Reception: June 1st | 5pm-8pm

Florence and Elias Katz founded Creative Growth in 1974 in response to statewide cuts in services for adults with disabilities. In 1983 they opened Creativity Explored in San Francisco and in 1984 they went on to create NIAD (Nurturing Independence Through Artistic Development) in Richmond. Although they operate separately, the three art studios share a common mission to serve and support artists with developmental and intellectual disabilities by providing professional studio space, exhibition opportunities, and representation.

CE x CG x NIAD is a rare opportunity to view works by artists from all three studios. Since their inception, the studios have paved the path for artists with disabilities in the contemporary art field. Artists from our studios are included in prominent private and institutional collections including MoMA, SFMoMA, Berkeley Art Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

CE x CG x NIAD explores the full range of the artistic experience that Creativity Explored, Creative Growth and NIAD’s artists access: triumphant and sublime, powerful and liberated, humorous and optimistic. Using radiant colors, unusual techniques, free lines, the 30 artists in CE x CG x NIAD are activists of their own cause, conversing over new cultural formats and continuing to be at the forefront of the contemporary art world.

Included in the exhibition are works from Antonio Benjamin (Creativity Explored), Mireya Betances (NIAD Art Center), Pablo Calderon (Creativity Explored), Sylvia Fragoso (NIAD Art Center), Paul Gee (Creativity Explored), Camille Holovet (Creativity Explored), Dan Miller (Creative Growth), Vincent Jackson (Creativity Explored), Susan Janow (Creative Growth), Makeya Kaiser (Creativity Explored), Julie MacDonald (NIAD Art Center), Dwight Mackintosh (Creative Growth), Karen May (NIAD Art Center), John Patrick McKenzie (Creativity Explored), James Miles (Creativity Explored), Marlon Mullen (NIAD Art Center), John Mullins (Creative Growth), Tony Pedemonte (Creative Growth), Dorrie Reid (NIAD Art Center), Evelyn Reyes (Creativity Explored), William Scott (Creative Growth), Tre’von Silva (NIAD Art Center), Danny Thach (NIAD Art Center), Monica Valentine (Creative Growth), Ron Veasey (Creative Growth), Billy White (NIAD Art Center), and Susan Wise (NIAD Art Center).

Gallery hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays 11:00am to 5:30pm.