Inside the unique creative space where ‘outsider’ artists find their form

Founded in 1974 at the height of the US disability-rights movement, the Creative Growth Art Center is an Oakland-based nonprofit organisation that ‘advances the inclusion of artists with developmental disabilities in contemporary art’. For the organisation’s director Tom di Maria, this means helping to fill in the gaps in a public education system that leaves behind those with disabilities, but also taking their artistic development seriously in an art world that has, historically, marginalised such artists. And, as di Maria notes in this peak behind the centre’s walls, the project has produced some incredible success stories, including that of the US artist Judith Scott (1943-2005), who was born with Down’s syndrome, had undiagnosed deafness and never developed language. However, as the film details, Scott ultimately found a new way to communicate with the world when she discovered fibre sculpture at the Arts Center, and has since been widely celebrated for her work.