2015-632-E Arts - Franklin Street Arts Collective dba FRANK Gallery Arts Grant

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DocuSign Envelope ID:7FB82F39-7614-4970-85EE-75887FBF57E6 Holly Riddle 109 Charlesberry Lane Chapel Hill, NC 27517 May 12, 2015 Barbara Tyroler 120 Old Forest Creek Rd. Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Dear Ms. Tyroler: I am writing in strong support of your efforts, through FRANK Gallery, to fund and sustain a diverse complement of community outreach efforts in the arts, As the policy advisor for the North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services and the former director of the NC Council on Developmental Disabilities, I would like to address, particularly, your arts initiatives that focus on people with disabilities. You are an accomplished photographer whose body of work has demonstrated merit as "art for art's sake." It, however, offers us more. Your work derives richness in drawing upon the core, ethical principles that inform the field of disability and, more broadly, many, contemporary, social change movements. These principles are carried forward by the art itself and artists' engagement in FRANK's outreach efforts. This is work with the capacity to deepen our connections to each other and the broader community of which we are all part. You and other artists at FRANK achieve this end by embracing an ethical imperative: all people have strengths and abilities and a contribution to make to community. Your water series of children with autism, for examples, affirms that these children are about abilities, not disabilities. In portraying their participation in a community swim program, you also convey the inclusiveness of our community—and do so in a manner that uplifts us all. Your 2015, month-long Diversabilities initiative, celebrating National Autism Awareness Month, celebrates--in images produced by members of the disability community and by professionals—the principle that communities benefit from, and become whole, in the act of acknowledging, and taking joy in, the contributions of each of us to the other. Your art advances, then, a larger and eminently positive societal change. The outreach work of yourself and others at FRANK exemplifies the marriage between fine art and committed social change. The funds that I trust you will secure leverage the"capacity for caring." This is the hallmark of the best of communities. It represents a return many times over the investment. In closing, thank you and FRANK Gallery for enriching individual lives and the collective life of this community. Sincerely, Holly Riddle, M.Ed., J.D. N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Policy and Research Team DMH/DD/SAS Office: 919-733-7011