This cohort-based program selects 10 Autistic // Disabled students enrolled in the Occupational Course of Study or Extended Content Standards Program in Durham Public schools to engage in a semester-long visual arts residency that dedicates time, space, and resource to supporting their individual artistic passions while also exposing them to new techniques, materials, and mediums. Residents work alongside established Disabled and allied artists, who will offer mentorship, feedback, and support. 

 

Throughout the program, residents will be immersed in a curriculum that centers disability history, the principles of disability justice, neurodiversity, and art as activism. They will learn and discuss these topics as a group and use these conversations to deepen their work on a collaborative project. All forms of communication are welcome.

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This residency will culminate with a 3-week long public exhibition, running from late May until mid-June. There will be one day time and one evening time Gallery Opening. Details to be released at a later date.

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For the exhibition, residents will choose which of their pieces made during the residency will be displayed and which pieces they would like to mark for sale. All residents will also have the option to create a commissioned piece for the exhibition that conveys the themes of disability justice.