Michelle Mantione in Telephone Film (telephonefilm.com)
Toby MacNutt in Telephone Film (telephonefilm.com)
The goal of this project is to highlight the Disability Arts Community as a way to reveal how art can be created: in communities, through conversation and support, through interdependence, and within systems of care. The concept of interdependence, or mutual reliance, celebrates asking for assistance, and honors the collaboration that is often present in artistic practice. NUMU provides a venue for conversation and learning to shift perspectives and develop awareness of disability culture and artists with disabilities.
“The concept of interdependence–that all people have needs, that none of us can get through the world solely on our own, and that having needs is not weak or bad or shameful–[is] an exciting and revolutionary part of the work; a break from, and add-on to the disability rights movement’s ideas of independence.” - The Future is Disabled by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Museums often construct a false separation between art created by artists with disabilities (disabled artists) and artists who do not expressly identify with disability. This exhibition disrupts that expectation by acknowledging that identity is intersectional and that creativity is informed by an artist’s lived experience. NUMU presents art that is made by, for and in collaboration with artists in the Disability Arts Community, celebrating the richness and diversity of the collective.
This project was developed with the support of an advisory group including individuals who identify as disabled, as well as allies who work to support and bring visibility to disability culture.
