Entwined is the story of Creative Growth artist Judith Scott, who was institutionalized for more than thirty years before being rescued by her sister. A personal narrative that explores the complex world of disability, loss, reunion, and resiliency of the human spirit. Written by Judith's twin sister, Joyce Wallace Scott. Available in the Creative Growth gallery and online here.
New York, NY – The ninth annual Wynn Newhouse Awards Exhibition opened April 18, at Palitz Gallery located in Syracuse University’s Lubin House at 11 East 61st Street, New York City. Palitz Gallery proudly hosts the exhibition that was created to draw attention to the achievements of artists of excellence who happen to have disabilities, for its sixth year. Exhibition hours are Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is free and open to the public. Contact 212-826-0320 or lubin@syr.edu for more information. The exhibition runs through May 15th.
Each of the award winners receive a portion of a $60,000 per year allotment from the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation and this year 15 works including watercolor, works on paper, acrylic on canvas and mixed media will be on display. The grant winners include Derrick Alexis Coard, CourttneyCooper, Nick Dupree, Carolyn Lazard, Dan Miller, Alice Sheppard and Constantina Zavitsanos.
Nearly half of the artists in this exhibition are represented by organizations that support artists with disabilities. Each of these organizations know that the artists they nurture can excel and make work as incisive, challenging to viewers and experiential as any able-bodied artist. Healing Arts Initiative, who works with Derrick Alexis Coard, exists to remove barriers to arts and culture. Dan Miller is represented by Creative Growth Art Center an organization that serves adult artists with developmental, mental and physical disabilities while providing a professional studio environment for artistic development. Visionaries + Voices emerged in 2001 and in 2003 became a full non-profit that organizes shows and presents the work of artists with disabilities. V+V is now a home for hundreds of artists in and around Cincinnati including Courttney Cooper.
The Creative Growth 6th annual Beyond Trend Runway Event & Fundraiser was a great success! With your support we exceeded our fundraising goal on the night of the event while collectively celebrating the visionary style of the Creative Growth artists on the runway! If you missed Beyond Trend in person this year, there is still time to contribute to over 150 artists with disabilities and their studio program. Every dollar we raise during this time goes towards our Beyond Trend goal. We look forward to seeing you in the Creative Growth gallery very soon or if you are out of town please find our limited edition artist merchandise online here. Thank you for becoming part of the Creative Growth community--your support makes all of this work possible.
Thank you to our incredible sponsors and collaborators:
Major Sponsors Mark di Suvero Anonymous
Honorary Event Chairs Kim Hastreiter, Paige Powell and Alice Waters
Runway Chairs Chad Graff and Joann Falkenburg Dinner Chairs Jane Timberlake and Taylor Walker Creative Design Chair Lauren McIntosh Walrod
Table Hosts & Sponsors Chad Graff and Joann Falkenburg, Dee Hoover and Stephen Beal, Jane Timberlake and Taylor Walker, Jennifer and Colin Cooper, Kim Hastreiter, Levi Strauss & Company, Old Navy, Stephen Walrod and Lauren McIntosh Walrod
Musical Guest Pink Martini
Guest Emcee Frank Somerville
Fashion Hosts Ben and Chris Ospital
Runway Team Karen Anderson, Liz Baca, Rachel Cubra, Anne Hartford, Creative Growth Artists
Chefs Charlie Hallowell, Pizzaiolo Cal Peternell, Chez Panisse
Aesop Andronico’s Beaune Imports Bellwether Farms Blueprint Studios, Allison Staley Brokaw Farms Cannard Farm Canopy Floral, Haia Sophia California Olive Ranch Carly Roemmer Cheryl Dunn Chez Pannise Chris Kronner Creative Growth Studio Artists Creative Growth Volunteer Team Creative Growth Decor Team Djinti Edda Cortez Events by Collette, Collette Simko-Knauss Fort Point Beer Co. Grace Street Catering, Allison Etchison Guest Models: Sonja Walters Brittney Cade Fitch Ball KC Bull Clara Yoon David Wilson Lovage Sharrock Brandon Giordano Lyssandra Guerra Camille Kohr Zoe Walker Georgia Brooks Phoenix Libsch Terri Loewenthal Monica Canilao Turf Dancers: iDummy Johnny 5 Guittard Chocolate Company Harper Paige Salon: Daniela Saavedra and Ceci Coon Heath Ceramics Immersive Liberty Farm Lightwaves Make-Up Team: Ralph R. Kasey III Alise Jacoboni Daniel Jaujou Mark di Suvero Marquee Salon: Ocean Edgar Jenny Lund Sarah Schiek Melissa Kaseman Nina Parker Oakland Marriott Oakland Museum of California, Catherine Kitz Ordinaire Pizzaiolo Public Bikes Riverdog Farm Sandra Poindexter & Friends Scribe Winery Solstice Press Sprouts Farmers Market St. George Spirits Stella Ishii and 6397 Team at The News Studio Instrument Rentals Terri Loewenthal Vans Visit Oakland
Available now at the Creative Growth Gallery store, Online Shop and at selected retail outlets.
PRESS RELEASE / EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
Media Contact: Jennifer O’Neal jennifer@www.creativegrowth.org 510-836-2340 x 20
February 18, 2016 — Oakland’s Creative Growth Art Center announces the 6th Annual Beyond Trend Runway Event and Fundraiser, Saturday, April 23, 6:00 – 9:00 pm, at the Oakland Museum of California.
Creative Growth, an internationally celebrated studio and gallery for artists with disabilities presents the Beyond Trend Runway Event & Fundraiser. This much anticipated and historically sold-out event provides critical annual support to the Center’s visionary community of over 150 artists.
Beyond Trend presents a one of kind, unscripted, couture fashion performance, featuring artists from the Creative Growth studio and their designs, alongside a social event weaving together art, fashion, music and notable Bay Area cuisine. For the first time the fundraiser will be held at the Oakland Museum of California. Tickets are available from $50 to $500.
Recently the subject of a New York Times Magazine feature, Creative Growth has partnered with the world’s leading designers, contemporary artists and galleries in order to advance the artwork of people with disabilities within the contemporary art world. Works from the organization’s artists are included in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, along with notable collections worldwide.
A newly added dinner and private concert will feature a menu by celebrated chefs Alice Waters and Cal Peternell of Chez Panisse and Charlie Hallowell of Pizzaiolo. The Beyond Trend Host Committee includes Paper Magazine editor-in-chief, Kim Hastreiter, photographer and Warhol collaborator Paige Powell as well as local San Francisco, high fashion innovators Ben and Chris Ospital of Modern Appealing Clothing. The post-runway show dinner features an exclusive concert by one of the world’s most elegant live bands, Pink Martini.
Runway event tickets are $50 - $175 Tickets may be purchased starting March 11 at www.creativegrowth.org
Reservations for the private seated dinner and live concert start at $500 and may be purchased by contacting:dan@www.creativegrowth.org / 510-836-2340 x 17
Event Details: Saturday, April 23, 2016 6:00-9:00PM The Oakland Museum of California Tickets on sale March 11 @ www.creativegrowth.org
Dear Friend,
Not everyone gets to be a part of history.
Creative Growth’s history is the story of people with developmental disabilities becoming contemporary artists. Artists whose work now influences other artists, impacts our culture, and increases the capacity for people with disabilities to achieve beyond what many have imagined. Our story is still evolving. With your support, we’ll make the next decade our most important ever.
Look at what has already changed. In my office I keep a progressive publication from the early 1970’s, when Creative Growth was founded. It is called Life with a Retarded Adult, and it discusses whether a family can bring an adult child with a disability out to a restaurant or if they should always eat at home. This is the environment in which Creative Growth was born. It’s a stark reminder of how radical our art experiment was and how far we have come.
We continue to make history in our studio everyday. This past year:
• Facebook commissioned artists John Martin and Kim Clark to create large-scale wall installations that will become permanent parts of its new Frank Gehry designed headquarters in Menlo Park, CA.
• Bound and Unbound, a major traveling retrospective exhibition of Judith Scott’s eighteen years of sculpture making, was presented at the Brooklyn Museum to excellent reviews from The New Yorker and The New York Times.
• Our Video Production Workshop presented a new 30-minute film, Starquarius, in multiple East Bay locations and is preparing for national gallery screenings.
• We provided leadership in the field through consultations and lectures about our work at gatherings of international curators and arts administrators in San Francisco, New York, Vancouver and Tokyo.
Everyday at Creative Growth, new artists find their way and achieve the unexpected. Artists like Monica Valentine. Have you seen Monica’s multicolored sculpture composed of pins and beads in our gallery? Optically magical, tactilely enticing, these are made by a woman who has been totally blind since birth. Her path towards making art that involves detailed handwork, pins and intricate color patterns defies what some might expect her to do. She is changing the way in which the world views artists who are blind.
Monica’s story is a Creative Growth story. Individuals rising above their circumstances, art serving as a fundamental human expression, each of us supporting and being inspired by one another.
We have more artists to serve, but we need funding to continue our work. Sixty percent of our annual budget comes from individual donations.
Artists like Monica need your gifts to help support:
• Our $150,000 annual art supply budget• Transportation costs for our artists to get to us from around the Bay Area• Lunches for those who are unable to bring food with them• Presentation of artists’ work in five countries• Our talented staff - who support, mentor and befriend our artists six days a week...and have for over four decades
Forty years ago our artists lived in an entirely different world, one filled with stigma and misunderstanding. Let’s not go back there. Let’s move forward and forge a new path together. With your support, we will continue to make history happen.
Today, I am happy to say there is a new book in my office. Simply called The Creative Growth Book, it reviews our 40-year history and includes new essays by Matthew Higgs and David Byrne, and new writing from the USA and Europe about our artists, our history and our projects. It’s an essential new review of our history, filled with compelling images and artwork that have never been seen before. The book will not be released until 2016, but is available to you now in recognition of your support of our artists.
I hope you will be able to meet Monica and all our artists in the studio soon, and that you will be a part of what we will continue to do together. Monica and our 160 other artists are hoping for your support.
Every dollar matters. Email me at tom@www.creativegrowth.org if you have any questions about what your support will do.
We are going further still. Come help us write the next chapter, we need your support.
Wishing you peace and creativity this holiday season,
Tom di Maria
Director
CGbook2015
P.S. Receive an advance copy of The Creative Growth Book, with a gift of $250 or a monthly pledge of $15 or more.
Introducing the Studio Capsule collection: A place to find specially curated artwork and refined objects, the Studio Capsule is an ever-changing rotation of unique and covetable curiosities. Highlighting limited edition pieces that harness the creative energy of the Creative Growth studio, these serial, hand-crafted works showcase the plethora of materials at the artists' creative disposal. Through these artful yet functional objects, get a virtual glimpse into the Creative Growth studio and be inspired by the idiosyncrasies and imaginations of each artist.
Thank you for visiting our website, we love to share what's going on around the studio, gallery and art world with our friends and members. Below you will find a few ways to stay in touch with the latest event and exhibition information, as well as how to create a direct link to that one of a kind feeling that comes from interacting with Creative Growth artwork. Follow us on Facebook
Check out daily images from the Studio and Gallery on Instagram or find us on the Instagram app: @creativegrowth
Join our mailing list and receive updates about exhibitions and events*
*We appreciate your interest and support and will never misuse your information.
Friday March 66:00-8:00pm Free!
The New Parkway 474 24th Street @ Telegraph Avenue Oakland, CA thenewparkway.com
Friday March 6, from 6:00-8:00pm, Creative Growth Art Center and The New Parkway are partnering to screen a free showcase of new and classic short films from the Creative Growth Video Production Workshop.
https://vimeo.com/120497175
First Friday Shorts, located in the heart of First Friday festivities in Oakland’s uptown, is a free monthly screening of short films from local media arts community organizations held at The New Parkway Theater (474 24th Street, Oakland). These screenings aim to bring the Bay Area’s diversity in perspective, voice, and vision into the heart of First Fridays. The events showcase the talent from Bay Area media arts organizations, and always include live elements, such as performances or filmmaker Q&A. Founded in March 2013 by San Francisco State University professor, Jillian Sandell, First Friday Shorts highlights films by Bay Area filmmakers and community arts organizations that use media production as part of a larger commitment to social justice and community transformation. Short film, as a genre, not only challenges many of the traditional conventions and aesthetics of feature-length films, but is also an important sway to bring a greater diversity of stories, visions, and experiences into circulation.
The Wynn Newhouse Awards, established in 2006, provide grants to artists of excellence who also happen to have disabilities. Nominees and winners are chosen by a committee of respected professionals in the arts and disabilities communities. This year’s committee included Gavin Brown (Gavin Brown’s Enterprise), Mia Locks (curator, MOMA PS1), Nancy Rosen (arts consultant) and Rusty Shackelford (artist). The award is accompanied by a cash prize, as well as a group exhibition in New York in April 2015. We are delighted to announce that two Creative Growth artists, Kerry Damianakes and William Scott, have both been awarded Wynn Newhouse grants this year.
Kerry Damianakes powerfully manipulates the materials she uses in the production of her art. Working in a bold and colorful style, she recreates images of her favorite foods. She has a love of clean and simple form bounded by strong, black line work. She has been an artist at Creative Growth since 1983.
Kerry Damianakes, Chicken Noodle Soup for Lunch for New Year’s, 2013, Prismacolor and ink on paper, 15 x 22 inches
Kerry Damianakes, Beef Cubes Carrot and Bell Pepper and Onion and Squash and Rice and Peas, 2009, Prismacolor and ink on paper, 22 x 30 inches
William Scott is a self-taught artist capable of rendering his imagined public and private worlds with remarkable accuracy and meticulous detail. William draws, paints and re-builds his native San Francisco in search of the elusive “normal life,” one of Baptist-sermon ideals and gleaming, safe, artistically franchised, city centers. San Francisco re-emerges as “Praise Frisco,” a place where Scott’s public longing for wholesome, peaceful interactions take place within idealized neighborhood landmarks. Most recently William has had a solo exhibition at White Columns, New York and shown with Gavin Brown’s enterprise and has been featured at both the Armory Show, New York and NADA during Art Basel, Miami.
William Scott, Untitled, 2014, Acrylic and ink on canvas, 36 x 48 inches
William Scott, Untitled, 2013, Acrylic and ink on paper, 22 x 30 inches
December 2014
Dear Friend of Creative Growth,
Do you remember the first time you walked into Creative Growth?
For me, it was a moment of wonderment at the extraordinary creative activity I was witnessing. I immediately wanted to play a part. I felt there was an opportunity to learn something important about life, and to make a real difference.
It is your understanding and appreciation of Creative Growth's vision and your generous support through the years that have elevated the achievements of our artists with disabilities to new heights.
Through art, a groundbreaking dialogue between people with disabilities and the wider community is now taking place – and it could not have happened without you.
With each year, our accomplishments grow. This past year:
We expanded our studio space to include a new private workroom for our artists who are most independent and those who require more privacy and quiet while working.
We began a program that allows individual artists the opportunity to fully curate an exhibition of their own work in tandem with our regular gallery exhibitions.
Judith Scott became our third artist to have work acquired by the permanent collection of New York's MOMA, and a retrospective of her eighteen years of sculpture making opened at the Brooklyn Museum.
As a sign of how much the landscape has changed for artists with disabilities since Creative Growth began, Judith's solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum is being shown in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Judith is being recognized for her rightful place among the significant female contemporary artists of our time, without regard for her disability.
This is an extraordinary achievement, and one that would not have been possible without ongoing community support.
I recently observed an artist who was considering attending our program as he walked into our studio space for the first time. His eyes widened, and he wasn't able to stop himself from smiling. This was the moment that he discovered Creative Growth. I was so proud that our generous donors allowed for this moment to happen, that together we could provide this place for him.
But many challenges remain. Today, I am asking for you to contribute to our work, and to the vision we all share.
Our goals for next year include:
Furthering our service to young people with disabilities by expanding the capacity of our Saturday Youth Art Program
Bringing our artists’ work to new markets, including the Tokyo Contemporary Art Fair
Finalizing the acquisition of our last 100 safe and sturdy new studio chairs for all of our artists through a matching gift offer from a generous donor
Increasing the quantity and diversity of art supplies we provide in our studio, including more large-scale canvasses
Hosting visitors from Iceland, Australia and Italy who want to learn about our model program so they can bring it home to help people with disabilities in their own countries
Despite the importance of these items for our people and programs, we simply cannot afford them without additional revenue. I hope you'll be able to help.
If you're not sure what your gift will do or how it will impact our people, please call me directly at 510-836-2340 ext. 13 or email me at tom@www.creativegrowth.org, so that I may answer your questions and share how important and impactful your support will be.
You are a critical member of the community that makes Creative Growth possible. We simply could not continue and reach our further goals without your help.
Thank you for sharing and supporting our vision.
Best Wishes,
Tom di Maria
Director
And remember, you can shop in our gallery each Saturday in December until Christmas from 10am to 3pm!
October 23 - 26, 2014 Thursday 5pm–9pm Friday 11am–8pm Saturday 11am–8pm Sunday 12pm–6pm
Hotel Le A 4 Rue d'Artois Paris 75008 T +33 (0)6 15 15 01 64 info@outsiderartfair.com
BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE!
An exhibition prepared in cooperation with with Creative Growth Art Center and artbrut.cz with the support of American Embassy:
Mental Contours III. - Lines of Force
October 15 - November 11, 2014
Continuation of the project Mental contours - this time american artists working with fonts, character, lines...
Opening: Wednesday 15. 10. 2014 8 p.m.
Artists: John Martin Laura Jo Pierce Dwight Mackintosh Dan Miller Donald Mitchell William Tyler Merritt Walace
Curated by: Terezie Zemánková Nadia Rovderová Ivana Brádková
Creative Growth Art Centre operating in Oakland, California (USA) is one of the oldest studios in the world focused on the development of art talent of artists with mental illness and mental handicap. It is attended regularly by nearly 200 clients. The studio is not focused on art therapy – there work professional artists, whose task is to encourage the local creators in the search for their own artistic expression. That is also why many exceptional artists who have achieved international fame came from here. A number of them are represented in both public and private collections of art brut, some authors (including Dan Miller) are even presented in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
We are proud that we were able to bring to the Artinbox Gallery an exclusive selection of seven artists and bring forward further evidence of the unique aesthetics, imagination, colour and graphic combinatorics, and the power of shared emotions, which art brut artists possess.
The exhibition Mental Contours III. – Lines of Force was prepared with the support of the American Embassy.
Our thanks also go to the Director of Creative Growth, Tom di Maria, and his colleague, Gaela Fernández.
Welcome to Creative Growth. We are the oldest and largest independent art center in the world dedicated to the idea that all people – regardless of disability – can be creative if offered an opportunity to express themselves.
Our story is interesting. To understand fully who we are you must know a bit about history – specifically American and California history from the 1960s and 1970s. At that time, it was considered normal for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities to be placed in hospitals and institutions, where they would spend their lives outside of mainstream society – leading often sad and private lives in conditions that were sometimes dismal.
Creative Growth is located in Oakland, California, just across the Bay from its sister city San Francisco. These cities were the center of significant social change many decades ago. The late 1960’s and early 1970’s marked a time of cultural revolution in America – the creation of the free speech movement at the University of Berkeley, the rise of Hippie culture, anti-war protests, a reaction to tradition, the explosion of rock music, and the famous Summer of Love.
These new ideas led to many changes in our society, including a re-thinking of how people with disabilities might live in the world. Because of these new ideas, the State of California made a decision to close the institutions where people with disabilities lived, and sought to have them become active participants in the communities from where they came.
Creative Growth’s founders – Elias and Florence Katz – were artists and dreamers who asked the question – what will these people do when they leave the hospitals? Creative Growth’s answer was founded on the idea that creativity is an inherent human form of expression, and that if offered the opportunity, art could serve as a link between the people who lived in institutions, and the new world they were being exposed to.
Our program started with paint on a table in our founders’ own home. Day after day, the program grew into what is now a 6-day a week program, serving nearly 200 artists with disabilities in a large two floor industrial building in Oakland.
We have a specific philosophy in our work - support creation, don’t direct it. Our entire staff is artists, as we believe that artists can be the most supportive part of the artistic process. Not imposing ideas, but encouraging individuals to find their own path to creativity.
As Creative Growth has grown, our artists have grown with us. We are delighted that the only three artists with developmental disabilities in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York are Creative Growth artists: Dan Miller, William Scott and Judith Scott.
What is most compelling for me however, is the approach that our artists take towards art making. It is a process driven practice where communicating aesthetically, and asking questions, have as much value as the object created as a result of this work.
The objects that are created in the studio are interesting to viewers, and offer us a perspective on the lives of our artists and how they view the world around them.
What you are seeing here in Prague is a result of the efforts – a communicative link between artist and viewer. While every Creative Growth artist’s work is unique there is a commonality that they all explore what it means to be human, and how we each interpret what it means to be a part of the world we share.
Presenting our artists work in Prague is an honor for us, and we are deeply appreciative of the opportunity to have this exhibition in the Czech Republic for the first time. I hope that the passion, aesthetic power and strong voice of the artist isone you can hear in their work…as if it has traveled directly to you from the other side of the world.
Tom di Maria Director of Creative Growth Art Center Oakland California, September 2014
Artinbox Gallery Perlová 370/3, Dům v Kisně 110 00 Praha 1 - Staré Město Czech Republic
tel: +420 777 748 433
We are very happy to offer weekly Saturday gallery hours! Come by for artwork, artist inspired merchandise, take a walk through the Studio, ask about volunteer opportunities... --or come by for no reason at all--
We look forward to seeing you soon!
355 24th Street (near 19th St. BART) 510-836-2340 x15 gallery@www.creativegrowth.org
(Pour lire en Français, défilez vers le bas)
Please join Creative Growth at Drawing Now, in its new location at Le Carreau du Temple. Exhibiting work from Franna Lusson, Dwight Mackintosh, Dan Miller, Donald Mitchell, and Merritt Wallace.
Visit us at booth A1. Please email gaela@galerieimpaire.fr to receive an entry pass!
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Venez nous rendre visite à la foire Drawing Now dans son nouvel espace, Le Carreau du Temple. Nous exposerons les oeuvres de Franna Lusson, Dwight Mackintosh, Dan Miller, Donald Mitchell et Merritt Wallace.
A bientôt au stand A1, contactez nous si vous voulez une invitation!
Drawing Now Paris - March 26 - 30 2014 Carreau du Temple 2 Rue Eugène Spuller, 75003 Paris
Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, 11h - 20h Friday, 11h - 22h Sunday, 11h - 19h
