#CAArtsChampion Marleena Barber

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About Marleena Barber

Marleena Barber is a vocal performer, educator, and disability advocate. She is the Director of VSA Orange County, a nonprofit arts and disability organization in partnership with the Orange County Department of Education where she is also a Visual and Performing Arts Consultant. Legally blind, from a condition called albinism, Barber has been active in promoting positive disability awareness through performance and education. Her one-woman cabaret show “Thank You for the Music”, about her life with Albinism, has served as a motivational speaking/performance piece for various conferences and events throughout the country including the 2010 International VSA Festival in Washington D.C. produced by the Kennedy Center. She was invited to perform on Capitol Hill in 2008 for Congress as part of American’s for the Arts’ National Arts Advocacy Day alongside guest speakers John Legend, Peter Yarrow, and Kerry Washington.

Barber holds a B.A. in Music-Vocal Performance from Whittier College and an M.A. in Arts and Culture Management from the University of Denver. She is the former children’s choir director for Braille Institute (2005-2016) where she developed music and theatre arts programs for K-12 blind and visually impaired youth. As a person with a disability and, having worked with students who have special needs, Barber has witnessed, first hand, the impact arts programming has had on this special population and is passionate about continuing to make the arts accessible for people of all abilities. 

About VSA Orange County

VSA Orange County is a nonprofit arts and disability organization in partnership with the Orange County Department of Education, whose mission is to provide arts, education, and cultural opportunities by, with, and for people with disabilities, making the arts accessible to people of all abilities. In addition to in-school arts programming, and professional development offerings, VSA Orange County’s largest program is its countywide annual arts festival celebrating the artistic accomplishments of individuals with disabilities. The festival was created through developing relationships with Orange County school districts and community organizations that provide arts programming for people with disabilities. Each year, the festival is held at Main Place Mall in Santa Ana and includes an art exhibit, day-long performances, and various hands-on arts and educational workshops. 

How does your program affect its neighborhood and the community at large?

The arts possess an innate quality that welcomes people of all abilities to participate and express themselves. For people with disabilities, the arts become an important vehicle for self-expression, finding one’s voice, gaining confidence, and developing a sense of self-worth. “The Very Special Arts” Festival creates the opportunity to recognize the talents, efforts, and accomplishments of artists with disabilities, offer awareness to the general public of these accomplishments, and provide education on the diversity of differently-abled people. The impact of this one-day festival is great, as we witness the collaborations of community organizations and schools, the pride of our student participants and their families, and the mentoring of adults with disabilities as role models to the younger generation.

What are you seeing right now as far as the COVID-19 impact on your program and the communities that you're serving?

In a time when almost everything has been “canceled” (art shows, concerts, theatrical productions, etc.), VSA Orange County has made every effort to continue its annual tradition of presenting a celebration of arts and disability. The Festival requires year-round preparation and many of our participating organizations and schools had begun, or near-completed, their artwork, projects, and performances for this year. This is our 44th year presenting our festival, and we wanted to continue our tradition of recognizing those efforts. When it became clear that we would not be able to hold an in-person event this April, we quickly shifted our thinking to develop a “virtual” Festival and build a website to house all of the elements that our Festival would normally offer. The Festival website features links to a 270-piece art gallery, 18 performance videos, video messages from special guests and educational activities to engaged students in learning about differently-abled people. It also includes a site-wide scavenger hunt!

I think our ‘Virtual” Festival website is still able to accomplish our goals of opportunity, awareness, and education, even though we cannot gather in person. By going virtual this year, we might actually reach more people than we would in just one festival day, and that is exciting!


Why are these art organizations going to be important when we rebuild the economy?

I think we are seeing the importance of arts organizations, right now, as we navigate this time of uncertainty. Many have opened up themselves to the community in different ways, whether it be museums offering virtual tours of their galleries, performing arts centers streaming shows from their library, or artists and musicians teaching and sharing their process via social media. More importantly, people seek solace and comfort in the arts during times such as these. The arts are providing a means to express, process, and come to terms with these uncharted emotions. In terms of the role arts organizations will play in the rebuilding of our economy, I think they will continue to find ways to connect people through art and provide a place for expression and healing from the affect COVID-19 has had on our well-being. In addition, I think we will see our society looking to the artist mind--the creatives and innovators--who are flexible, problem solvers, and comfortable thinking outside of the box; for life will most certainly be different as we move forward.

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