PUBLIC OPENING – FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6

 

Saturday, September 7 @ 1pm. Panel Discussion with Tom di Maria, Director of Creative Growth, Krista Gregory, Exhibitions Director of Visionaries + Voices and Al Gorman, Site Manager of StudioWorks led by Judith A. Axelrod, M.D., Behavioral-Developmental Pediatrician and Founder of Square One.

 

Screenings of the documentary Outsider: The Life and Art of Judith Scott, a film by Betsy Bayha.

 

The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft (KMAC) opens the 2013 fall season with two exhibitions featuring work by artists with disabilities collected from three national art centers that offer support in exploring self-expression. Creative Growth: Dan Miller and Judith Scott curated by Matthew Higgs (White Columns NYC) brings together two artists who are closely associated with the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, CA. Studio Visions organized by Aldy Milliken with Krista Gregory (Visionaries + Voices) and Al Gorman (StudioWorks) brings together seven regional artists: Robert Bolubasz, Julie Baldyga, Kathleen Brannigan, Courttney Cooper, Andrew Hostick, Romando Love, and Matthew Torstrick. 

 

The exhibited artists employ drawing, sculpture and painting as a means of communication with a society that struggles to comprehend the barriers faced by adults with disabilities. Each work reveals a unique vision that defies human impairment and exemplifies the act of creation, placing these artists within the contemporary art discussion. Definitions of Outsider Artist, Craft Artist, and Self-Taught Artist are being reevaluated in art institutions across the nation, including White Columns and the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. The arrival of Creative Growth: Dan Miller and Judith Scott in Kentucky is a reflection of the growing integration of self-taught artists within mainstream practice. At this year’s 55th edition of the Venice Biennale, curator Massimiliano Gioni recognized dozens of underrepresented artists in the international exhibition, stating his intention of “blurring the line between professional artists and amateurs, outsiders and insiders, the exhibition takes an anthropological approach to the study of images, focusing in particular on the realms of the imaginary and the functions of the imagination.”

 

Finding inspiration from the collaboration between White Columns and Creative Growth, KMAC researched other studio programs within the area to select works that formulate a cohesive exhibition of singular voices. “I came across Judith Scott’s work at an art fair in Miami a few years ago.  The work is so compelling and poses so many questions about the art-making process that I knew KMAC had to do an exhibition.  It is a privilege to bring this exhibit here and to collaborate with two other local studio programs that present such high quality artwork,” says Executive Director Aldy Milliken.

Creative Growth established the first professional studio program in 1972 to serve adult artists with developmental, mental and physical disabilities. The center provides artistic development, gallery exhibition and representation, and a social atmosphere among peersto 162 artists who regularly exhibit in California and internationally.

 

Visionaries + Voices, established in 2003, is a non-profit organization that provides representation, studio space, supplies, and support to more than 150 visual artists.  V+V artists actively contribute to the greater arts community through creative, educational, and strategic partnerships with local and regional artists, schools, and business leaders. Collectively, V+V is growing a more inclusive arts community in Greater Cincinnati.

 

StudioWorks was established in 2006 as one of the enrichment programs operated by Zoom Group, the leading provider of enrichment services and employment for adults with developmental disabilities in the Louisville, Kentucky area. It is a non-profit art studio and gallery that provides 30 artists with varied art experience opportunities to develop individual expression and a sense of belonging to the larger community.

 

This exhibition is generously supported by Square One, Brown-Forman, Fund for the Arts, and the Kentucky Arts Council.