The Arts Could Help Adults With Disabilities Lead Independent Lives

Brian Armour Jr. poses for a snapshot with Cheryl Sutton
(left), Kathleen Henderson of Studio Route 29, and his
aunt Beverly Towns Williams. Photos by Wiley Henry

Jenni Clark, the founder and CEO of StarThrower  

Group, says Armour is ‘creative, clever and kind.’

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the final installment of a two-part series about adults with special needs.

 

MEMPHIS, TN – “Are you proud of me?” Brian Armour Jr. asked his aunt after his performance at Studio Route 29 on Oct. 28 and after leaving the opening of his art exhibit at ArtYard, both in Frenchtown, N.J.

“Yes, I’m proud of you, B.J.,” Beverly Towns Williams assured her nephew on the way back to the house.

He’d asked Lionel Scriven, Williams’s partner, the same question before the “big day” had unfolded. “Are you proud of me, Uncle?”

Scriven answered yes.

Though Armour was the center of attention that day, he still wanted to know if he’d done a good job. 

Children and adults like Armour, who grapple with intellectual and developmental disabilities, may be impaired in one or several areas: physical, learning, language, or behavior.

Some of them may be more impaired than others.

Armour, however, is imaginative and creative. But he needed a structured program, said Williams, who was able to get him in the state’s pre-vocational program where he had trial work experiences.

“He worked at a food pantry,” she said. “He worked at a local department store. And he worked in an office setting just to see and measure what pre-vocational skills that he had.”

He needed a little more, Williams was told. “In these pre-vocational settings, it was only two to three times a week. Now he’s in a program with a combined internship with Studio Route 29.” 

The program spans the entire week, she said.

Developmental disabilities occur among all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Recent estimates show that about one in six (or about 17 percent) of children aged 3 - 17 in the U.S. have one or more developmental disabilities or other developmental delays.

The list varies: ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, hearing loss, intellectual disability, learning disability, vision impairment, and other developmental delays.

Williams and Scrivens would like to see Armour achieve independence some day and function within the scope of normalcy – if possible. That is their goal. But what is normal?  

Jenni Clark has the same goal for her three children – a boy and two girls. Each one is autistic, she said, and added: “It’s just that they’re high functioning.” 

Concerning her son, she asked, “Who’s going to take care of him? I want to see him set up and living in his house and he’s doing okay.”

Her aunt, whom she cares for, has special needs as well.

Clark is the founder and CEO of StarThrower Group, a non-profit that provides services to over 40 families in Hunterdon, Somerset, Warren, and Mercer counties in New Jersey.

Armour, a former Memphian, joined the group about a year ago. “He’s been so amazing,” said Clark, “because he’s so creative, and clever, and kind, and he really cares about everybody that he’s around.” 

A former schoolteacher, Clark launched the non-profit in 2018 after cashing out her Girl Scouts of Rolling Hills Council pension. She was the director of Volunteers and Training.

“We have people of all different areas of the autism spectrum,” she said about StarThrower. “We have people with Down syndrome, people with fragile X. There’s a lot of mental health concerns as well.”

Kathleen Henderson worked at Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, Calif., for over 10 years before opening Studio Route 29 a year ago in Frenchtown, N.J. Both are progressive art studios and serve artists with developmental disabilities.

“Since I got here, I have found out that there’s an incredible amount of activism around youth with disabilities,” said Henderson, the founder and executive director of Studio Route 29. 

She’s also an artist from the Bay Area in California.

When Stacy Tuzik, the executive director of StarThrower Group, brought Armour to Studio Route 29, Henderson welcomed him to the program.

“B.J. comes to the studio every morning with a dream that he’s had,” she said, “and he starts right out with his dream. He tells us about his dream and he works on his dream.”

Armour said his ideas come from his mind, his brain. “Nobody else but me. It’s all me.”

He’s proud of himself now.

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