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About 60 artworks by students from the Artistic Intelligence program are on display at the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View until March 29. The program, which is over a decade old, offers adults with disabilities weekly music, art and dance lessons.
The art show, housed in CSMA’s Sobrato Gallery, includes framed paintings, drawings, collages and mixed-media sculptures. This year’s focus is on the joy of the art-making process, discovering what inspires artists and claiming space as artists in society. Artistic Intelligence is a collaboration between CSMA, Morgan Autism Center and the Mountain View Los Altos Adult School.
“It’s very powerful work created by students who share a lot of their emotions and their feelings through brushstrokes, and they share how they perceive the world,” said Pedro Lopez, CSMA senior arts program director who curates gallery shows.
One of Lopez’s favorite works is an image of a pit bull behind bars with the words “Save pitbulls.” One student created an image with the theme of keeping families together amid the increase in ICE raids, according to Lopez.
“We don’t try to sell any propaganda (to the students),” Lopez explained. “But during that lesson, I know it was about messages (students wanted to send) to the world, and so that’s what they decided to create.”
Lopez himself said that the ideas of change and transformation drive him to make art.
“Transformation happens in these students’ lives through creating art,” he said. “Someone who is very particular about certain areas of their life and how they approach it can really gain independence through art and the different media that are accessible to them. So for them to be able to transition from … just wanting to use charcoal, to all of a sudden that they’re using paint. That is really teaching them to adapt to our world and to change their approach.”
Marita Musante, a former art instructor for Artistic Intelligence who now is a creative learning coach for teachers in the program, said she appreciated seeing unfinished works of art in the exhibition.
“It honors the process of ‘this is where they are right now,’” she said. “We will put doodles that Picasso and other artists did while they were kids (in museums). … Looking at someone’s work in progress is something we do historically and it’s great to see it valued for these students as well.”
Musante appreciates the long-term transformation the students experience in the program. For example, she was delighted to see one woman in the program who used to draw one single shape over and over again move on to drawing a variety of shapes, lines and colors this year.
“It’s night and day,” Musante said. “For someone who has very limited oral communication that’s just vitally important. … Abilities are distinct and different from disabilities. It’s (the exhibition) an opportunity to see their abilities in all their glory.”
Through March 29, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sobrato Gallery, 230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View. Free. arts4all.org/mohr-gallery.
