New Jersey Stage 2017: Issue 9 | Page 90

Arts Unbound K.R. Allen Photography SHARE BUTTON The year was 2000 and Cathe- rine Lazen was inspired to create an art school which would cham- pion people with disabilities. Fittingly, Lazen named it Arts Un- bound. Seventeen years later the nonprofit, located in Orange, New Jersey, is providing profes- sional fine arts education, voca- tional assistance and a gallery exhibition space to 200-300 art- ists annually, thereby challeng- NJ STAGE 2017 - Vol. 4 No. 9 by Judith Kurens ing the stigma and lack of viable employment opportunities that all too often are associated with their constituency. Lazen’s inspiration was the love and compassion she felt in her third pregnancy. She recalls how medical doctors were urg- ing her to terminate the preg- nancy, warning her that the baby she was carrying had a genetic anomaly and would surely be INDEX NEXT ARTICLE 90