I Am Going To The Latvian National Museum of Art! Latvia’s first Ability Guidebook!

I’m very proud to announce Latvia is the  seventh country to have Ability Guidebooks! This museum has a wonderful collection of classical and modern Latvian artists!  Hopefully I can get this translated into Latvian to help local people visit the museum.

cover latvian national museum of art

Ability Guidebook_ I Am Going To The Latvian National Museum of Art!

I Am Going To The Helsinki Cathedral! Supports for People with Autism in Finland!

The fourth Ability Guidebook for Finland is for their most famous building! I present:

cover Helsinki Cathedral

Ability Guidebook_ I Am Going To Helsinki Cathedral!

I Am Going To Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden! An Ability Guidebook for Helsinki, Finland (autism supports)

Helsinki now has two Ability Guidebooks!  I present:

cover Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden

Ability Guidebook_ I Am Going To Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden

Finland! A New Ability Guidebook! A New Country! I Am Going To The Ateneum!

My first book for Finland is finished in English, not Finnish!  I am thrilled to announce: I Am Going To The Ateneum Art Museum!

Cover Ateneum

Ability Guidebook_ I Am Going To The Ateneum Art Museum!

Another Ability Guidebook for Estonia. I Am Going To The Niguliste Museum!

To round out my books for the Art Museum of Estonia I give you: I Am Going To The Niguliste Museum!

Cover Niguliste Museum

Ability Guidebook_ I Am Going To The Niguliste Museum!

Estonia! A New Ability Guidebook & A New Country! I Am Going To The Kadriorg Art Museum!

It is always a great day when I get a new Ability Guidebook done but today is special since it is in a new country!  Introducing: I Am Going To The Kadriorg Art Museum in Tallinn, Estonia!!

Cover Kadriorg Museum

Ability Guidebook_ I Am Going To The Kadriorg Museum

If you know anyone who speaks Estonian, send them my way!

I Am Going to the Renwick Gallery! A new Ability Guidebook for people with autism.

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It is always an awesome day when I get another Ability Guidebook finished! This February I was in Washington, D.C. to attend the NEA Foundation Gala and took the opportunity to get pictures for several books.

Many thanks to Precious Crabtree and Kristen Record. The three of us were NEA Global Fellows together in Peru and this is not the first time I’ve dragged poor Kristen off to pose for a book.

In July I have the honor of speaking at the Lincoln Memorial during the Save Our Schools rally and march and in 2017 the NNSTOY conference will be in Washington.  It is my hope by the end of these visits that I will be able to do books for all of the Smithsonian Museums!

I lament that the West Coast does not have a Smithsonian Museum, in fact, more than lament it, I protest it! The National Mall offers free museums for Native American History, African American History, the Holocaust Museum, that National Gallery and more… all free to all comers.  But all those free museums are lumped in a few acres  almost 3000 miles away from Portland.  As much as I’d like to make books for, say, the Smithsonian Museum of Northwest Culture in Portland, Oregon, I’ll hope that day comes some day and in the meantime I will create books for the Smithsonian Museums we do have.

So, without further ado:

Ability Guidebook_ I Am Going To The Renwick Gallery

Brett Bigham is the 2014 Oregon State Teacher of the Year and was awarded an NEA National Award for Teaching Excellence in 2015.

I Am Going UP on the Portland Aerial Tram! Ability Guidebook

I’m thrilled to be able to start posting the original sets of Ability Guidebooks focused on my home city of Portland. This was the beginning of the whole project and where they saw their first amazing successes helping people who had difficulties getting out into public.

tramUPAD

I have partnered up with Portland State University to have students make more books for our community.  I’ll be sure to let you know when the student written books are up online!

But for today, I’m proud to say, we are going UP on the Portland Aerial Tram!

I Am Going Up On The Portland Aerial Tram!

It’s Time To Visit The Supreme Court!

supremecourtpicThis book is all about perseverance! In 2014 Mike and I were in D.C. for the White House Honoring Ceremony.  It was an amazing week and we took every spare minute to meet with elected officials during the visit. We had a few minutes in between meeting Senator Merkley and Senator Baldwin and we decided we had time to make a book!

It was pouring down rain as we ran from the Hart Senate Building to the Supreme Court. There was over four inches of standing water in the street!  We splashed through, raced into the Supreme Court and quickly squished our way throught the building taking pictures as fast as I could.

Needless to say, the pictures turned out pretty terrible and I didn’t have the shots I needed to make a book.

Nine months later I was awarded the NEA National Award for Teaching Excellence and Mike and I found ourselves back in D.C.  I had my chance to get those pictures I needed to complete a Supreme Court Ability Guidebook! Again, the weather was none to cooperative. February snows kept us from our photo mission.

Last October I had the honor of being part of Kevin Jennings book tour for his book “One Teacher In Ten In the New Millennium.” He had accepted my essay “Teacher of the Year” for publication and I was able to travel to D.C. and L.A. for book readings. During that trip I was finally able to get the last pictures I needed at the Supreme Court.

So, finally, at last, with great happiness I present

Ability Guidebook I Am Going To The Supreme Court