Designing for Ability at NIAD Posted on June 24, 2009 by Anuradha Vikram
Richmond’s National Institute of Art and Disabilities has a show on this month that bears consideration in the context of this week’s discussion about the Rural Studio. NIAD was founded at about the same time (and by many of the same people) as its better-known cousins, Creative Growth in Oakland and Creativity Explored in San Francisco. Situated in downtown Richmond, the East Bay’s forgotten city, NIAD serves a population of mentally and physically disabled artists with particularly acute material and therapeutic needs. Very much in the Rural Studio spirit, two recent graduates from CCA’s MA Design program have applied their skills to the benefit of this disadvantaged community in their own backyard. Several key aspects of the Rural Studio project also apply here: approaching design as a philanthropic act, relying on inexpensive and readily available materials, and encouraging students to realize pragmatic projects within an academic context.
Collage Stamp – Stamp Pads Prototype from matthew baranauskas on Vimeo.
CCA Design for Disability is the brainchild of Molly Ackerman-Brimberg and Matthew Baranauskas. The two spent over a year working with Gallery Director Brian Stechschulte, NIAD’s teacher/therapists, and their “clients,” adult artists with severely limiting conditions including paraplegism and autism. While taking me through the exhibition, Matt Baranauskas explained that as a designer, he initially approached the project with the idea of identifying and solving the problems faced by these disabled artists. It was only after spending time working with the group and making multiple crude prototypes to aid in their art-making, that he began to understand his work differently. Why, he thought, should he just make tools that compensate for disabilities? Wouldn’t that simply make the fact of those disadvantages more oppressive, highlighting the clients’ differences as burdens to be overcome? Instead, Matt and Molly set out to create new tools for art-making, inspired by the needs of NIAD’s clients, but which could have uses for able-bodied and disabled artists alike.
