OUR VISION
Our Vision is to transform the lives of artists with disabilities for the glory of God.
Our Mission is to leverage art and place; empowering artists with disabilities who become creative catalysts for changing systems of day habilitation; long-term care, peer support, and affordable housing.
Imagine Art is a Christian ministry, a 501c3 nonprofit, established in 1996. Our passion is art, disability and ministry. We are a diverse community of artists with and without disabilities who offer high caliber art services that demonstrate the power of creative place for transformation and change. We creatively leverage public resources to demonstrate a new models of service delivery that empowers people with disabilities.
Our artists are being transformed with vision and purpose, deployed as catalyst for systems change.
OUR STORY
Our story has been a journey of grace and restoration and we believe that we are called to minister to a specific people group; artists, namely those living with disabilities.
Disability is woven through our founder’s history. Between 1989 and 1997, Debbie Kizer consuled in areas of developmental disability, supported employment and systems change. In 1995, Kizer was diagnosed with a mental illness and it changed the course of her life. Her recovery and spiritual journey were woven, as parallel paths, with this grassroots organization. In 2001, it was clear that Jesus Christ was the cornerstone of Imagine Art, and the organization chose a foundation of faith to make a difference in the lives of the artists they served.
WHAT WE DO
Our work is driven by a field of practice that we call, Creative Placemaking—we leverage art and place to serve a community’s interest, and create social change in systems that serve people with disabilities in Texas.
Our model of Creative Placemaking demonstrates a new way to deliver traditional services. We offer high-caliber art and micro-business development classes, studio space, and community support for artists. Excellence in service and creative space attracts non-disabled artists who access the same services that are tailored to support artists with disabilities.
In response to disability-related needs, we created programs for peer support, day habilitation, employment, long-term care, food security and affordable housing.
We are positioning artists with disabilities as “place-makers” and “leaders”. We are deploying these leaders into these other programs, as catalysts for change - demonstrating the power of creative placemaking.
