News & Features
Cordially Invited VI / "Mutual Admiration Society"
Make Studio is excited to host our sixth, and biggest, Cordially Invited invitational exhibition this October! CI-VI highlights 22 progressive art studios from throughout the U.S., as well as in Finland, Scotland, Spain, and Japan.
To amplify the occasion, for the third year running, with our friends at Art Enables we co-hosted a virtual meetup featuring artists' presentations of some of their favorite selections from the Cordially Invited and Outside Forces exhibitions. This year’s "Mutual Admiration Society" featured appreciative and observational commentary by Make Studio and Art Enables artists Tyrone Weedon, Louis Middleton, Shane Hargest, Vanessa Monroe, Jay Bird, Peter LoBrutto, and Shawn Payne. Over two dozen attendees, including exhibiting artists from Spindleworks (ME), Community Access Artists Collective (NY), and Kettuki (Finland), joined for a lively conversation!
"Today is the Greatest" / Quickest Flip exhibition in Richmond, CA
Today is the Greatest and Can’t Wait for Tomorrow are two inclusive exhibitions featuring artwork by artists with and without disabilities, curated by Quickest Flip.
"Today is the Greatest" at NIAD Art Center features Louis Middleton's piece "Country Stars & Grand Ole Opry".
Congratulations to Louis for being part of this exhibit in the Bay Area!
WYPR Disability Pride Arts Fest Feature
Join Our Crew!
Are you or someone you know interested in becoming a Make Studio artist?
We are now accepting inquiries from prospective new artists into our Professional Studio & Exhibitions program!
This program provides workspace, materials, artist-peer mentorship, competitive sales opportunities, and more to disabled artists with a variety of disabilities and levels of prior art experience.
Our program might be a good fit for you if:
• You are an adult (18+) who is passionate about making things using at least one visual art medium and having your artwork seen and appreciated by others.
• Making art is something you want (or even need) to do every week.
• Art is more than “a hobby” for you.
• You are open to trying new materials and working out new ideas in a supportive, diverse community of artists.
• Enjoying parties is a plus, but not required :)
A fee-for-service is required; Make Studio can subcontract with DDA-licensed agencies and accept waiver funding, among other options, to fund participation.
To begin the application process or have questions? Contact Emily at emily@make-studio.org
INVISIBLE DISABILITY • Call for Entries
Make Studio invites all artists who identify as invisibly disabled or who wishes to reflect on the theme of
invisible disability to submit artworks to be shown in a group exhibition in our gallery during summer 2023.
The parameters and expression of the theme will be further developed in collaboration by participating artists.
Please visit the exhibition page for eligibility & submissions guidelines as well as other details
Recent Exhibition Highlights
Make Studio artists are being exhibited coast to coast! Some highlights from our busy 2022-23 calendar include: Dontavius Woody and Zach Manuel in the 33rd Annual Drawing and Print competition at Gormley Gallery, Notre Dame of Maryland University (Woody’s piece was selected for the purchase prize for the second consecutive year!); Margie Smeller and Baltimore artist Red’s collaborative video and song piece won a juror’s prize in “The Color Show: RED” at Able Arts Work in Southern California; and “Kandy Kultur” at Core Arts Center in Denver, CO highlighted 3 of Janel’s intricate and lush handmade dolls.
Currently on view, "Her Voice, Her Vision", Chesapeake Arts Center's exhibition in honor of Women's History Month, includes artwork by Erika Clark, Gemma Frost, Janel Jenkins and Bess Lumsden (Brooklyn Park, MD); Katelynn Herty and Erika Clark’s work is included in "Breaking Ground: Art About the Earth" at Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center (Solomons, MD); and Iragi Nkere and Jerry Williams pieces are in “Head to the Sky: Black Legacies and Futures” at Create Art Center (Silver Spring, MD).
Keep an eye out for ceramic pieces by Iragi Nkere, Louis Middleton, Erika Clark, Tyrone Weedon in "Clay Nowadays", a ceramic exhibition featuring artists with disabilities from a collection of progressive art studios across the country at Visionaries+Voices (Cincinnati, OH) opening in mid-March.
WYPR Morning Edition Feature
Many thanks to Miki Hellerbach / WYPR Baltimore for inviting Make Studio artist Tyrone Weedon, co-founder Jill Scheibler, and our friend Tony Brunswick, Executive Director of Art Enables, to sit down for conversations The WYPR News piece highlights our 5th annual Cordially Invited exhibition, returning in renewed form as the pandemic eases, and which includes over 100 artworks from progressive art studios located all around the U.S. (and beyond).
Check out the digital article and audio piece here!
Gallery Renovation / Clearance Sale
Artists and visitors are being asked to exercise !CAUTION! when entering our gallery over the next few weeks as we complete a long-anticipated renovation. Big changes are in the works, including flooring, lighting, and fixtures! Want to help? Donations towards the effort are always welcome. Or if you’re feeling more like working up a sweat for the cause, shoot us a note at info@make-studio.org.
In the meantime, some of Louis’ “renovated” canvases have popped up in the gallery window; take a peek at them and the chaos inside as you stroll by.
And, through Labor Day, we will be running our !CAUTION! Clearance Sale in our online shop. All original art will be 25% off using the code “CAUTION22”. Just use the code upon checkout at makestudioshop.ecwid.com.
Work of Art Spring/Summer 2022
During this year’s youth-focused programming, we became happily (re)acquainted with the wonderfully creative young artists participating in this year’s installment of our Work of Art program. Our spring workshop series concluded in May, with summer offerings — summer intensives and artist field trips/presentations running from June into August. Drop us a line at cathy [at] make-studio.org if you are interested in learning more about joining us for the rest of this summer’s FREE fun.
"Facing Our Future Together" Symposium
Stefan and Jill had a terrific time learning with and from folks representing around 20 other progressive studios and aligned organizations during the past week at the Facing Our Future Together convening in Oakland. Thank you to all the other programs for generously sharing their wisdom with us, to Creative Growth for organizing and inviting us, and especially to Director Emeritus Tom di Maria and Symposium Coordinator Mary Fashik for their unique efforts to make this happen and to pull it off without a hitch. Along with hearing from other CG artists, a special treat was the performance by William Scott. (Thank you to the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) for supporting our participation via their Professional Development Grant program. To discover more about the Maryland State Arts Council and how they impact Maryland, visit www.msac.org.
Civitan "Road Warriors" Trip
Thanks to the Civitan Club of Baltimore, some of us got to be road warriors in the month of May! Artists Matthew, Louis, Sharmilla-Chuck, Erika, Tyrone, and Gemma, and staff/facilitators Stefan, Rosie, Jamal, and Jill visited our friends at DC-area progressive art studios. After departing our late morning visit at VisAbility Art Lab and a lunch break in Rockville, part 2 of our adventure took us to Art Enables in Northeast Washington, DC. There we were treated to a tour of their THREE exhibition spaces (one dually functions as their bright, tidy, and welcoming studio). We also had the unique opportunity to have a face 2 face cross-studio Q&A. We headed back to Baltimore with so much inspiration and excitement about collaborations to come. Thank you again to our hosts and to Civitan Club!
The Color Show: RED
Make Studio artist Margie Smeller and friend of the studio Rae Red receive an award for their video collaboration - “Red Song” - which is included in Able ARTS Work's "The Color Show: RED" exhibition in Long Beach, CA! Rae and Margie worked together on “Red Song” in the summer of 2020, as part of our NOW SEE HEAR project, which featured a collection of the multi-sensory ways five pairs of Make Studio artists and other women and nonbinary artists connected, interacted with one another, and made art during the height of the pandemic.
ProPublica NOV 2020
Make Studio artists Erika Clark, Louis Middleton, Kareem Samuels, Margie Smeller, Michael Vita & Tyrone Weedon provided illustrations for a ProPublica / Arizona Star article on the state of disability services in Arizona.
• View the article HERE
From the News Archive
• Bmore Art 2019
• WYPR On the Record 2019
• Huffington Post 2017
• Baltimore Sun 2015