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The recording of the first 2025 Odyssey webinar, “The Art of Access,” is available now through June 15, 2025. To access the recording, refer to Minnesota DHS YouTube – Odyssey webinar: The Art of Access.
Description
The Art of Access offers tools and best practices to universally design educational programming, arts events and community spaces to be accessible and welcoming for people of all ages and abilities. The presenter explains how to prepare your environment, culture and curriculum to be the most accessible for the most diverse community through a lens called S.M.I.L.E. (i.e., sensory, movement, identity, language, experience). When we prepare and when we S.M.I.L.E., we can truly begin to develop rich connections and relationships.
Continuing education
Continuing education unit (CEU) credits are not available for the webinar recording.
Cost
The recording is available for free.
About the presenter
Julie Guidry (she/her/hers), cofounder, executive director and teaching artist
Julie Guidry has worked in the disability and nonprofit communities since 1997. She is the cofounder and executive director of Upstream Arts, an innovative nonprofit organization that uses the arts to develop the social and communication skills of people with disabilities. Founded in 2006, Upstream Arts is a leader at the intersection of disability, arts and learning. Julie and her husband, Matt, started Upstream Arts after they saw the positive impact of the arts on their son’s self-expression and communication with those around him. Upstream Arts now annually works with more than 100 partners and serves more than 5,000 people of all ages and abilities. Since Upstream Arts’ inception, Julie has worked closely with disability service providers, community organizations and Minneapolis Public Schools’ special education directors and arts department. Together, they developed a model to integrate Upstream Arts’ unique arts-based curriculum into social skills learning, vocational and career development training and other disability services.
Julie leads trainings on arts-based instructional strategies, universal design for learning, access and inclusion for social service organizations, school districts and arts organizations. Previously, she held management positions with several disability and youth organizations, including Wilderness Inquiry and Youth Frontiers. Julie is a member of the Minneapolis Public Schools Special Education Advisory Council and previously served on both the District Parent Advisory Council and Access Advisory Council. She also has been on the Arts on Chicago Leadership team for the last eight years, and she is a founding board member and former board chair of Wonderlust Productions.
Stay in touch
Subscribe to the Odyssey email list or visit the Odyssey website to receive notice of future events and updates.
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