UNIQUE 2012 - Arise

From Sean Kirst, Columnist, The Post Standard
Many years ago, when I was in college, I needed a part-time
job. My mother had the answer. She was a cleaning woman
in an old brick building known as a school for “exceptional
children.” What it essentially was, in a less enlightened
time, was a boarding school for children and young adults
born with a spectrum of what we now call developmental
disabilities. In a culture less tolerant of differences, these
young people were removed from the general population and
thrown into this isolated school, a long walk along a busy
highway from any city neighborhood.
The school hired me to be a “residential counselor.” The job
involved working each day with a group of maybe one dozen
junior high students, essentially joining them for each step of
their routine - from the moment school ended until they went
to bed. To be honest, I was frightened on my first day of
work: I had no experience in the field, and I was startled by
what I initially perceived as an array of unusual behaviors.
What I learned – and learned quickly – was how fortunate
I was to get the job. I compare it now to the burst of
revelation, of entirely new thought, that accompanies
learning a new language. These young people had a
tremendous reservoir of insight, humor, empathy, and
wisdom. Within weeks, as they gradually began to trust me,
I realized what a gift it was to be allowed into their world.
The experience remains one of the core revelations of my life,
and it has everything to do with the way I see the specific
entries in this publication and show. It is instructive simply to
view each piece as art, based on the typical definition. But it
becomes utterly transformative, an entranceway to brilliance,
if you see the entries as art on its highest level - a portal, a
place where we cease to be strangers. Look at it that way,
and even the name rises anew: The show defines community,
yet remains UNIQUE.
v