Creative Growth Art Center in "San Francisco" - Season 9 - "Art in the Twenty-First Century" | Art21

[Music Playing]

Oh, I like painting, I like doing clay.

All artwork.

This is one of my square drawings

that I've done.

This drawing I have done right here

makes me feel good

and I show my inspiration.

My name is Jackie

and I am going to take you on a tour.

That is a ceramics class.

This is the work class, right here

and there's sewing right here.

What're you sewing, Theresa?

My magic robe.

Oh, okay. Her magic robe. Okay.

That's a teacher right here.

How're you doing?

It is a great equalizer.

That transcends language.

That transcends culture.

That transcends disability.

Creative growth is about

artistic expression as a form of
self empowerment

as a form of aesthetic development,
as a form of saying

"this is who I am in the world".

Blue is cold and yellow is warm.

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

I can tell by the feel.

Feel?

Yep, the compartments, you know?

So what is the feel of green?

Green is like freezing,
red is hot.

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

Yes.

Monica's been fascinated with color
ever since she was

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

to the world of light, and shadow,
and color.

Do you have a favorite foam shape
to work on?

I like the logs,

the cubes,

the little tiny cubes,

and the spheres.

Logs, tiny cubes, and spheres.

Yeah, and the cakes too.

Yeah, and the cakes turned out great.

Yep.

I see her becoming more and more dedicated
to her art

and it seems to fulfill her in deeper and
deeper ways,

and for that, I feel so happy.

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

Yes, um, my name is Rosena Finister

[Crowd whooping and clapping]

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

That's where I'm from.

This is the type of art that I
started doing.

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

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

they've never made art before
in their lives,

and we kind of welcome that.

Because it allows us to see who they are.

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

we don't teach in a traditional way.

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

"what are you thinking about", "what do
you dream about",

"what color do you like"?

Tell us your story.

[Jazzy music playing]

I've been coming here since 1992

I like paint, I like to draw, and
I like paintings of people --

like, different people.

And stars -- movie stars.

There are wholesome people.

Wholesome encounters.

What do you like to look at?

I like that one.

This one?

Yeah.

Look at that one?
This is what?

What do you call the name
of this painting?

"Inner Limits".

William is just such a brilliant artist.

And look at this.

Beautiful piece.

Do you remember making this?

I remember.

That's what? Praise Frisco?

Yeah.

He envisions through his work
a utopian reality that he creates

for us all to live in.

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

places where bad neighborhoods are safe,

where his family is happy,
where the world is peaceful.

And, he believes the painting will be
powerful enough

to make that a reality.

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

No more aliens, no more monsters,

no more evils.

Uh-huh.

Creative Growth is really a
Bay Area story.

The disability rights movement in the
early 1970s,

Creative Growth really comes from that.

So, during that time, people with
disabilities in institutions

were suddenly deinstitutionalized.

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

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

I'm just doing a tree right now.

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

of society.

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

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

If the work sells, the artist gets half
the money.

Creative Growth, the nonprofit gets half
the money.

We buy supplies and support the
artists with that money.

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

and you can buy something for
75,000 dollars.

It's exactly like the contemporary art
world.

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

and highly sought after, the prices go up.

And Creative Growth artists follow that
same path.

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

As an artist, Judith Scott transcended
this difficult situation.

Where she was separated from her
family and institutionalized

for almost 40 years.

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

and she was isolated.

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

And, her method to talk to us

was art.

The process is very important to her

and the result of that process