As the statistics tracking the coronavirus pandemic begin to crest globally, and as humanity shifts from a strange existence in mass quarantine to anticipating unfamiliar restrictions presented by the prospect of slowly reopening cities, there seems to be a lull in our collective anxiety and abstract sense of dread; we can begin to imagine a proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.
Those of us in this community of artists with disabilities and their advocates, however, need to maintain clarity about the reality and risks of this moment. Uncertainty and hardship is still mostly on the horizon and the full impact of this crisis remains to be seen. As he advised an early Zoom gathering of progressive art studios across the country, Creative Growth’s Tom di Maria expressed soberly:
We will probably lose colleagues and artists. And I think that is a particularly difficult and new level of organizational stress that we will have to encounter. When leaders of AIDS organizations were dying and the people you worked with were in the hospital and dying, the organization had to deal with that in terms of its grief, it’s positioning, its leadership transition...so it was a very difficult time to maintain the organizational efforts and to deal with the personal loss…responses with that need to come individually from every organization...so that’s unfortunately something to start to think about.
This vulnerable population is more likely to have underlying medical conditions, unable to isolate without support (especially those still in institutional settings), and face deadly biases in medical facilities which sharply disadvantage them in triage or rationing situations. Whenever resignation is expressed to the inevitability of loss of life - or calculations which allow for acceptable percentages of death - these are the lives that are discussed and at stake.
It is imperative to express to the world outside of the progressive art studio that there is a population that relies on well-functioning systems and a capable and steadfast pandemic response to live - not to thrive or for normalcy, but to survive. Even as studios remain closed across the country in the interest of social distancing, it's important to remember that the role of progressive art studios is arguably more important than before the onset of this crisis.
Amplifying the power of these artists’ work to undermine prejudice by revealing their complex and essential humanity through their ideas, expressions, perspective, and values is one of the core functions and responsibilities of the progressive art studio. Great works of art being produced in these studios belong in our culture and history abstract of the social significance of the disposition and disability of their creators. But even so, an important function of these works in this moment is the way they powerfully stake a claim for the place of these singular voices in our culture, transcend stereotypes, and open a permanent window into the individual.
Regarding COVID-19 triage, ethics guidelines in Tennessee state, “Overall survival may be further qualified as healthy, long-term survival, recognizing that this represents weighting the survival of young otherwise healthy patients more heavily than that of older, chronically debilitated patients. Such weighting has general support in medicine and society-at-large.”
Knowing the work and accomplishments of Marlon Mullen, Helen Rae, and myriad artists from studios across the country, we understand their potential and most importantly realize that regardless of any disabled individual’s possible achievements, the sort of bias these guidelines are rooted in cannot be true. The success of these artists is significant not only for these individual artists, but also for the population and supported lifestyles they represent. Now more than ever, it’s crucial for progressive art studios to project this message to their audience of patrons, as well as supporters from both local and broader communities.
Progressive art studios have navigated (even taken advantage of) this strange and difficult time to cultivate a heightened sense of connection; the various ways programs have responded sheds new light on how they see themselves and their true potential. Over the next several weeks we will discuss the specific ways studios have adapted and continued working, with new approaches developed, opportunities discovered, and lessons learned.