The following represents the most current sites featuring the work of artists with disabilities. Our purpose is to
highlight the talent within the disability community. The links are organized on our site by artistic discipline--
visual arts, music, performing arts, media arts/film, literary and multidisciplinary. The nature and content of the
online arts and disability community is constantly growing and changing. Please
email usany suggestions for additional links to our site.
We found 126 record(s).
Poets and Writers
Chava Willig Levy is a NY based author, editor, lecturer and singer. This site contains examples of her writings on childhood, parenthood, spirituality, disability, quality and the meaning of life.
Dan Windheim is owner of the web site "Living with TBI". On this site there is poetry by survivors of Brain Injury, from around the
world; Q&A feedback form for survivors; important links; many of Dan's writings, and much more.
James Magill is a widely published poet who now does much of his writing from a power chair. A writing sample and some biographical information can be read by viewing his Home Page.
John Callahan This site contains the cartoon humor of John Callahan.
Judy Malloy is a writer/artist whose work has been exhibited and published Internationally.
Karen Stone is a disability activist, author and columnist of the Albuquerque Journal.
Filmmakers
Walk this Way is an award winning documentary film by Chris Sheridan about his personal experiences as a wheelchair user since breaking his back in a plane crash.
Films About Disability
Artists and Performers
AnA is web site where disabled individuals and family members present their creativity through the arts.
Donna Williams was diagnosed with autism, is an internationally renowned public speaker, author of 7 books in the field of autism and developmental disabilities and prolific painter, composer and sculptor. Her works inspire others to think beyond the word disability and celebrate diversity, equality in difference and our own wonderful 'music of beingness.
Lynn Manning is an award winning playwright, poet, athlete and actor who is blind.
Project Return offers a lifelong education, training, and development program for artists with mental illness. They promote the work of their artists through local art exhibitions.
Rick Boggs musician, and actor who is blind. Rick has appeared in over thirty television commercials, and had parts on several television shows.
Simi Linton web site is designed to provide helpful information for media professionals and the disability arts community about her current projects and activities.
Exhibits
Depression: A Visual Journal of Healing & Transformation is an exhibit of fourteen dramatic, large-scale black-and-white photographs depicting a symbolic journey through depression. Each image is accompanied by a short, experience-based poem that speaks to a specific aspect of depression: medication, the mind-body-spirit connection, isolation, hope, the need for balance, healing, and more.
Survivors Art Foundation is a non-profit organization committed to empowering visual, literary and performing artists with effective expressive outlets, via a Web Gallery, National Exhibitions, Outreach Programs and Publications. Their goal is to provide entertainment, education, exposure to the arts, and public awareness, while mainstreaming trauma survivors with physical and mental disabilities into the arts.
Online Directories of Artists and Actors
NADC California Artist Directory is a searchable database of California artists with disabilities that was developed in response to requests that we receive for artists to teach workshops, perform or display their work.
 MUSIC Musicians
Anthony Rain Starez - a visionary artist who paints through his music and short stories. Despite being in a wheelchair due to a car accident, Anthony still sings in a band called, Free Spirit. And his website features original music in MP3 format, bio, personal pictures and many short stories.
Dave Biro is a singer-songwriter with epilepsy and severe memory impairment, results of encephalitis. Nonetheless, The New York Times raved about Dave's children's cassette, The Cradle Will Rock…. His songs "...feature playful phrasing and a variety of orchestral arrangements to engage and educate young listeners…there's a verbal kind of humor and wordplay in his lyrics that (also) appeals to grown-ups." (New York Times, Jersey Section 5/30/99).
Evelyn Glennie is an award winning Scottish percussionist. She has been profoundly deaf since the age of 12. Her performances cross traditional musical boundaries of formal, folkloric, and popular musical forms.
Norene Price vivacious paraplegic, professional, singer/entertainer, advocate and public speaker.
Vaidyanathan Suresh a disabled musician is one of the few percussionists with an aesthetic sense of approach to performing on any percussion instrument especially ghatam his favorite earthen clay pot instrument!
Van Gogh was founded by Robby and Ricky Heisner both wheelchair users in 1992.
Vince Bell is a working "rock'n'western" musician who spent ten years re-learning how to walk, talk, and play music again after a car accident resulted in traumatic brain injury. His most recent album is Texas Plates.
Dance Companies/Dancers
Amici Dance Theatre Company is a large professional company which integrates performers with physical disabilities, learning difficulties, sensory impairments, and those who are able-bodied.
Anjali Dance Company is a professional-quality contemporary dance company of dancers with learning disabilities.
Asher Dance Eclectic is truly an ECLECTIC group of professional dancers! Our dancers exude the beauty of diversity through their shapes, sizes, colors and physical (dis)abilities! Annual dance concerts, as well, feature an eclectic arrangement of dance styles including modern, lyrical, jazz, musical theatre and tap.
AXIS Dance Company a contemporary integrated dance company, Co-Directed by Judith Smith and Nicole Richter based in Oakland, CA.
CandoCo Dance Company is the leading contemporary dance company of disabled and non- disabled dancers. Since its inception 16 years ago, CandoCo has introduced a new dance language that both surprises and inspires. As a successful repertory company, CandoCo pushes boundaries and challenges conventions of contemporary dance resulting in work of extreme physicality and expressive emotion.
DanceAbilities, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization in northern Virginia that offers dance and movement classes to children ages 3-16 who have special needs. There are classes for children who have mild disabilities such as ADD, or motor planning deficits and classes for children with Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, etc.
Dancing Wheels is America's first physically integrated dance company, the 10 member Company, under the artistic direction of Mary Verdi-Fletcher, tours globally reaching over 3 million audience members since its inception in 1980.
Full Radius Dance a modern integrated dance company Directed by Douglas Scott based in Atlanta, GA. Their work challenges traditional gender portrayals and celebrates dance technique and physicality.
Green Candle Dance Company is concerned with bringing dance to all sections of the community, particularly those who have least access to it.
Inflight Dance Companies primary focus is to demonstrate that a physical disability is not a barrier in the dance world. Dance for the disabled dancer is excellent because moving to music is therapeutic for the body and uplifting for the spirit.
Music and the Deaf defines its mission as to help deaf people of all ages and degrees of hearing loss to access music and the performing arts through workshops, schools projects, talks and signed theatre performances throughout the United Kingdom.
Touchdown Dance provides dance workshops and has an integrated dance company of 6-8 dancers, who have trained together and perform in professional settings.
Performers
Greg Walloch is a gifted actor, writer, storyteller, performance artist, comedian and teacher. His hilarious and heart-breaking one man show White Disabled Talent has toured extensively, receiving rave reviews.
Ryan Thomson is presently a full time performer and music educator. He acquired adult onset focal dystonia in 1989, and subsequently relearned to play violin left handed in order to resume a professional performing career.
Theatre Companies with Performers with and Without Disabilities
Awareness Theater Company is a theatrical group composed of people with and without disabilities. The mission of the theater is to create good theatrical pieces that highlight the skills and issues of the members of this company.
CLIMB Theatre was founded and Directed by Peg Wetli to give persons with disabilities access to theatre arts.
David Roche is a comedian, keynote speaker, and performer who speaks nationwide to many diverse audiences and tours his signature one-man show, The Church of 80% Sincerity.
Deaf West Theatre presents professional main stage productions in American Sign Language with simultaneous voice translation, thereby bridging the gap between deaf and hearing worlds.
Graeae Theatre Company is a professional national and international touring theatre company who also provides community and educational projects and training in theatre skills for people with disabilities.
Heart 'n Soul is one of the most popular performance companies to develop from the disability arts scene. Their work has become recognized and respected by disabled and non-disabled audiences, for productions that deliver extraordinary pieces of Music Theatre which express the way that they see the world.
Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts was founded to provide artists with disabilities a place to pursue and develop their art to its highest potential, and to increase their integration into the broader professional arts community. Their center is staffed by professional musicians, actors and visual artists, who provide advocacy, mentorship and collaboration.
Performing Arts Studio West is a performing arts studio that brings together disabled and non-disabled actors, singers, musicians and technical personnel, combining their talents to produce quality, original entertainment.
Phamaly is a theatre group and touring company that enables physically challenged performers to showcase their talents and abilities and to make the performing arts more accessible to everyone.
StopGAP StopGAP works hard to raise the profile of integrated dance within the community, providing dance opportunities for people who would not easily find access to dance.
The Cleveland Signstage Theater Company has performed throughout the United States, as well as abroad. Deaf and hearing cast members perform simultaneously in spoken English and American Sign Language in pursuit of their mission to "produce extraordinary theater that brings deaf and hearing people together".
The National Theatre of the Deaf is a professional acting company made up of deaf and hearing actors. The National Theatre of the Deaf brought Sign Language out of the shadows and placed it in the world spotlight, raising it to the level of an art form. The theatre's signature style, a combination of Sign Language and spoken words, has expanded the boundaries of theatrical expression.
Theatre by the Blind is an integrated company of blind, visually impaired, and sighted artists dedicated to finding, developing, and exhibiting blind theatrical talent.
Theatre in Motion is a participatory, educational theatre company which utilizes non-traditional casting, that is, disabled and non-disabled artists working together, serving all populations.
Wild Swan Theatre is known nationally for its ingenious artistry, its innovative audience accessibility program, and projects for participants with disabilities.
Theatre Companies with Performers with and Without Disabilities,Performers
Pinky Aiello is a SILENT Entertainer and comedian. Don't think she is ignoring you, its because she is deaf. Featuring American Sign Language.
Tyler Fortin is a very busy young Canadian comic, who draws on his living with cerebral palsy to bring his whimsical wit to stand-up, corporate, and motivational/training gigs.
Art Gallery/Exhibits
Adorn equip is a unique exhibition originated by The City Gallery, Leicester, which examines issues around the design of equipment and accessories used by disabled people.
art +power is a membership organization led by disabled artists creating work in visual arts, theatre, poetry, music, deaf arts, multi-media and film. The organization provides opportunities for learning and being involved in artistic expression for disabled people and the whole community.
Art Challenge is a showplace for art and artists on the world wide web. They have a contest where winners have their images posted in their galleries and potentially as "Artist of the Month".
Art on The Net is a collection of artists helping each other to come on the Internet and share their works on the World Wide Web. Artists create and maintain studios and rooms in the gallery where they show their work.
Driving Force VSA arts and Volkswagen of America, Inc, have partnered to recognize and showcase young artists with disabilities, ages 16 -25, who are living in the United States. This collaboration supports these artists at a critical time; many are deciding whether to pursue the arts as a career.
Feed the Soul a gallery of artists with various disabilities who utilize adaptive technology to create their visual art.
Imagine Art is on a mission to increase the presence of artists with disabilities in the Austin arts community through a network of supports that reduce financial and personal support barriers related to participation. They have an art gallery of work by Austin artists with disabilities.
Infinitec offers a gallery exhibit of artists with disabilities who create their art using assistive technology.
Integrated Arts unites people with and without disabilities by providing opportunities and reasons for them to come together. Their art gallery exhibits the personal art work by their artists with disabilities.
LA Goal art gallery of personal art work by artists with disabilities.
Little City Foundation Art Center is a regional arts center serving people with developmental disabilities. The center hosts a studio arts program, produces a cable access show, supports individual video projects, and collaborates with local performance companies.
Neighborhood Center for the Arts online gallery contains over 600 images of artwork by their artists. Neighborhood Center for the Arts is an art center for artists with disabilities.
Network Arts Lewisham provides a unique service within the mental health field, certainly within London, if not in the UK. It offers its members opportunities to explore their true potential.
NIAD online gallery has artwork created at NIAD by artists who produce outstandingly original work uninfluenced by tradition or trends.
Passion Works art gallery exhibits the personal art work of artists with disabilities.
Studio XI mission is a model arts program that aims to advance the careers of artists challenged by disabilities through programming, education and advocacy, by demonstrating the strength and power of the creative spirit.
The Studio is a fine arts program for people with developmental disabilities. They provide a supportive and stimulating environment where their artists can express themselves creatively using a variety of media.
The Visual Arts League web site gathers work from artists throughout the globe. This inclusive arts site offers artists and visitors the opportunity to come together to create, experiment and nurture ideas.
World-Wired-Wheels World-Wired-Wheels web site offers a place for artists in wheelchairs to connect with other artists, and a place for artists to hang their work for public viewing.
Artists
Boone Garvey was diagnosed with severe autism. He has always been deeply interested in drawing on computers and has a particular talent for designing clocks.
Bruce Gray's sculptures and kinetic art have been displayed at many art galleries, museums, and countless times on TV and in films. His work includes giant objects, rolling ball machines, magnetic sculptures, abstract paintings, mobiles, art furniture, and more.
D. Cameron Cundiff 's experience with the depths of fear and delusion brought on by schizoaffective disorder are evident within his portraits. His work also indicates artistic progress by moving from trained studies to expressive compositions and perspectives.
Danny Muller a very talented young man, has been painting since he was 11 years old. His favorite mediums are wax crayons and oils pastels on paper. Daniel’s technique is very much his own. His trademark style, vigorous coloring followed by a diligent process of scratching the surface with his fingernails, creates a sense of depth, vitality and movement in his work.
Eric McGehearty's work expresses a world where language is a written code that is unable to be read. The sculptures intend to frustrate the viewer and tap into the desperation contemporary consumers feel when they cannot get information.
Gary Hickerson who restored Volkswagens as part of his family's repair business, transforms discarded parts into new forms of embedded with life and meaning. He composes sculpture out of actual fenders or inspired by their curvilinear form.
George A. Covington born legally blind, with less than ten percent of normal vision, George A. Covington first achieved national media attention for his work in using photography as a seeing tool. He has taught photography workshops at various locations such as Harlem Hospital and the Smithsonian Institution.
Gregory Burns expressive color draws from the coast and his imagery has evolved from literalness to suggestion. Burns who is paralyzed as a result of polio is also an award winning Paralympian who hods four world records.
Heidi Lerner sustained a severe Traumatic Brain Injury in a car accident. After the most significant portion of her rehabilitation, she went back to school and earned her Masters degree in Special Education specifically for survivors of Brain Injury, at George Washington University. In support of others with brain injuries, Ms. Lerner wrote a book of poetry, titled Gray Matters, which is aimed at giving other people a clue as to what it's like to walk in the shoes of a brain injury survivor.
Hillary Cooper is a New York based fine artist specializing in portraiture and landscape. She has been selected for numerous shows, collections, editorials, and commissioned works.
Iris Gill's art gallery exhibits expressionistic paintings, drawings, and assemblages which are inspired by the strongest emotions Ms. Gill has about her life and the world.
Jazzy Jackie is an amputee artist who lost the four fingers of her left hand during a childhood accident. She now uses her amputation in a very unique and special way -- her residual finger stubs are her "tools" to create acrylic paintings."
Jessica Keller is a self-taught California artist who works in a variety of media. Her subjects range from land and seascapes to portraits and visions of her dreams she has at night but she has a special fondness for her pieces depicting Polynesian Culture. Jessica was born with a rare form of Muscular Dystrophy called Central Core Disease which at times causes great pain and fatigue.
Jill Smith is a textile artist with a mobility disability. She specializes in contemporary wall hangings.
John Lytle's comic strip DizAbled, starring Leeder O. Men, a wheelchair stuntman.
Kari Ann Owen is an artist, playwright, modern dancer and singer. Her work addresses a range of themes from Native American graphic art work to plays that speak to the Vietnam War experience
Ken Smith began his creative work as a writer later illustrating his writing with photography in commercial and editorial venues. After a serious aircraft accident he began to gravitate toward fine arts photography.
Ketra Oberlander is a blind artist, whio explores the tension between what's practical and what's possible.
Kevin Adair Free's drawings and paintings attempt to make whole a broken individual through contemplation and the creative process. Free who is a schizoaffective uses the picture plane to capture the passage of time.
Kurt Weston is an AIDS patient. He is an award-winning California photographer who is committed to his art and activism.
Laura Ferguson unique visual autobiography,
The Visible Skeleton Series,
explores issues at the intersection of art and medicine. These
multi-layered works on paper are based on actual medical images of the
artist’s anatomy, including x-rays and a 3D spiral CT scan. Her
drawings go far beyond medical illustration to convey the feeling of
inhabiting inner space — kinesthetic, visceral, and emotional — and the
way that personal identity and even consciousness are rooted in the
experiences of the body.
Lezley Lowery hopes her web site is an expression of and a motivation for the mentally ill. Both physically and mentally challenged, Lezley holds a BA in art and teaches art at her studio. She is eclectic in her work which includes: stained glass, lampworking, jewelry, fine art and sculpture.
Lisa Fittipaldi didn't start painting until after she was blind, when her husband gave her a set of children's watercolors. Fittipaldi's first work was an astounding accomplishment for an individual without any prior art background or sight. Five years later, Fittipaldi is believed to be the only blind watercolor artist in the world who paints realistically.
Lori Jae Reich is a self-taught acrylic painter with post traumatic stress disorder who derives great joy from presenting within my artwork statements which characterize my personal views of the turmoil within society. Although her work portrays a great deal of negative imagery, Lori optimistic about our greater spiritual nature.
Marilena Pilla combines her love for interior and set design in bold paintings that use the chair to symbolize the human form. The chairs dance, caress, and embrace as if characters on the stage of life.
Mark Parsons creates sculptural paper casting as well as work in lead, steel, and mixed media including wood and rubber. His work includes Amorphous Morphology, a site specific architectural installation at Columbia University. From 2002-2003, he was a visiting professor at Hunter College in New York . He is a person with Multiple Sclerosis.
Michael Jurogue Johnson is a young man with Down Syndrome who loves to paint every day. His work has been on display at national Down Syndrome conferences. He uses watercolors, acrylics, and oil paints in a cheerful, naive style.
Paul Abell is a digital artist that uses computer technology to create his artwork.
Peter Hughes developed drawing abilities before he could use functional language. Art plays an integral part of his communication with others around him. for Hughes who is autistic the picture plane is a conversation allowing him a place to ponder events, people and subjects.
Ricardo Gil is a dwarf, as is his wife, and they are raising their average-sized daughter. His photographs document with a frank, tender eye his perspective of the world.
Sam Smith's web site provides people with a great escape and a way to experience humor. Sam is an artist who is visually impaired.
Scott Duffy began painting in 1991. Although he is paralyzed he uses a splint to hold the paint brush and uses tape on the canvas to make straight lines and different shapes.
Scott Ligon uses the computer to document his life with ADHD. His work has evolved from realism to an expressive figural style, and from traditional painting to digital art.
Scott Norris is a long-term brain cancer survivor and award-winning artist. His preferred media are digital art and glazed ceramic mosaics.
Sheila Ernst-Bifano is a fine art photographer working in black and white and alternative processes. She enjoys expressing the quiet, contemplative side of life, as her disability, a brain disorder, causes her mind to race with hectic abandon.
Susan Sholle-Martin is an internationally known creative healing artist, occupational therapist, wife, mother of two children, and two-time cancer survivor.
Terry Hammon is a blind photographer. Since she was very young, she have been obsessed with photography. Although it is difficult to select correct focus through a 35 mm camera, she still uses manual focusing Minolta cameras. Photography has helped her to see the world around her better by forcing her to take more notice of the detail that her vision would normally miss.
Valerie Jankowski Skrabui is a self-taught, award-winning artist. Her paintings express conceptual abstracts and realism in nature. Trained as a musician, Valerie turned to computer art to express herself when, in 1990, multiple sclerosis (MS) erased her ability to perform.
Cartoonists
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