Statewide Program for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
TCC Trinity River CampusIf you'd to view some pictures and videos of our 2011 program sent in by Teresa Gonzales follow the link. Also, you can read the inspiring story of Tejay Johnson a TCU football player that helped chaperone our event this year.
April 8 & 9, 2011
The Imagination Celebration Special Weekend for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is a unique program that hosts over 500 deaf and hard of hearing high school students from across the state of Texas for a weekend of arts and cultural experiences developed especially for them. Imagination Celebration enlists artists, celebrities, and performance groups, both deaf and hearing, to provide programs and workshops around a designated theme. This program is totally unique and has transformed Deaf Culture in our state and across the United States. It brings deaf students together annually, connecting them to their deaf peers (prior to attending, they might not know another deaf person). The program has brought together deaf educators and deaf adults in the annual program planning process. It has brought leading deaf role models from across the world together to give programming and new vision to participating students. Deaf leaders who come here are totally astounded when they see 500 deaf high school students together in one weekend!
The Special Weekend for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, is in its twenty-first year and has been credited with changing lives and the way in which participants see the world and their future. The program has also had an impact on the fledgling "captioned film industry". There is no other program like this in the state of Texas or nationally, and for this reason, Imagination Celebration has twice received the Award for Outstanding Service to the Deaf Citizens of Texas from the Texas Association of Parents and Teachers of the Deaf. Recently, under ICFW leadership the program has been emulated for students in California.
All Imagination Celebration programs are open to students of special needs. In 1991 a group of Deaf Educators requested Imagination Celebration’s help in bringing National Theatre of the Deaf to Fort Worth. Imagination Celebration accepted the challenge. From this beginning, our statewide program for deaf students, “The Imagination Celebration Special Weekend for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing,” emerged. Each year since, over 500 deaf and hard of hearing high school students from 31 state regional deaf programs have come to Fort Worth for a weekend of arts and cultural experiences developed especially for them.
Imagination Celebration enlists artists, celebrities, performance groups and cultural institutions to provide programs and workshops around a designated theme. The students experience a weekend program of cultural and artistic experiences including exposure to live theater, participatory multi-media workshops, and interaction with deaf artists and role models. The Texas Education Agency assists in distribution of study materials related to the theme and the related artistic experiences so that teachers can work with students in preliminary study prior to their trip to Fort Worth. This is a designated curriculum related field trip for these students.
Highlights of the program over the years include presentation of the first play ever written entirely in American Sign Language starring Tony Award winning deaf actor, Phyliss Frelich; the National Deaf Dance Theater; Miko (internationally acclaimed deaf mime); acting workshops with deaf film actors Terrylene and Anthony Natale; and animation workshops with master animators from Walt Disney Feature Animation. Students have been introduced to the entire cultural community of Fort Worth, and each year experience many of the same outstanding programs that are part of our yearlong Imagination Celebration programs.
The “Imagination Celebration Special Weekend for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing” is unique. There is no other program that is addressing this need for deaf students in the state of Texas or nationally. For this reason Imagination Celebration has been twice awarded the Texas Association of Parents and Educators of the Deaf: “Award for Outstanding Service to the Deaf Citizens of Texas.” The Imagination Celebration program in Fort Worth is insuring the arts’ place as integral to our community’s education goals and extending this commitment on a statewide level through this program.
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