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When Florence Ludins-Katz and Elias Katz moved to Berkeley, California, in 1966, the disability rights movement had already found fertile ground in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mass deinstitutionalization in the 1950s and 1960s coincided with a growing awareness of the challenges confronting disabled persons and an emerging legal framework to guarantee their rights as full citizens. Elias was a staff psychologist at the Sonoma State Home for the Mentally Retarded—as the institution was then known—and Florence was an artist who had instructed at both the high school and college levels. After privately hosting an art-making event for a number of artists with disabilities, the Katzes quickly recognized the potential of this interaction, secured a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, and in 1972 established Creative Growth in Oakland as the first institution dedicated to supporting artists with disabilities. See artwork from artists from Creative Growth in Oakland in "Celebrating a Vision: #ArtAndDisability" on display, post-security, in Terminal 3. http://bit.ly/ArtAndDisability
This image was posted on July 30, 2016.