(Re)imagining
Inclusivity BY LUCIANO MARANO
PHOTOS BY ANNIE GRAEBNER
There’s more room in the spotlight than you’d think. Inclusivity is a word one hears quite a bit in our current cultural moment. The practice of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized is being realized across nearly every aspect of society and spurring discussions which, not so long ago, would likely never have happened. Several key artistic institutions on Bainbridge Island are doing their parts, rising to the challenge of meeting the special needs of the neurodiverse community through new partnerships, additions to programming, and even facility improvements.
I. What’s the word? According to the University of Washington, terms such as “neurodiverse” and “neurodivergent” were introduced in the 1990s by sociologist Judy Singer as an alternative to then-common deficit-based language, such as “disorder.” Someone who is neurodivergent may be on the autism spectrum, or, more generally, somebody whose brain processes information in a way that is not typical of most individuals. Such people may have learning disabilities, attention deficit and anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder or Tourette’s syndrome, among other conditions. While neurodiversity is most often used to describe a particular group of people, it could really refer to all of us, since everyone processes information in their own individual way.
II. A room of one’s own Both the programming and Bainbridge Performing Arts’ new facility itself have been designed with inclusivity in mind, said executive director Elizabeth Allum. “Truly, BPA is a space for everyone,” she said, “from the 3-year-olds to the 93-year-olds.” And she isn’t speaking metaphorically, either. Not long ago the BPA education program’s youngest student was, in fact, 3 and the oldest a nonagenarian. 52
PNW BAINBRIDGE WINTER 2023
