Self Advocation Power Hour Episode 4: The Autistic Art Coalition Philadelphia

November 19, 2024 | by sau1admin

Today, Ed chats with Autistic Art Coalition of Philadelphia founder, Colleen Ott. She is also a former EMT as well as an author, a musician, an artist herself and advocate and more! You can also check out more info about Colleen and The Autistic Art Coalition Philadelphia in our show notes.

Disclaimer: The show hosts and guests try their best to provide accurate and up to date information.
However, no one is perfect.

Transcript

Introduction

Ed Auerbeck: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Self Advocation Power Hour. I'll be your host, Ed Auerbeck. Today, we have a very interesting and wide-ranging episode I'd say, in the fact that we have from the Autistic Art Coalition of Philadelphia, its founder Colleen Ott. She also, on top of many other things, is a former EMT as well as an author, a musician, an artist herself and advocate and just an all-around sort of Renaissance woman. And we're very happy to have her on the show today. Without further ado, here's the interview.

Conversation

Ed: If you could start by just telling our audience how you came up with the idea for the organization

Colleen Ott: Well, I came up with the idea. There was an individual during the end of the pandemic who I found out was getting bullied because they are autistic and I got wind of that word and I was like, you know oh hell no. And... [Laughter]. Cause I'm autistic myself and I know how it's like to be bullied. Like during the pandemic when I released my book, I got cyber bullied. So I understand what that individual was going through and I said, oh hell no.

Ed: Oh, wow, yeah.

Colleen: So, I took all of my lived experience and civic engagement in my past with like reaching out to community leaders, going to different conferences and stuff. And so as soon as masks came off and people started going conferences, I must have been at like three different conferences in one week. And each time I bumped into State Representative Joseph Hohenstein.

Ed: Okay

Colleen: And by the last time he heard the spiel, because he was always an earshot away, had asked me, do you guys have a space yet? And I said no, but we're going to utilize the libraries and the community centers within each neighborhood of Philadelphia. He's like I got a better idea for you. So, when that happened, that's how we were linked to the Mural Arts Tacony Lab Community Art Center. But the key of all this is, like, I heard the pain about this individual getting bullied that I just said, you know what, I'ma create something bigger, something bigger than me for others. And so far good.

Ed: Yeah. That is wonderful. So basically, you answered a couple of my questions there by also talking about how the past experience influenced your interactions with these people and then also, just the overall sort of generosity and innovation that it takes to start it organization like this. I really have to admire your perseverance with that.

Colleen: Thank you.

Ed: Could you tell us a little bit more about your book?

Colleen: The book I had put it out during the pandemic because, well, I was a retired EMT on top of everything and I did that for about 13 years. And so I knew what airborne pathogen meant. It meant eyes nose, mouth. And me, being an individual who is immunocompromised with asthma as well, I thought I'd be a goner. So when the pandemic happened, I picked up my bucket list when everybody else picked up their Netflix remote. And I just went to town. And so I wrote the book and it's called An Adult Autie at Work. Autie is short for autistic.

Ed: Okay

Colleen: It's moreso used in the UK in New Zealand and I think Australia, the term Autie but not so much here in the United States. But yeah, it just basically a pictorial sketching of all the various jobs that I've had, because I've had 30 but I didn't, all 30 is not in there [laughter].

Ed: Okay.

Colleen: Yeah.

Ed: That's inspiring in itself. I love the way you said that, people picking up their Netflix remote, you're you're picking up your bucket list and not being shy about what you want and what you need. That's great. And also to be thinking about creating things not only for yourself, but for other people, that is amazing. Have you always had that sort of initiative and interest in innovating with other things at all?

Colleen: I guess you can say that because I did go to art school, so we kind of had to come up with something every other day.

Ed: Okay. Yeah.

Colleen: But yeah, my generation is Generation X. And you know, we were taught that like, we were supposed to make the world different for the next generation. So, that's what with the influence of the founding, I wanted to try to make the world a different place than it was when I was younger, because the acceptance is key over awareness. Because if you're just aware, you're just known to be like that person in the corner or over there. But if you're accepted then, like people see you for you.

Ed: Yes, exactly. The the awareness is almost, hey, we can point you out if we need to. The acceptance is, hey, let's invite that person to join in. Like that type of thing. That is a very keen observation and also just statement I think because again, the key is like you said, just being aware of them, based off past experience of what I hear, and also doing some research, it seems like you were kind of getting at the awareness isn't enough. We clearly need to do more.

Colleen: Right

Ed: And acceptance is a great way to do that.

Colleen: And there's another thing, like one of the things that the, I'm going to point this one out, the United States is a little backwards on some things. Not backwards, but haven't caught up to other areas of the world with neurodiversity and neuroinclusion, because neurodiversity is the key to getting along with all walks of life, and that looks like this.

Ed: Okay. So that's where that piece of art came from, I see, Okay.

Colleen: Yeah, so it has all the various different hand colors and so forth and that's everybody. And that's part of neurodiversity because everybody also has a brain.

Ed: Okay.

Colleen: You know, and that's the key point of neuro. Neuro means brain. But diversity means everybody. That's why we have the infinity symbol, because that means everybody.

Ed: Yes. What art piece inspired it, inspired you or I guess kind of, if there was one art piece, you had to show to describe the organization? So I'm guessing that would be it. Or is there, is there another one that you would?

Colleen: It's definitely would be it. I mean like the only other one that I can really think of is the one that has the quote on the bottom, but can you see this?

Ed: Yes.

Colleen: Okay. So on on the one side of the brain, it's very colorful and everything. And that's where the art comes from. On the other side of the brain is the science and like mathematics and different design methods and stuff that, you know, comes together with art. And then you have this over here is like the four directions and the world is in between with an amoeba on top because, hey, it goes along with geology and then life science and then Earth science. [Laughter].

Ed: Yeah.

Colleen: That's on the other side of the brain, but with the infinity symbol it just means everybody's included.

Ed: What different events do you have coming up that might intrigue our listeners a little bit?

Colleen: Right, so every Thursday we're going to be at Liberty Resources. 112 North East Street, between the hours of one o'clock and two thirty. I go there to teach art. And like today, I was there and we took like old jars and turned it into a decoupage type of thing where you put actual paper on and then Mod Podge on top of it to make this cute little candle thing. [Laughter].

Ed: Okay.

Colleen: And we call it recycled art because we can take jars that we use from our peanut butter and so forth and just...

Ed: Repurpose

Colleen: Bring it and design it. And then I give everybody a little tea, light that battery operated to be on the safe side.

Ed: Oh, okay. That, that is great.

Colleen: Oh and we also our regular meeting every month inside of the Mural Arts Tacony Lab Community Art Center. And that's located at six nine eighteen Torresdale Avenue in the Tacony historic section of Philadelphia.

Ed: Okay.

Colleen: Yeah, and it's closer city council, and city council members who could probably go on their lunch break.

Ed: A nice little cultural interlude for their day, I guess you'd say.

Colleen: Right, Yeah.

Ed: Yeah. That's, that's very cool. If you're talking to somebody who was very interested in helping out, how would you want them, I guess to best establish themselves, or, or become involved in your organization?

Colleen: Yeah. So we're we're starting this thing for like in person only correspondence, so that we can see face-to-face, the individual who would like to volunteer, fill out the paperwork, while at Liberty Resources on Thursdays from one to two thirty. Now, if you're working person you can you know because you know sometimes people work different hours.

Ed: Oh, yes.

Colleen: Cause You got your people who work that, you know, at night shift and stuff. So if there's somebody who can't make it during the day, then we suggest come out to the Mural Arts Tacony Lab Community Art Center. And we could maybe get you squared away to filling out paperwork for a volunteering. And you need a current child abuse clearance. Gotta be nothing on it. You know.

Ed: Okay. Yep. I would say That's a good disclaimer there. Yeah.

Colleen: Yeah.

Ed: If you could just give a little bit more information on that, as far as like, what, what do your volunteers do? What kind of experiences would they have?

Colleen: You don't really need experience, but if you have it then cool. Because we need people could come out to events and be at the table with us and learn more about how we talk about the coalition, so that these volunteers could learn how to talk about the coalition while being at the table. And maybe one day, they'll be at the table without, you know, one of the board members.

Ed: Right.

Colleen: Yeah, and then when we're around show time we send out mail the old way, you know, snail mail.

Ed: Yep.

Colleen: So we need people to stuff envelopes and we're getting on the side of e-friendly, but we're trying to make it accessible for all individuals because all different generations like it differently. Some like the digital aspect and everybody else likes the tangible. I'm somebody who likes something that I need to hold in my hand.

Ed: Yes, I would be part of that group as well. Yeah, that's sort of goes back to that diversity you were talking about earlier.

Colleen: Yeah.

Ed: Can you give us some examples of some great success stories that you've seen or just somebody that was filled with the passion for art after one of your teaching sessions? just some anecdotes if you have them.

Colleen: Our second art show was inside of the Robert Center of CHOP. So that's the newer building on the other side of the Schuylkill River on South Street and people who live in Philadelphia and who are of Generation X have referred to it as the glass house cell of South Street because it just looks like a glass big, you know, something or other, building.

Ed: Yes.

Colleen: So during this show, we did something out of the ordinary because it was our second. We had to do something bigger and better because the show is much bigger. We had a conference room, that could be three different rooms or something with TVs on the side that came down, and then we had the lobby area for art as well. We did utilize the TVs on either side, but the cool thing that came about this was we made it into a mini expo. So we had different partner organizations with tables around the art. And so we had invited ArtistYear which is an AmeriCorps program that brings art into the schools of Philadelphia and other places around the world because they have various locations just like CityYear Philadelphia which is another AmeriCorps program I'm an alumni from. But there was an individual who had his art in the show and he's originally from Lancaster County because we are here for the Delaware Valley of Philadelphia. So that includes everybody else around us, and across the way, over the bridge and so forth, in Delaware county. But this individual is from Lancaster County and he is one of the state awardees, some big award, I don't have the name on my top of my head right now and he was chosen by Philadelphia Eagles to create art for them.

Ed: Oh, wow.

Colleen: Right?

Ed: Yeah.

Colleen: Who knew that they would be out of the show.

Ed: Exactly.

Colleen: That was the Philadelphia Eagles. The individual who was hired by Artist Year was David A. Karasow, and he was one of the original members of the board, and he is an impeccable artist.

Ed: Okay.

Colleen: So, it's good that he's helping others.

Ed: Right. Yeah, I love that. It seems like you you had an immediate kind of effect on the community where just to be able to think of that to partner with other organizations.

Colleen: One of the cool things was during our first show because we had it inside of the Mural Arts Tacony Lab Community Art Center. We had invited out of various elected officials who replied back that they couldn't make it. And then, we had also extended our invitation to Jane Golden the executive director of Mural Arts, The Mural Lady. And one being it was inside of the Tacony Lab, and they're part of Mural Arts. So, that's a community partner right there. And, whereas the elected officials didn't show up, whether it was council members or state rep or the senator, one of them, Jane Golden showed up for the autistic community.

Ed: Okay.

Colleen: And we were in the Northeast Times. So yeah, I'd agree with you that things kind of just like took off and running because one of the things was the first conference that I had attended after the pandemic was Neurodiversity Employment Network. And that was at Lincoln Financial Field. That was the first day that I came with color flyers and I was able to do word of mouth on the microphone at the end during the network session. And it was like when the world literally opened up from pandemic, everybody got on to what they were trying to pitch because someone in that meeting had said that autistic art groups were no more because of the pandemic. And here, I'm sitting with a manila envelope with color flyers, with logos on the bottom going here we go.

Ed: Yep. You are the answer to their prayers at that time.

Colleen: Right place, right time.

Ed: Yeah. Yeah. Talk about serendipity. I mean, that's a great moment I'm sure, but also has to fill you with such great enthusiasm to know that something you put your heart into is something so many people want to get behind and they don't even necessarily, at that time they might not have even known you yet.

Colleen: Right.

Ed: But they, you knew there was a flow coming of people that were interested in this.

Colleen: Around the time where I got word of that individual being bullied, I had just graduated as a caps, a community autism peer specialist, a job that is for individuals who are autistic only to then provide peer support to youth, young adult, and adults, and seniors on the spectrum. So, we can't forget our seniors.

Ed: Nope. Exactly.

Colleen: Yeah, we consider our space a safe space and we keep reminding people to don't just fly, but soar. We keep this wooden piece on our table.

Ed: Okay.

Colleen: Because they say the sky's the limit and I say the sky is just the beginning.

Ed: Okay, I like that. I like that. How would you say your relationship with art has changed, not just, I guess, literally but also figuratively as far as seeing people embrace something that you wanted or were kind of chasing after as part of your own life, seeing it change their lives or seeing it give them a new perspective or opening doors for them? Has the organization changed your relationship with art and is it stronger than ever? How would you describe it now that you have the organization behind you as well?

Colleen: I think that like the art just came alive all over again. When you see the faces of individuals making the art, whether they're speaking, verbal, nonverbal, because art is the unspoken language that touches people not only sightful people but blind and so forth. I think that when looking back in hindsight, like example today, everybody's creating this stuff out of something that they were going to probably put in the recycle bin but now they made it anew. It almost gives you a different light when you see the individuals and the individual piece of art because it's like, wow.

Ed: Yeah, there's a, for lack of a better term, there's a repurposing there.

Colleen: Yep.

Ed: And nothing is really ever past its use. everything is recyclable. Everything is...

Colleen: Right.

Ed: Can be reused and recreated.

Colleen: Yeah, and the cool thing about that is when individuals who are under the age of 18 they come with their parents and then parents, you know, whether, we've had like two or three parents in the room at the same time and we say to the parents, hey, create the art too. You're a part of us. You know?

Ed: Yep.

Colleen: You know. And it's at the Tacony lab, it's all ages who come out. So under 18, obviously parent or guardian but over at Liberty Resources, young adults, and adults. And basically, they've already had that program going, but they wanted to incorporate the Autistic Art Coalition of Philadelphia, because I am actually a consumer of Liberty Resources for the past five years. I have a brain injury peer person. [Laughter].

Ed: Oh, Okay. Okay, so just like somebody that assists you in certain ways?

Colleen: Yeah. Like this individual is also a brain injury survivor and she runs the, I think the group's called MTV, I forget what it stands for, but I always think about the TV show, you know?

Ed: Yes.

Colleen: But she runs that group and then another group with the adults. I think it was called Express Yourself. Everybody came together and then me and my person had mentioned let's put the coalition into this and give you guys a second location. I was like, sure, no problem. We're actually working on our third location soon.

Ed: Wow. Okay.

Colleen: Yeah.

Ed: So it is really, it's continuing to grow definitely.

Colleen: Yeah.

Ed: And at the start of this, did you have the goal of multiple locations? Or was that just been developed because it's so much interest and things like that?

Colleen: Initially, we were supposed to utilize the recreation centers throughout Philadelpha, or the meeting/education room if the libraries have them in all neighborhoods. I don't think that's the case. But we were going to figure something out and go out to everybody because we wanted to, you know, go out to, you know, north and south and east and west, and see what people are doing and because it was needed that a group like this. So, right now, we have our set Tacony lab so far. And Liberty Resources, which is accessible by all Septa routes pretty much that go to 8th and Market. Um, you know, so it's getting around. I can say that the other location is in either Lawncrest or Lawndale, I'm not too sure which lawn it is. [Laughter].

Ed: Okay. But you have it narrowed down there and that's...

Colleen: Yeah, off of the 18 route on Rising Sun. That's all I know.

Ed: Okay, so I would define that as a good problem to have.

Colleen: Yep.

Ed: That you have to check to make sure that all your locations are in order and all those type of things. I love this story and I love the precipitous growth of the organization. Is there one particular goal that you have that you haven't reached yet that you're still trying to get to, or I know you have the aspirations of saying that the sky is just the beginning and all those type of things, but are there a list of goals that you still have? Or is it just about keeping it in the community and keeping it strong?

Colleen: Well, that's a good one. I know I can speak about for the end of fall, we're going to redo the Neurospicey Magazine. Basically, what goes in the magazine, it could be anything from poetry, music like lyrics I guess that you made up or something because that goes with poetry, photography and, you know, things like that. But for the coalition to grow and continue to provide opportunities more and more for autistic, neurodivergent, and/or intellectual disability artists to share their work in the coming shows that we will have as well as I hope to have a larger more permanent space so that individuals can come to what we would call our headquarters rather than calling the Tacony Lab Community Art Center our headquarters right now. That's great. That's a good starting post but eventually we would like to settle for our space in the future, whether it's that space right next to the Tacony lab or if it's downtown or in a different neighborhood. So it's things like that because we want to try to be accessible for all Philadelphia, so probably it'd be downtown but not too sure where.

Ed: Okay, you seem to have a great balance as far as going after what you want and being able to execute it and I admire your ingenuity.

Colleen: Thank you.

Ed: This is just a curiosity, you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but I was just wondering what your art school experience was like, because I haven't talked to a lot of people that have been in art school and I honestly, I'm just curious for myself what that's like and what kind of dynamic was that?

Colleen: When I went to college-ish, I went and went to the Art Institute of Philadelphia, it used to be on 16th and Chestnut. It's no longer in Philadelphia anymore. It's a shame how these art schools keep disappearing when I was there, I majored in photography and different graphic design, that came later because photography and graphic design go hand in hand. So there was that. I had taught art in the park and various other things, when I was stationed to work with Mural Arts Philadelphia back in 1997-1998, that was before I went to college. I did an AmeriCorps program called City Year Philadelphia and they gave everybody who worked the entire nine months of service award money so that they could go to college and so forth. So I took that money and I went to the Art Institute of Philadelphia. The rules and everything yeah photography had it's points where you had to do things a certain way or else your, you know, print didn't get developed the right when you're working it through the chemicals yourself versus what's going on today, digital. [Laughter].

Ed: Yes. The old school dark room style.

Colleen: This was after I have graduated, I became a teacher in upstate New York in the Adirondack area. Started out at a camp called Long Lake Camp for the Arts and Performing Arts. And we had some youth who were the children of different actors and actresses and stuff. Like I had Demi Moore's daughters in my class, Scout and Rumer.

Ed: Oh, wow, okay.

Colleen: Yeah. And so when To like, parents meeting parents, I was like, I had the best one. [Laughter].

Ed: Yeah. Exactly. I would be, I was gonna say, being a teacher, I would be, especially these days, I would be a little gun shy of parents anyway. And then when you had the extra celebrity, that adds a whole other dimension to it. Including obviously, your work with your organization, but also just, before that, how many years were you teaching art maybe in other ways or other ways or other dynamics like that?

Colleen: Well, I graduated at the Art Institute of Philadelphia in 2001, December, I think on the 15 actually, it was a Friday. [Laughter].

Ed: Okay.

Colleen: And prior to that, I was creating art in 1995. I graduated high school in 96, but I was doing other things like woodworking and quilting and things like that. And that's another whole form of art.

Ed: Right. Exactly.

Colleen: But I am an individual who can see something and then figure out how to make it.

Ed: Okay, okay. And just again, just based off curiosity, is it literally like when you say can figure out how to make it, do you mean literally by just one or two looks or do you mean you do research and find out how to make it?

Colleen: I'll give you an example. When I was an EMT, I never drove, I always my entire life took Septa. And I was on the bus once, I was about to get off, so the bus to get to where I work at the moment. And before I did, I got a glimpse of this girl's earrings she was wearing. So, when I was on my way to work, there was an art store. So I picked up the supplies I needed. So when we were on downtime, typically, when you don't have a call in the ambulance or something, you have downtime, stand by, they call it. When I was on a standby, I had everything that I needed to make these earrings. So I did. And just by looking at it on the bus and then, you know, not taking a picture because that would be rude, you know, you have to ask first and that's a whole lot of everything else.

Ed: Yep.

Colleen: I just made them. And sure enough, I bumped into this girl again, I looked at her earrings, I looked at the picture that was on my phone of the thing that I made, and I was like, it was it.

Ed: Okay, that is amazing. Is that something you've always had or do you notice that it comes more with anything you're doing artistically?

Colleen: I have no clue. I do believe that my mom's the same way too. I don't know if that helps, but she can see a quilt or whatever and just figure out how to do it either her way or to look like that, whatever quilt she'd be working on. I think I also have to be in the mood.

Ed: Okay. So something truly has to kind of catch your fancy and really attract you to want to work on it.

Colleen: Right. I guess one other thing would be that during the pandemic I had a dream that somehow I was gonna bring people together and I didn't know how. And then later on in life, Jane Golden was at the Tacony lab for a mural mosaic dedication and she had mentioned that murals were gonna go in the northeast section of Philadelphia. and I went home that night and I sketched my brains out and I and came up with designs some of which that I just showed you. And because I used to work there, on overcast days, so non-paint days, she would send out volunteers to scout walls to see if it was a viable wall. Well, since that was already part of my job back in 97-98 and then this happened and she said murals are gonna go up in the northeast, I thought of the Path wall immediately, and that is the largest wall in northeast Philadelphia. That next morning, I gave her a copy of the sketches and I said, after you spoke yesterday, I went home, sketched my brains out, and this is what I came up with. I want to submit it for a wall in Northeast Philadelphia at Cottman and Castor at the Path building, on the children's building, and she's like you know what you have to do and I was like yeah fill out an application. So I filled out the application for the wall, and I have the meeting finally, with the CEO of Path, and it is for the neurodiversity, neuroinclusion wall. So it'll have maybe the hands in the background with the infinity symbol and it also gives Path the ability to utilize their community partners like CBH, DBHIDS mental health partnerships to also have, you know, their pictures of what they would like on this wall if possible.

Ed: Okay. Please keep me posted on what goes on with that and I would love to have you back. I'm jealous of the thing about dreaming and then being able to turn what you saw in your dream into art. There's so many things here. I just feel like for people that maybe you're trying to pursue their creativity, it really just does come down to pursuing it and keeping the passion with a hard enough work ethic and talking to the right people, hopefully they can make their artistic contribution, whatever it may be, at some point whether with your organization or with their own. And I'm truly energized and enthused by your passion but also just the story itself. It's been wonderful speaking with you. If you would like to, feel free also to plug website, any social media.

Colleen: Yeah. Our website is w w dot a a c o philly dot org and the Instagram is at a a c o philly and then if you do Facebook and you happen to be on a w w w dot com, you do Facebook back slash a a c o philly. We try to make it uniform so that it becomes a thing.

Ed: Yeah, that is great. I would say even that worked out for you because just to be able to get that all uniform like that, like you mentioned, a good omen hopefully along with many others. And I truly am interested and if I am ever out that way I would love to come see your organization, and definitely at the very least see us talking again in the future.

Colleen: Oh, definitely. Yeah, sure.

Wrap Up

Ed: Welcome back to the Self Advocation Power Hour. Myself and Colleen Ott, our guest today from The Autistic Art Coalition of Philadelphia, really covered a lot of ground there. I just really enjoyed talking to her and you can just tell there's a lot of just natural sort of vibrance and general just artistic energy that is very noticeable when you speak with her. And I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I enjoyed recording it and being there for the conversation. If you'd like to follow a Colleen, Autistic Art of Philadelphia, please go to the proper social media pages that she mentioned at the end of the interview, or they will also be liked in the show notes. As always, speak up, stay strong, stay well, and stay empowered. Thank you very much.