Advocating with Arts: CLC Grad Kim Plaut

“Take away the ‘dis,’ and insert ‘cap,’ and you end up with capability.” It’s this self-created slogan that guides Kim Plaut in her advocacy work with Mass Advocates Standing Strong, a statewide organization that, in Kim’s words, “helps people with disabilities find jobs and advocate for themselves.” It’s this same slogan that anchored Kim in the four years she spent at the Community Learning Center working towards her high school equivalency credential and in her additional year in the Bridge to College program. She continues to live by this slogan at Bunker Hill Community College, where she is in her first year studying studio art. 

Kim’s Art

Art has always been important to Kim. For now, she creates and sells her art at Gateway Arts, a studio art center, gallery, and store in Brookline where adults with disabilities develop their careers as artists. One day, she would like her own online art gallery. No matter the venue, however, Kim’s art is inseparable from her passion for disability rights. A regular presenter at the Mass Advocates Standing Strong annual conference, Kim has also testified in front of the state legislature and been quoted twice in legislative papers. So it’s no surprise that when she’s making bright posters or doing beadwork, Kim incorporates words, phrases, and slogans that are meaningful to her and that uplift those around her. As a nod to her own disability, her signature of sorts is a small seeing eye dog. But Kim doesn’t like definitions. One of the main things she appreciates about the Community Learning Center is that “a lot of people were there to help me when it was necessary to not be defined by my disability, but to find alternative ways to learn.” 

Kim is especially passionate about supported decision making, a philosophy that promotes giving people the tools they need to live as independently as possible and to have a voice in the decisions that determine the quality and direction of their lives. Supported decision making is not intended to necessarily be a total replacement for guardianship. Indeed, Kim wrote one of her first papers at Bunker Hill on the relationship between guardianship, supported decision making, and power of attorney. “I did more than people expected of me,” Kim says. She hopes to inspire others to do the same, not just people with disabilities.