment. Their physical and intellectual challenges not only bring them constraints in life, but, more importantly, an alternative experience and perception to see the world, which give them special talents and abilities in many areas, especially art where they can reinterpret the world freely in their own ways. However, the education policy in Hong Kong discourages further study of people with disabilities after their graduation of junior year. Most of them even have interest or talents, can only choose to work in shelter workshops or stay in hostels with day care service. There are very limited art learning courses available for them in Hong Kong at the moment. For those who have interest in art can only choose skill-based training courses on particular art medium in short term based. On behalf of i-dArt, Tungwah Group of Hospitals and her co-worked partner Lingnan University, YU Bellini and Prof. Sophia Law have initiated an art education project, Art Course (3-Year). It is a pilot study on designing and structuring a basic and comprehensive art education curriculum for persons with different abilities. It aims not only to provide a fair opportunity for people with different abilities to learn art, but also to establish a fundamental art education model, which is based on a curriculum that is boarder and more comprehensive other than solely media/skill-based art training. It is believed that with a systematic and comprehensive exposure to all kinds of traditions and masterpieces along with practices, the curriculum can enrich these students’ lives with art as art lovers in general, and develop their artistic potentials in full to becoming professional artists in specific cases.