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[Music Playing]

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Oh, I like painting, I like doing clay.

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All artwork.

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This is one of my square drawings

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that I've done.

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This drawing I have done right here

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makes me feel good

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and I show my inspiration.

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My name is Jackie

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and I am going to take you on a tour.

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That is a ceramics class.

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This is the work class, right here

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and there's sewing right here.

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What're you sewing, Theresa?

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My magic robe.

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Oh, okay. Her magic robe. Okay.

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That's a teacher right here.

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How're you doing?

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It is a great equalizer.

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That transcends language.

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That transcends culture.

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That transcends disability.

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Creative growth is about

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artistic expression as a form of[br]self empowerment

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as a form of aesthetic development,[br]as a form of saying

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"this is who I am in the world".

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Blue is cold and yellow is warm.

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How do you know when you're reaching in [br]there what you're getting?

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I can tell by the feel.

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Feel?

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Yep, the compartments, you know?

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So what is the feel of green?

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Green is like freezing,[br]red is hot.

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So you're working with freezing and hot[br]right now?

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Yes.

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Monica's been fascinated with color[br]ever since she was

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a wee child, and I think losing her sight[br]opened up a different connection

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to the world of light, and shadow,[br]and color.

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Do you have a favorite foam shape [br]to work on?

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I like the logs,

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the cubes,

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the little tiny cubes,

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and the spheres.

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Logs, tiny cubes, and spheres.

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Yeah, and the cakes too.

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Yeah, and the cakes turned out great.

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Yep.

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I see her becoming more and more dedicated[br]to her art

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and it seems to fulfill her in deeper and [br]deeper ways,

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and for that, I feel so happy.

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You know? Because she has so much to offer[br]the world.

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Yes, um, my name is Rosena Finister

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[Crowd whooping and clapping]

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and I'm from a small town where all the[br]poor people live at.

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That's where I'm from.

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This is the type of art that I [br]started doing.

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Creative Growth currently serves [br]162 artists at our studio every week.

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When people come to the Creative Growth[br]studio, for the most part

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they've never made art before [br]in their lives,

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and we kind of welcome that.

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Because it allows us to see who they are.

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And, you know, there's no[br]right or wrong;

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we don't teach in a traditional way.

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We say, you know, "what would you like[br]to do?",

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"what are you thinking about", "what do [br]you dream about",

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"what color do you like"?

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Tell us your story.

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[Jazzy music playing]

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I've been coming here since 1992

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I like paint, I like to draw, and[br]I like paintings of people --

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like, different people.

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And stars -- movie stars.

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There are wholesome people.

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Wholesome encounters.

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What do you like to look at?

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I like that one.

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This one?

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Yeah.

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Look at that one?[br]This is what?

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What do you call the name[br]of this painting?

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"Inner Limits".

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William is just such a brilliant artist.

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And look at this.

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Beautiful piece.

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Do you remember making this?

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I remember.

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That's what? Praise Frisco?

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Yeah.

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He envisions through his work[br]a utopian reality that he creates

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for us all to live in.

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A world where people who have died[br]come back to life,

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places where bad neighborhoods are safe,

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where his family is happy, [br]where the world is peaceful.

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And, he believes the painting will be[br]powerful enough

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to make that a reality.

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Riding on the spaceship,[br]there's not gonna be no more evils.

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No more aliens, no more monsters,

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no more evils.

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Uh-huh.

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Creative Growth is really a[br]Bay Area story.

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The disability rights movement in the[br]early 1970s,

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Creative Growth really comes from that.

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So, during that time, people with[br]disabilities in institutions

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were suddenly deinstitutionalized.

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So, artists came together in Oakland,[br]and put paint on a table,

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and said "well, these people are gonna[br]come here; creativity is the path forward"

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I'm just doing a tree right now.

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And, people with disabilities can[br]communicate and be a vital part

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of society.

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Part of the Creative Growth plan to come [br]here and make art,

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is that represents you, and you show your[br]work in the gallery.

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If the work sells, the artist gets half [br]the money.

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Creative Growth, the nonprofit gets half[br]the money.

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We buy supplies and support the[br]artists with that money.

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If you came to Creative Growth, you may[br]buy something for 10 dollars,

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and you can buy something for [br]75,000 dollars.

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It's exactly like the contemporary art[br]world.

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As an artist's work develops, and it gets[br]into collections, and museums,

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and highly sought after, the prices go up.

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And Creative Growth artists follow that[br]same path.

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Judith Scott is one of the most well-[br]known Creative Growth artists.

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As an artist, Judith Scott transcended[br]this difficult situation.

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Where she was separated from her[br]family and institutionalized

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for almost 40 years.

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She was Deaf and it wasn't known, so she[br]never developed language,

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and she was isolated.

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So in her 40's, she comes to [br]Creative Growth.

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And, her method to talk to us

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was art.

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The process is very important to her

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and the result of that process with these[br]sculptures, with hidden objects,

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and accumulated, protected things were[br]sacred or important to her.

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I think Judith Scott's role in[br]contemporary art is that

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she has opened the door for a lot[br]of people to see

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who an artist can be.

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[Mumbling]

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Right?

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Right.

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[Mumbling]

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You know, Dan's work is based on words.

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He builds literally words on top of [br]each other to form

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his communication with the world.

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Do you want me to pull it down?

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Yeah!

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Pull it gently, right?

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Right.

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[Mumbling]

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Right.

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We still don't know a lot about autism,[br]but there's this big barrier there.

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There's this person behind this barrier

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and he can't communicate in a way that[br]you and I can communicate with each other.

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And to put himself down on this paper, [br]that's Danny's opportunity to talk

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to people.

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Dan's work has definitely progressed in [br]the years he's been here.

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Dan became more and more interested[br]in the graphic qualities of the letters,

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of how to use paint, how to use the brush,[br]how to work on massive pieces of paper.

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He's very sophisticated, and he's a[br]colorist.

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He's clear about what he wants to do.

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You know? And I think when you see that[br]urgency in his work, it's because it's so

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important to him, and because its so[br]important for us to know who he is;

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that he has thoughts like we do, that [br]he's smart, that he's not to be dismissed.

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[Music]

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Dan is in the Venice Biennale this year,[br]which is this amazing achievement for him

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as an artist.

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It happens to be in the same room in the [br]Venice Biennale as Judith Scott.

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So, here are these two colleagues --[br]their work looking right at each other

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in a pavilion of contemporary artistry,[br]using color in a powerful way.

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Not a pavilion of disability, not a[br]pavilion of the self taught,

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not a pavilion of the freak show.

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It's presented as an artist, making a[br]statement about the world today,

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and that's what they both did.

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They both have, like every artist, a [br]history that informs who they are

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in the world today.

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We shouldn't need to exist.

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Dan should've gotten this in school.

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Or William should've had this [br]opportunity his whole life.

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It shouldn't be that Creative Growth has [br]to be here for those people; I am thrilled

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that we're here and we love our artists,

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but they should have access to creative [br]outlets.

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It's a human rights issue -- to be [br]diminished somehow.

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To be seen as not creative.

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When those prejudices go away, then[br]our artists have the same potential

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to lead the culture, to be a part of our[br]world, to inform me of who I am

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as a person.

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I look at all these people who -- they're[br]all coming back to new lives?

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Yeah, they're families.

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And what kind of lives are they going[br]to have now that they're back?

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They're gonna have good lives.

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Uh-huh.

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They're gonna have good lives.

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Uh-huh

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[People talking]

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To learn more about Art21 and our[br]educational resources,

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please visit us online at pbs.org/art21.

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Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 9[br]is available on DVD.

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To order, visit shop.pbs.org, or call[br]1(800) PLAY-PBS.

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on ITunes.