WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:25.502 [Music Playing] NOTE Paragraph 00:00:38.310 --> 00:00:42.310 Oh, I like painting, I like doing clay. 00:00:42.340 --> 00:00:44.720 I like all my artwork. 00:00:46.469 --> 00:00:48.759 This is one of my square drawings 00:00:48.759 --> 00:00:50.839 that I've done. 00:00:53.652 --> 00:00:55.492 This, uh, drawing right here, 00:00:55.492 --> 00:00:57.012 it makes me feel good 00:00:57.092 --> 00:00:58.872 and I show my inspiration. 00:01:00.489 --> 00:01:02.539 My name is Jackie 00:01:02.548 --> 00:01:05.552 and I am going to take you on a tour. 00:01:08.553 --> 00:01:11.703 I'll show you, that is a ceramics class. 00:01:14.501 --> 00:01:17.411 This is the work class, right here 00:01:18.963 --> 00:01:21.213 and there's sewing right here. 00:01:21.287 --> 00:01:23.247 What're you sewing, Theresa? 00:01:23.253 --> 00:01:24.543 My magic robe. 00:01:24.543 --> 00:01:28.041 Oh, okay. Her magic robe. Okay. 00:01:29.414 --> 00:01:32.034 And that's a teacher right here. 00:01:32.869 --> 00:01:34.149 How're you doing? 00:01:34.414 --> 00:01:36.074 Art is a great equalizer. 00:01:36.836 --> 00:01:38.586 That transcends language. 00:01:38.704 --> 00:01:40.324 That transcends culture. 00:01:40.464 --> 00:01:42.204 That transcends disability. 00:01:47.134 --> 00:01:48.824 Creative growth is about 00:01:48.917 --> 00:01:52.517 artistic expression as a form of self empowerment 00:01:53.420 --> 00:01:57.420 as a form of aesthetic development, as a form of saying 00:01:57.424 --> 00:01:59.484 "this is who I am in the world". 00:02:12.233 --> 00:02:14.433 Blue is cold and yellow is warm. 00:02:16.153 --> 00:02:19.573 How do you know when you're reaching in there what you're getting out? 00:02:19.573 --> 00:02:20.913 I can tell by the feel. 00:02:20.913 --> 00:02:21.693 The feel? 00:02:21.693 --> 00:02:23.903 Yep, the compartments, you know? 00:02:23.933 --> 00:02:26.983 So what is the feel of green? What is that? 00:02:27.107 --> 00:02:30.137 Green feels like freezing, red is hot. 00:02:30.223 --> 00:02:32.773 So you're working with freezing and hot right now? 00:02:32.773 --> 00:02:33.503 Yes. 00:02:38.320 --> 00:02:41.590 Monica's been fascinated with color ever since she was really 00:02:42.089 --> 00:02:48.679 a wee child, and I think losing her sight opened up a different connection 00:02:49.796 --> 00:02:53.036 to the world of light, and shadow, and color. 00:02:54.844 --> 00:02:57.242 Do you have a favorite foam shape to work on? 00:02:57.350 --> 00:02:58.820 I like the logs, 00:02:59.172 --> 00:03:00.395 the cubes, 00:03:01.256 --> 00:03:02.499 the little tiny cubes, 00:03:02.499 --> 00:03:04.249 and the spheres. 00:03:04.385 --> 00:03:06.004 Logs, tiny cubes, and spheres. 00:03:06.093 --> 00:03:07.263 Yeah, and the cakes too. 00:03:07.533 --> 00:03:09.343 Yeah, and the cakes turned out great. 00:03:09.343 --> 00:03:10.123 Yep. 00:03:11.119 --> 00:03:15.119 I see her becoming more and more dedicated to her art 00:03:15.264 --> 00:03:18.914 and it seems to fulfill her in deeper and deeper ways, 00:03:18.914 --> 00:03:20.654 and for that, I feel so happy. 00:03:21.085 --> 00:03:24.154 You know? Because she has so much to offer the world. 00:03:30.661 --> 00:03:35.007 Yes, um, my name is Rosena Finister 00:03:35.320 --> 00:03:42.340 [Crowd whooping and clapping] 00:03:42.461 --> 00:03:47.834 and I'm from a small town in Louisiana, where all the poor people live at. 00:03:48.592 --> 00:03:49.822 That's where I'm from. 00:03:49.822 --> 00:03:52.332 This is the first type of art that I started doing. 00:03:53.096 --> 00:03:56.606 Creative Growth currently serves 162 artists at our studio every week. 00:03:57.119 --> 00:04:00.229 When people come to the Creative Growth studio, for the most part 00:04:00.229 --> 00:04:02.549 they've never made art before in their lives, 00:04:02.549 --> 00:04:04.419 and we kind of welcome that. 00:04:04.419 --> 00:04:06.549 Because it allows us to see who they are. 00:04:08.536 --> 00:04:10.458 And, you know, there's no right or wrong; 00:04:10.458 --> 00:04:12.180 we don't teach in a traditional way. 00:04:12.557 --> 00:04:14.819 We say, you know, "what would you like to do?", 00:04:14.819 --> 00:04:17.622 "what are you thinking about", "what did you dream about", 00:04:17.622 --> 00:04:18.842 "what color do you like"? 00:04:18.842 --> 00:04:20.218 Tell us your story. 00:04:21.370 --> 00:04:22.430 [Jazzy music playing] 00:04:22.430 --> 00:04:26.430 I've been coming here since 1992 00:04:32.080 --> 00:04:36.080 I like to paint, I like to draw, and I like paintings of people -- 00:04:36.339 --> 00:04:38.431 like, different people. 00:04:40.613 --> 00:04:44.613 And stars -- movie stars. 00:04:52.097 --> 00:04:54.307 There are wholesome people. 00:04:54.991 --> 00:04:56.713 Wholesome encounters. 00:04:59.532 --> 00:05:01.142 What do you like to look at? 00:05:01.171 --> 00:05:02.124 I like that one. 00:05:02.124 --> 00:05:02.944 This one? 00:05:02.944 --> 00:05:03.694 Yeah. 00:05:03.694 --> 00:05:07.035 Look at that one? This is what? 00:05:07.035 --> 00:05:09.175 What do you call the name of this painting? 00:05:09.175 --> 00:05:10.339 "Inner Limits". 00:05:11.355 --> 00:05:13.685 William is just such a brilliant artist. 00:05:14.297 --> 00:05:15.341 And look at this. 00:05:15.341 --> 00:05:16.361 Beautiful piece. 00:05:16.361 --> 00:05:17.710 Do you remember making this? 00:05:17.710 --> 00:05:18.453 I remember. 00:05:18.728 --> 00:05:20.378 That's what? Praise Frisco? 00:05:20.378 --> 00:05:21.148 Yeah. 00:05:22.027 --> 00:05:26.027 He envisions through his work a utopian reality that he creates 00:05:26.027 --> 00:05:27.999 for us all to live in. 00:05:29.319 --> 00:05:32.233 A world where people who have died come back to life, 00:05:33.579 --> 00:05:36.084 places where bad neighborhoods are safe, 00:05:37.498 --> 00:05:41.498 where his family is happy, where the world is peaceful. 00:05:45.504 --> 00:05:49.062 And, he believes the painting will be powerful enough 00:05:49.062 --> 00:05:51.554 to make that a reality. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:58.320 --> 00:06:02.790 Riding on the spaceship, wholesome encounter spaceship. 00:06:04.261 --> 00:06:10.456 There's not gonna be no more evils. No more aliens, no more monsters, 00:06:10.463 --> 00:06:12.643 no more evils. 00:06:15.144 --> 00:06:16.044 Uh-huh. 00:06:19.491 --> 00:06:21.521 Creative Growth is really a Bay Area story. 00:06:26.644 --> 00:06:30.244 The disability rights movement in the early 1970s, 00:06:30.244 --> 00:06:32.425 Creative Growth really comes from that. 00:06:37.315 --> 00:06:40.895 So, during that time, people with disabilities in institutions 00:06:40.895 --> 00:06:43.125 were suddenly deinstitutionalized. 00:06:45.190 --> 00:06:49.190 So, artists came together in Oakland, and put paint on a table, 00:06:50.307 --> 00:06:54.307 and said "well, these people are gonna come here; creativity is the path forward" 00:07:01.940 --> 00:07:03.520 I'm just doing a tree right now. 00:07:04.384 --> 00:07:08.589 And, people with disabilities can communicate and be a vital part 00:07:08.589 --> 00:07:10.272 of society. 00:07:13.758 --> 00:07:16.858 Part of the Creative Growth plan when you come here and make art, 00:07:16.858 --> 00:07:19.853 is that we represent you, and you show your work in the gallery. 00:07:19.853 --> 00:07:22.313 If the work sells, the artist gets half the money. 00:07:22.313 --> 00:07:24.862 Creative Growth, the nonprofit gets half the money. 00:07:25.283 --> 00:07:28.395 We buy supplies and support the artists with that money. 00:07:31.604 --> 00:07:34.954 If you came to Creative Growth, you could buy something for 10 dollars, 00:07:34.954 --> 00:07:37.635 and you can buy something for 75,000 dollars. 00:07:38.271 --> 00:07:40.438 It's exactly like the contemporary art world. 00:07:40.533 --> 00:07:44.553 As an artist's work develops, and it gets into collections, and museums, 00:07:44.553 --> 00:07:47.123 and is highly sought after, the prices go up. 00:07:47.560 --> 00:07:50.144 And Creative Growth artists follow that same path. 00:07:56.314 --> 00:07:59.845 Judith Scott is one of the most well- known Creative Growth artists. 00:08:04.926 --> 00:08:08.926 As an artist, Judith Scott transcended this difficult situation. 00:08:09.010 --> 00:08:11.940 Where she was separated from her family and institutionalized 00:08:11.940 --> 00:08:13.527 for almost 40 years. 00:08:15.116 --> 00:08:18.631 She was Deaf and it wasn't known, so she never developed language, 00:08:18.882 --> 00:08:20.457 and she was isolated. 00:08:24.317 --> 00:08:26.946 So in her 40's, she comes to Creative Growth. 00:08:28.448 --> 00:08:32.448 And, her method to talk to us 00:08:34.133 --> 00:08:35.565 was art. 00:08:41.222 --> 00:08:44.252 The process is very important to her 00:08:44.252 --> 00:08:48.252 and the result of that process with these sculptures, with hidden objects, 00:08:48.252 --> 00:08:52.522 and accumulated, protected things that were sacred or important to her. 00:08:55.433 --> 00:08:58.033 I think Judith Scott's role in contemporary art is that 00:08:58.033 --> 00:09:01.063 she has opened the door for a lot of people to see 00:09:01.063 --> 00:09:02.855 who an artist can be. 00:09:04.093 --> 00:09:08.093 [Mumbling] 00:09:11.203 --> 00:09:12.099 Right? 00:09:12.099 --> 00:09:12.879 Right. 00:09:12.951 --> 00:09:16.951 [Mumbling] 00:09:24.803 --> 00:09:27.633 You know, Dan's work is based on words. 00:09:27.747 --> 00:09:31.157 He builds literally words on top of each other to form 00:09:31.157 --> 00:09:33.174 his communication with the world. 00:09:33.281 --> 00:09:34.781 Do you want me to pull it down? 00:09:34.781 --> 00:09:35.531 Yeah! 00:09:43.341 --> 00:09:45.206 Pull it gently, right? 00:09:45.622 --> 00:09:46.322 Right. 00:09:49.001 --> 00:09:52.151 [Mumbling] 00:09:52.151 --> 00:09:52.891 Right. 00:09:54.536 --> 00:09:58.066 We still don't know a lot about autism, but there's this big barrier there. 00:09:58.066 --> 00:10:00.306 There's this person behind this barrier 00:10:01.086 --> 00:10:05.086 and he can't communicate in a way that you and I can communicate with each other. 00:10:06.845 --> 00:10:11.692 And to put himself down on this paper, that's Danny's opportunity to talk 00:10:11.692 --> 00:10:12.812 to people. 00:10:18.052 --> 00:10:21.156 Dan's work has definitely progressed in the years he's been here. 00:10:21.156 --> 00:10:24.725 Dan became more and more interested in the graphic qualities of the letters, 00:10:25.128 --> 00:10:30.578 of how to use paint, how to use the brush, how to work on massive pieces of paper. 00:10:34.611 --> 00:10:37.730 He's very sophisticated, and he's a colorist. 00:10:37.985 --> 00:10:40.184 He's clear about what he wants to do. 00:10:44.522 --> 00:10:49.520 You know? And I think when you see that urgency in his work, it's because it's so 00:10:49.520 --> 00:10:55.129 important to him, and because its so important for us to know who he is; 00:10:55.143 --> 00:11:00.273 that he has thoughts like we do, that he's smart, that he's not to be dismissed. 00:11:03.439 --> 00:11:07.439 [Music] 00:11:15.385 --> 00:11:19.235 Dan Miller is in the Venice Biennale this year, which is this amazing achievement 00:11:19.235 --> 00:11:20.567 for him as an artist. 00:11:21.551 --> 00:11:25.031 It happens to be in the same room in the Venice Biennale as Judith Scott. 00:11:25.183 --> 00:11:28.733 So, here are these two colleagues -- their work looking right at each other 00:11:28.923 --> 00:11:33.133 in a pavilion of contemporary artistry, using color in a powerful way. 00:11:36.541 --> 00:11:40.235 Not a pavilion of disability, not a pavilion of the self taught, 00:11:40.235 --> 00:11:42.221 not a pavilion of the freak show. 00:11:42.926 --> 00:11:47.489 It's presented as an artist, making a statement about the world today, 00:11:47.489 --> 00:11:49.435 and that's what they both did. 00:11:51.025 --> 00:11:55.025 They both have, like every artist, a history that informs who they are 00:11:55.025 --> 00:11:56.487 in the world today. 00:12:03.004 --> 00:12:04.644 We shouldn't need to exist. 00:12:05.843 --> 00:12:08.023 Dan should've gotten this in school. 00:12:08.690 --> 00:12:12.348 Or William should've had this opportunity his whole life. 00:12:12.843 --> 00:12:17.954 It shouldn't be that Creative Growth has to be here for those people; I am thrilled 00:12:17.954 --> 00:12:20.134 that we're here and we love our artists, 00:12:20.134 --> 00:12:24.344 but they should have access to creative outlets. 00:12:24.344 --> 00:12:27.375 It's a human rights issue -- to be diminished somehow. 00:12:27.585 --> 00:12:29.388 To be seen as not creative. 00:12:30.402 --> 00:12:34.978 When those prejudices go away, then our artists have the same potential 00:12:35.352 --> 00:12:40.379 to lead the culture, to be a part of our world, to inform me of who I am 00:12:40.379 --> 00:12:41.296 as a person. 00:12:41.437 --> 00:12:44.787 Look at all these people who -- they're all coming back to new lives? 00:12:44.787 --> 00:12:46.568 Yeah, they're families. 00:12:46.568 --> 00:12:50.011 And what kind of lives are they going to have now that they're back? 00:12:50.011 --> 00:12:51.573 They're gonna have good lives. 00:12:51.573 --> 00:12:52.353 Uh-huh. 00:12:52.353 --> 00:12:54.098 They're gonna have good lives. 00:12:54.098 --> 00:12:54.896 Uh-huh 00:12:57.551 --> 00:13:01.551 [People talking] 00:13:04.642 --> 00:13:08.642 To learn more about Art21 and our educational resources, 00:13:08.642 --> 00:13:12.642 please visit us online at pbs.org/art21. 00:13:17.691 --> 00:13:21.901 Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 9 is available on DVD. 00:13:22.613 --> 00:13:29.733 To order, visit shop.pbs.org, or call 1(800) PLAY-PBS. 00:13:30.532 --> 00:13:32.912 This program is available for download 00:13:32.912 --> 00:13:34.202 on ITunes.