March is DD Awareness Month, and the opening of the Pioneer School show at the Pump House helped start it off Thursday evening.
Amy Beeler, Superintendent for the Ross County Board of Development Disabilities, was part of the crowd who filled the free public art gallery in Chillicothe. She explained the “DD Month Art Showcase,” including the large number of ceramics.
She said a business next door to the Pioneer School on County Road 550, “Biers Run Mudd,” worked with the school to let the kids make their own ceramic sculpture. Beeler said the business is also run by members of the Barnhart family who donated the site of the school.
Working with Biers Run Mudd, from the Facebook page of the Pioneer School.
1 of 1 Amy Beeler explains the DD Month Art Showcase at the Pump House.
I also asked her about the Ross County DD system. She said they work with more than 800 people “from cradle to grave.” They have only 88 children in Pioneer School, which is restricted to Ross County residents.
Beeler agreed that their DD system is an excellent example for smaller counties, and said that only about a third of DD boards still have schools.
Hear her in her own words in the video interview in the article on the Scioto Post.
The show runs through the end of the month. The Pump House Center for the Arts is closed Mondays, but open most other days at least 11 to 4. Learn more on the Facebook page of the Pump House Center for the Arts.
Kevin Coleman covers local government and culture for the Scioto Post and iHeart Media Southern Ohio. For stories or questions, contact Kevin Coleman or the iHeart Southern Ohio Newsroom.
200 may have attended the opening of the art show.