Creativity Explored Outer Space Part II

Creativity Explored is a celebrated nonprofit artist community and working studio where over 130 adult artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit, and sell art. Founded in 1983 by art and disability pioneers Florence Ludins-Katz and Dr. Elias Katz, Creativity Explored's programs and person-centered culture serve as an organizational model worldwide.

Located in the Mission District of San Francisco, Creativity Explored advocates for artists' work as a valid and increasingly important contribution to the contemporary art world. As a result, studio artists have seen their works exhibited in museums, galleries, and art fairs in over 14 countries and have directly earned over $2.3 million from the sale of their art. Recent interest in artists' work illustrates the long-awaited cultural expansion of who is collected, who is discussed and who is represented.

It's an honor to present Creativity Explored Outer Space, in partnership with Creativity Explored, a nonprofit artist organization and working studio in San Francisco where adult artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit, and sell art. Founded in 1983 by art and disability pioneers Florence Ludins-Katz and Dr. Elias Katz, Creativity Explored's programs and person-centered culture serve as an organizational model worldwide.

On a personal note, I have been a fan of Creativity Explored since discovering them in the mid 2000's. I was lucky to be introduced to the organization by an artist friend when I was in my 20's, and without an expansive art budget! The work immediately hit me. I acquired works by Gerald Wiggins, Evelyn Reyes, Walter Kresnik, Lance Rivers, and others, all of whom are included in the current exhibition in Outer Space. I found their works to be honest, raw, visionary, colorful, uplifting, intense, and luckily for me, affordable. In addition, I was pleased to support an admirable cause.

After four decades of hard work, supporting many hundreds of artists, Creativity Explored’s efforts, and their artists' efforts, have been paying off in a larger context. In recent years, as the art world becomes more inclusive, artists with developmental disabilities have begun to be recognized as the legitimate artists they are, with important and unique voices. Prominent galleries and museums have started to exhibit their work along with artists from Creative Growth and NIAD (two sister organizations to Creativity Explored in the Bay Area, all founded by the Katz’s). Recently SFMOMA and Oakland Museum presented exhibitions of their work, and MoMA featured a solo show of Marlon Mullen, an artist from NIAD (Nurturing Independence Through Artistic Development).

- Roger Buttles, Curator