Local art programs for artists with disabilities are also leaders of social change and inclusion. The artists in the Changemaker exhibition have a regular artistic practice and work in studios with a group of their peers. Instructors are usually professional artists and offer support rather than direction. Elias Katz and Florence Ludins-Katz who lived in Berkeley developed this model for an inclusive art studio in the 1970s.
Creative art programs like those creating the Changemaker portraits have spread nationwide and now serve a large and prolific population. As well as building community and offering professional studio spaces, they offer welcome opportunities for exhibiting and selling art. Works by artists with disabilities now attract national attention from commercial galleries and major museums are beginning to collect and display their work. Despite this progress, there is still much to be done to improve access for disabled visitors and artists alike.
Find out more about these programs from the links below, visit their exhibitions, attend their fundraisers, meet their artists, enjoy the work and start your own collection.
