ATTENDEE
Ms. Christena Gunther
Title
- Founder & President, Chicago Cultural Accessibility Consortium (CCAC)
- Director of Education, Evanston Art Center
Resume
Bringing the city of Chicago, Illinois (USA) together around the intersection of disability and the arts was Christena Gunther's main aim as she started Chicago Cultural Accessibility Consortium (CCAC) in 2013. Having over a decade of experience in cultural accessibility from the Metropolitan Museum and Lincoln Center, she currently serves as Director of Education at the Evanston Art Center. Thanks to her brother Travis who has Down syndrome, cultural accessibility became her passion as they visited museums and attended plays together. Christena speaks nationally and internationally about cultural accessibility, especially the importance of establishing a local access knowledge network in one's own community. In 2015, Christena and her two colleagues, Evan Hatfield and Lynn Walsh, accepted the Kennedy Center for the Performing Art's award for Excellence for Emerging Leaders on behalf of CCAC.