Ruth Lubbers of Art Access receives the 2011 Madeleine Distinguished Service Award

Intermountain Catholic

+ Enlarge

Ruth Lubbers

SALT LAKE CITY — Ruth Lubbers, executive director of VSA Arts of Utah and its Arts Access Gallery, has been selected to receive the 2011 Madeleine Distinguished Service Award.

Lubbers has been executive director of Art Access since 1993. "I am truly excited and overwhelmed about receiving this award," Lubbers said.

Art Access provides art experiences and activities for people with disabilities and those people who are underserved in other ways, such as those who are homeless, living in poverty, having trouble with drug addiction, teens, the elderly or refugees. "Refugees especially because they leave their countries in turmoil and come to America and Utah, and they bring with them their cultures and different ways of looking at things, which is particularly exciting," Lubbers said.

Lubbers and her family moved to Salt Lake City from Michigan in 1981, as the result of a job change for her husband. "My husband, Bruce, was a school principal and I was a fine arts coordinator for 12 public school districts and I thought I was settled in my career," she said. "We moved to Utah and I did a lot of volunteering in the arts community that first year, mostly for the Salt Lake Arts Center, and I got to meet a lot of artists."

Lubbers’ interest in enriching the lives of persons with disabilities through the arts came as a result of her son, Mark, who just turned 40. "He has mental disabilities caused by brain damage at birth, and through him, we learned a lot about special education and disabilities," Lubbers said. "That became very much a part of our family culture.

"The arts are valuable for all people and so much more so for people with disabilities," she said. "I also was a high school art teacher in Michigan and have a degree in art, so art was very much a part of who I was and it would seem that the idea of disability and art coming together was not foreign to me."

Lubbers created new programs at Art Access, including the partners mentoring program, workshop programs and "grew the gallery," she said. "Now we have approximately 22 shows a year between the two gallery spaces. The important thing to remember is we accomplish all of our programming through the philosophy of inclusion. It’s important to us that we not put labels on people. The artists with disabilities want to be considered for their talent."

Art Access programs are funded largely through the organization’s alliance with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith founded VSA Arts, an international non-profit organization affiliated with the Kennedy Center, in 1974. "The idea behind art is that it is a discipline that gives everyone the opportunity to be successful at their own level," Lubbers said. "If you think about it, everyone who engages in art can enjoy some measure of success. So you might be an artist with an international reputation, a Sunday afternoon painter or someone who experiences art through therapy."

The fit for Lubbers at Art Access was perfect. "With my background, I brought a sensibility to all types of issues when I came," she said. "At Art Access, we are here to build community."

Lubbers will be honored at a dinner at the New Yorker June 5, and tickets are still available. The Madeleine Festival 2011 is being held each Sunday evening at 8 p.m. in the Cathedral of the Madeleine and will end June 5.

For ticket information, call Laurel Dokos at 801-328-8941, ext. 108 or e-mail ldokos@saltlakecathedral.org.