Celebrate Autism Awareness Month at Festival Featuring Films By and About People with Autism, Developmental Disabilities

April is Autism Awareness Month. To celebrate, Baltimore will once again play host to the Sprout Film Festival – a festival of entertaining and memorable short films featuring people with autism and other developmental disabilities.

The 2016 Sprout Film Festival will be held on Saturday, April 23, 4-6 p.m., in the Chesapeake Room at Towson University’s University Union Building on Cross Campus Drive (between York Road and Osler Drive), Towson, MD.

This marks the fourth year in which The Arc Baltimore and Towson University’s Hussman Center for Adults with Autism, in conjunction with the university’s Mass Communication & Communication Studies and Electronic Media & Film, have joined together to present the Sprout Film Festival.

Founded in New York in 2003, the Festival “is designed to raise the profile of individuals with developmental disabilities, both as artists engaged in film making and as subjects of insightful and entertaining films,” says Stephen H. Morgan, Executive Director of The Arc Baltimore.

Morgan notes that the Festival “provides viewers with an enjoyable and enlightening experience that will help to break down stereotypes, promote greater acceptance of differences, and increase awareness of similarities.”

Free parking will be available on-site at the Union Garage, which is on Cross Campus Drive, attached to the University Union Building. There is also a mobility drop off on the loop, which is off Osler Drive next to the Union Garage. An accessible path to the University Union is on the lower level of the Union Garage.

Tickets for the Sprout Film Festival are $5 (free for Towson University staff, students, and faculty, as well as The Arc staff accompanying individuals with disabilities). Tickets can be purchased at the door on the day of the event or in advance by calling the Towson University Box Office, 410-704-2244.

About The Arc Baltimore

Dedicated to providing advocacy and high quality, life-changing supports since 1949 in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, The Arc Baltimore supports more than 6,000 adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. As one of the nation's largest and most respected organizations of its kind, The Arc Baltimore is an indispensable resource, providing employment training and support, day and residential services, family support and education, treatment foster care, respite care, public policy advocacy and information, and referrals. For more information, visit www.thearcbaltimore.org or call 410-296-2272.

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