Autism Awareness Family Celebration

On Saturday the Dallas Museum of Art held an Autism Awareness Family Celebration.  All of the activities focused on feelings, emotions, and expressing yourself; these included drawing faces that showed different emotions, a space to play with hula hoops and streamers, music and dancing in the theater, and a quiet space with tents and pillows for the times when less sensory information was needed.  

Music therapists sing "Don't Worry, Be Happy" while the families throw scarves in the air

DMA educator Amanda Blake started the Autism Awareness Family Celebrations four years ago, when no other museums in the US had programs like this.  After the first event, she received positive feedback from the families - and was given support by DMA security, leadership, and the board of directors - so the events have continued.  The email list for this event reaches over 900 families, but attendance is capped at 250 people to make sure that the event is not too overwhelming for its participants.  It's interesting to think about measuring the success of an event like this on something besides attendance numbers, as having very high turn out would make the quality of the experiences suffer.  Instead Amanda talks with families to get anecdotal evidence of the effectiveness of the program.

Award-winning storyteller Ann Marie performs an interactive version of Br'er Rabbit

Before coming to the DMA, I had babysat for a family that included a boy with autism.  It was very challenging figuring out how to plan activities for the kids, as I was never sure when an environment would be too overwhelming for him or when people would react negatively to his behavior.  I can imagine how much it meant to the families that attended the AAFC to be in a space where they were with other people experiencing struggles and joys similar to theirs.