Art is Ability: 2022 Group Exhibition

press release: The annual ARTS for ALL Wisconsin Call for Art returns this year to an in-person show on April 27 as Art is Ability: 2022 Group Exhibition. The exhibition, on display through May 14, is also viewable online at the AFA website and features the work of artists with disabilities from around the state ages five and up in four age categories: Child (ages 5-10), Youth (ages 11-15), Young Adult (ages 16-21), and Adult (ages 22 and up). Each year, ARTS for ALL Wisconsin invites submissions of artwork from Wisconsin residents with disabilities and receives hundreds of submissions in a wide variety of media. With over 150 artworks and over a dozen poems on display, the exhibition provides public recognition for hundreds of individuals with disabilities.

All submissions are juried by arts professionals who look for creativity, originality, and craftsmanship in selecting artworks to be added to CREATIVE POWER, the ARTS for ALL Wisconsin Traveling Exhibition. On May 14 we will gather to celebrate 15 Creative Power award winners, and four merit award winners from their 2022 Call for Art.

“The work that ARTS for ALL Wisconsin does is essential in creating a more empathic, engaged, and creative Wisconsin,” says 2022 visual art juror Laura Bickford, curator at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. “Reviewing such a wide array of exciting work, with colleagues I met for the first time, reaffirmed the power of artistic expression to connect people from different backgrounds and provided an inspiring look into at talented artists across our state.”

For the second year AFA also included a poetry category for all ages judged by Monona-based poet Richard Vargas. Three youth poems and two adult poems received awards. “The poems I read and judged were all impressive in their own right,” says Vargas. “The brave act of communicating and sharing our thoughts and views with others, is vital and necessary. It was a pleasure and honor to read all the entries, and a challenge to determine which ones were worthy of an award.”

12-year-old Olivia Brusky of Milwaukee won a CREATIVE POWER award for her painting “Rain.” “Olivia loves painting, dancing, and singing. She finds painting a soothing experience,” her mother says. “Art is also a way to express herself, as she has problems communicating with speech.”

WHERE: ARTS for ALL Wisconsin Art Center, 1709 Aberg Avenue, Madison, or online at www.artsforallwi.org/programs/call-for-art

Art Center is open 10 am – 6 pm Mon – Thurs and until 4pm on Friday

About Call for Art and CREATIVE POWER

In 2022 AFA received over 200 works of art from about 160 artists from all over the state. Award winners this year represent nine counties around the state and include the cities of Clinton, Deerfield, Fond du Lac, Janesville, Jefferson, Kimberly, Luxemburg, Madison, Marathon, Menasha, Milwaukee, and Verona.

Support for the ARTS for ALL Wisconsin Call for Art

Support for Call for Art comes from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Wisconsin Public Radio, Teel Plastics, CI Pediatric Therapy Centers, The Cap Times Kids Fund, Monroe Street Framing, Numbers 4 Nonprofits, Evald Moulding, and Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.