As we hit our 20-year mark and prepare to close our doors, Upstream Arts is reflecting on the last two decades of incredible work. Today’s highlight: Art of Relationships and Art of Prevention
In 2014, Upstream Arts embarked on a new program: the Art of Relationships. In response to the epidemic of sexual violence experienced by individuals with disabilities, and at the request of one of our partners, we developed arts-based curriculum to practice and make accessible vital information around sex education, consent, and healthy relationships. This information – about how to understand your own body, how to practice safety, how to set and respect boundaries, and how to build healthy connections- is so necessary, but individuals with disabilities were not getting access to it anywhere else. The response was incredible; our community – from participants to partners to support professionals and educators – was hungry for this content offered in accessible, arts-embodied ways. The classes grew and expanded and eventually lead to our wider Art of Prevention initiative.
The first Art of Relationships residency was with a group of adult women at Opportunity Partners, where we partnered with sex educator Katie Thune to share accurate relevant information through our arts-based curriculum. (You can read our initial 2014 blog introducing the program here and our follow-up blog unpacking the context and impact of the work here.) Evaluations showed immense impact, with one participant sharing: “I learned that a healthy relationship is listening to yourself and your body.” Another wrote, “I learned that it is ok to say ‘no,’ no matter how uncomfortable you are.”
We quickly expanded to include all-gender classes, partnering to work with adults in a number of adult day programs. We finessed our curriculum, ensuring that all identities would find themselves represented, and focused on both sharing important information and building a classroom culture of consent. Teaching Artist Evie Digaralamo shared, “When we started to think about expanding and deepening the curriculum, we asked, ‘what are the core things that we are trying to bring?’ And then we were like, ‘oh, the first thing that we should talk about is body autonomy.’ That’s our groundwork, that’s where we start. And then expanding outwards to trusting your body, to listening to the signals it gives you.” (You can read the full 2021 interview with Teaching Artists Lindsey Samples and Evie Digaralamo here.)
Still of Teaching Artist Lindsey Samples from the Art of Prevention training video.
As the powerful impact of these programs became clearer, we brought more attention to the preventative nature of our work. In 2020, Executive Director Julie Guidry testified before the Minnesota legislature in favor of mandating sexual violence prevention training for Direct Support Professionals (DSPs). (You can read about this powerful work and the coalition of service providers advocating for it on our blog post from 2020.) When this passed, it was an unfunded mandate, leaving the disability service sector with a requirement, but without the tools to fulfill it. We stepped in to create the Art of Prevention training video – an interactive video to help guide DSPs in sexual violence prevention and in cultivating consent in the communities they serve. To create the video, we collaborated with adults with disabilities and DSPs from adult day program MSS, integrating Art of Relationships curriculum and prompts designed to increase bodily autonomy and build cultures of consent.
We expanded our toolkit further. In 2021 we commissioned beautiful illustrations from Dandy Doodlez, a UK-based disabled artist, to give a variety of visuals to support our work. And in 2022 we partnered with artists at MSS to produce incredible posters sharing some of the key messages: My Body Belongs to Me. Your Body Belongs to You.
Our attention to prevention continued to grow. We asked, “Wouldn’t this be even more powerful if individuals were given this information earlier in their lives? What if students could access this content at the same time as their peers?” And so in 2023 we began to work in high schools, middle schools, and transition programs. We were honored to have the support of the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MNCASA) in bringing over 13 programs to middle and high school students. When our funding was unexpectedly cut short, our incredible community of supporters stepped up and raised $65,000 to ensure the work, which was already underway, could continue uninterrupted.
Once again the response was resounding. One teacher shared, “I honestly wish my students could take this class every year. So many of the topics and themes discussed are crucial for kids but also, these are lasting behaviors people really need to know about through adulthood, and I truly think they can’t be practiced enough. I’m just so grateful we were able to do this with Upstream Arts, and I think it’s desperately, desperately needed.”
In 2024, we launched an ambitious Art of Prevention program that was designed to reshape the landscape of prevention across the state. In addition to facilitating the Art of Relationships residencies with middle and high schools, we worked with adult day programs to pair Art of Relationships classes with trainings for DSPs and leadership for a holistic approach. Supported by an Innovation grant from the Department of Human Services and grants from Minnesota Department of Health Sexual Violence Prevention Program, we partnered with MSS, Partnership Resources Inc., Northeast Contemporary Services Inc., Choice, Opportunities Partners, MetroWork, and PAI to have wide-reaching impact.
We also launched a series of convenings with support from an Minnesota Department of Health Capacity Strengthening grant. Under long-time Teaching Artist and project manager Nora Montañez, we brought together community members from dozens of adult day programs and partners in prevention across sectors to practice and explore deeper prevention strategies. (You can read about our first convening in December of 2024 here and our second convening in March of 2025 here.)
As part of this prevention work, Artistic Director Matt Guidry, Project Manager Nora Montañez and a group of Teaching Artists collaborated to create The Art of Consent, a deck of cards featuring Upstream Arts curriculum that serves both as a companion to the Art of Prevention training video and as a piece of our legacy, making our curriculum available to a wider audience of participants, DSPs, family members, educators, and the community at large.
From that first Art of Relationships class to the multilayered cross-sector programming of the Art of Prevention, the impact of this work has been tremendous. We are grateful and hopeful that our community will continue to carry forward this creative and empowering material, deepening prevention and bodily autonomy, and building a world where respect and consent are the foundations of all our interactions.
A few of the Teaching Artists who helped develop The Art of Consent pose with one of the card decks at The Art of You: Carrying It Forward farewell event. Photo by Marla Olivia Photography.