Galloway, N.J. —  The Noyes Museum of Art at Stockton University has created a new art outreach program supporting people with disabilities thanks to two recent grants totaling $70,000 from an Atlantic County nonprofit.

The Access to Art program, which hosted more than 100 workshops at 13 different sites last fall, was funded by a $40,000 grant from the Atlantic Center for Independent Living (ACIL), a Galloway-based nonprofit that advocates and provides life skills training and services for people with disabilities. The program was such a success that ACIL donated another $30,000 to the Noyes in December to continue programming in 2025.

“We get money from the state every year to increase our independent living services,” said Donald Campbell, ACIL’s executive director, who’s also a 2013 graduate of Stockton. “Because we are a smaller agency, partnerships are really important because it’s hard to do everything you want to do when you are small. This partnership with Stockton is awesome. They really get it.”

Michael Cagno, the executive director of the Noyes Museum, said he has always done arts programming for individuals with disabilities, but this funding allowed him to create and formalize a new and consistent program.

“The arts are about promoting inclusion and accessibility for everybody, regardless of their background and who they are,” Cagno said. “The arts can also be a benefit for emotional and mental well-being. It can promote social skills and community engagement. It’s not just for individuals with disabilities; it’s also for the caregivers who benefit from taking part in this.”

Access to Art and the Noyes Museum partnered with organizations whose primary functions are to support those with disabilities, such as the ARC of Atlantic County and P.I.L.O.T. Services in Atco, in addition to other nonprofits that broadly support youth and families, such as Oceanside Family Success Centers I and II in Atlantic City and the Hammonton Family Success Center. Stockton’s Kramer Hall in Hammonton and the Noyes Arts Garage in Atlantic City also hosted events.

“These are people out in the community who are learning life skills. They’re meeting people. They’re socializing. It’s everything that centers for independent living are about,” Campbell said.

At the Success Centers, Access to Art set up programs for art therapists and psychotherapists to provide counseling to teenagers with anxiety and depression. Cagno said the money was also used to create monthly arts programs and an artist in residency at the Seashore Garden Center assisted living facility in Galloway with their dementia unit.

With the additional grant, Cagno hopes to expand this year by doing monthly programming with the Stockton Center on Successful Aging and possibly bring in students from the university’s Disability Studies minor to shadow those running the arts programs.

The final component of the Access to Art program was a weeklong pop-up exhibit at the Noyes Arts Garage in December showcasing the art created in the workshops. Cagno plans on doing another pop-up this spring with the works created from the first few months of 2025.

“What I love is the work that is being created is truly authentic. The artists aren’t concerned about an art market or what critics think,” Cagno said. “This is very honest work of self-expression and creativity.”

Campbell, who started at the center in 2017, wants to continue the program as long as he has funding available. He is thrilled with the results through the partnership with Stockton.

“I really enjoyed my time at Stockton. I have a disability myself. I have cerebral palsy, and Stockton was really good at accommodations for me. I like how forward-leaning Stockton is in our community,” said Campbell, who graduated with a Political Science degree. “This is the kind of stuff that I believe nonprofits and centers for independent living should be doing. We can’t do it all. We should just get out of the way sometimes and let the people who can really make an impact, do it.”

-- Story by Mark Melhorn