Mixed media exhibition centers lived experience of students with disabilities

Emily Richardson, Staff Writer

“Desert Euphony,” an exhibition centered on the lives of VCU student artists with disabilities, is on display at The Anderson until March 3.

The show features 15 artists across mediums “in an effort to encourage connection and make space for collective empowerment,” according to the exhibition statement. Curator Shannon Harper Kane, a Craft and Material Studies student, said the show came out of a realization that a lot of spaces and classes at VCU aren’t accessible.

Craft and Material students were expected to return to school in the fall of 2020 which may have exacerbated the problem, alongside the “willingness of the world to push aside disabled people,” according to Kane.

The show’s name came out of Kane considering what “good art” means. “Euphony” defines something that’s a good sound, they said.

“I was thinking a lot about how there isn’t really one good sound to everyone,” Kane said. “Just the experience of being a disabled student is pretty isolating. You have to choose what sound you make and choose for it to be something that you like.”

Kane said while working on the show it became clear that a lot of art relies directly on your body.

“To neglect that [your body] is to neglect your art,” Kane said. “To invite people in with their body is something that it’s a very intimate thing to meet the artist object how they were meeting the art.”

Artist Luci Milo said the show was a chance to express herself in the fine arts, an opportunity she doesn’t often have as a fashion design student.

“When I finally did put pen to paper, I took a fairly realistic approach in showing the agony and frustration behind having an invisible disability,” Milo said. “I wanted to show how dark it is when you’re being drowned by it.”

Milo’s mixed media work “Can I have that in Writing?” is dark and busy in the center but grows brighter and calmer as the work expands outward, because “you’re not just enveloped in what is a disability,” Milo said.

Milo said she hopes “Desert Euphony” helps to establish a deeper understanding of what the definition of a disability is, especially invisible disabilities. Milo, who is hard of hearing, said their disability was not accounted for at an event “simply because disabilities aren’t often considered by abled people.”

“Even today, I had a fashion event I had to go to. I had to sit there for three hours and I didn’t hear a single thing,” Milo said. “It can be very isolating, and I hope that accommodations become more diverse.”

Another artist in the show, painting and printmaking student Jazmine Jackson, drew on how she visualizes herself with her disability for her mixed media work “Envisioned Worlds Triptych,” she said.

“While I start off with the work in a narrative of myself, the goal of the work is to have this intimate and inclusive space and time with others who may share or empathize with the same type of story,” Jackson said.

Jackson transferred to VCU from another university where getting accommodations for her disability was difficult. So far, her experience at VCU has been more positive in that aspect, she said.

The Accessibility and Inclusion Working Group, a subcommittee of the Staff Senate, is one group working in the interest of people with disabilities at VCU. Their mission is to “advance accessibility” at VCU by addressing barriers and collaborating with policy-makers, according to the Staff Senate’s website.

Co-chair Katie Cappuccio said there’s importance to talking about disability through the arts. In fact, the arts are something personal to her, she said. When her disabilities prevented her from continuing soccer in high school, another interest of hers, music, became a focal point of her life, she said.

“I think music is such a therapeutic way to be able to express yourself,” Cappuccio said. “Arts in general, not just music. I think you don’t have to break your body to be able to tell your story.”

“Desert Euphony” is on display on the first floor of The Anderson until March 3. Admission is free.