Founded by the nonprofit AHRC New York City, ArTech Collective is a progressive art studio that provides opportunities for artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities to express themselves creatively and expand their practice through artistic development. ArTech empowers artists by providing studio spaces, art supplies, and access to a community of peers and mentors.
Over the past year, ArTech Collective artists from studio locations in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens participated in an extended partnership with MoMA’s Access Programs. In weekly sessions with a MoMA teaching artist, groups explored a diverse range of artists in the Museum’s collection and experimented with various materials and techniques to create the works on view. The artists also attended title and artist-statement workshops, further developing their professional practices and sharing their perspectives through texts alongside the artworks. The title of this exhibition, My Heart Is on the Left, was developed by a participant during a writing workshop. Merging poetics and direct description, the phrase is a reminder that art has the power to connect us through individual expression and universal truths.
Organized by Theresa Rodewald, Associate Educator, and Lara Schweller, Associate Educator, Access Programs and Initiatives, MoMA, in collaboration with MoMA teaching artists Dounia Bendris, Rachel Cohen, and Jamie Mirabella; and Pola-Ana Mora, Program Director, ArTech Collective, Magdalena Kosciuch, Project Coordinator, Carlos Encarnacion Vazquez, Lead Teaching Artist, and Darinka Vlahek, Director of Program Services, AHRC New York City.