\Artists at Cosmos\" : the design and implementation of a community based program for moderately and severely intellectually handicapped young people Hobart Tasmania"

This project aims to present the process of the design and implementation of a community based program for moderately and severely intellectually disabled young people. The design and implementation of the program has been a solo exercise which took place during the 1984 school year. As a teacher responsible for a class group at Talire Special School, Hobart, it was my task in 1984, to define a curriculum for those young people, sixteen to eighteen years old, in their final school years. The 1984 project grew out of four years prior experience with these students in a school setting. Through the perusal of current writings in curricular directions for this group it became clear to the author that changes should be made to existing programs for this group of young people, considering the weight of the large body of evidence, presented in the literature, and the current emphasis on the least restrictive alternative and normalisation principles. Before entering the field of Special Education, my experience had been in the area of art education with secondary students. With this perspec tive I was struck by the immense talents and skills exhibited by this group in the art/craft fields generally. During 1984, the writer defined a curriculum ~om the group referred to which was outside the traditional confines of a school setting, and made specialised provision to develop art and craft skills through the develop ment of the concept of an \Artists' Workshop\". This project documents the search of the literature and the events that have occured in order to establish the program. The first chapter deals with evidence found in the literature on the directions of program development for moderately and severely intellect ually disabled students as well as detailing the particular circumstances that exist for this group in Tasmania. Chapter Two outlines the design and workings of the curriculum for this group that were developed. Chapter Three examines the \"Artists' Workshop\" the part of the curriculum that focuses on the development of art/craft skills. Chapter Four examines the difficulties that exist within this State for post-school experience for this group of moderately to severely intellect ually disabled adolescents. Also highlighted are the possible ways that the concept of the Artists' Workshop could be introduced and developed beyond school life. Chapter Five concludes with personal observations that have arisen from the process of design and implementation of a community based program for the target group described."