and accomplished artists. La-
zen was determined that the
studio arts and vocational train-
ing be of the highest quality, not
compromised by any therapeu-
tic end goal. She clarifies, “any
therapeutic benefit would be a
byproduct. The ultimate goal
would be legitimate artistic ex-
pression.” Her initial guidelines
for hiring staff reflected that aim.
She at first “hesitated to hire
people trained as art therapists,
because in therapy, art is used as
a tool, whereby the end goal is a
therapeutic result. I became con-
cerned that that would under-
mine the artistic achievement of
my consumers.” Eventually she
did hire art therapists, recogniz-
ing their value. In addition, she
worked in partnership with other
agencies who serve disabled
populations to understand what
were the specific challenges for
their constituents, such as how
to help a person who does not
have use of hands or speech to
communicate an artistic vision. In
addition she made the building
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