Art-making is connection to self. It's connection to others. It's connection to our story, to our future. It's a place where you can dream; it anchors you in all the magical dreaming.

– Tegan Jenkins, High VisAbility Producer

Behind the neon, fluoro fun of the High VisAbility exhibition is a project that’s grounded in empowering and enriching young people with disabilities by giving them the opportunity to collaborate with professional artists.

Following on from a pop-up exhibition presented at PICA as part of the Awesome Festival, an expanded High VisAbility exhibition will be presented at FORM Gallery, 15 January - 8 February 2024.

Ahead of the new exhibition we invite you to venture with us, behind the brightly coloured scenes of High VisAbility, to learn about the myriad benefits this project has brought to the young participants from Sir David Brand School (SDBS), and to lead artist Mandy White, all of whom live with disability.

Pathways into the arts through mentoring

At the heart of this project is the idea that you can't be what you can’t see. Having Mandy White, a professional artist with an intellectual disability, as one of the lead artists on this project showed the students – and their teachers, carers and families – what is possible for them, as young people with disability. 

During the project it was wonderful to see how the students connected with Mandy, and relished working alongside her. 

Aansh, for example, delighted in painting alongside Mandy and they shared a love for pink and glitter. Another is Alix, a ball of energy who, when prompted, would engage with drawing and painting, particularly enjoying working alongside Mandy.

Pathways into the arts through skill development

Being mentored by professional artists gave the students opportunities to learn practical new creative skills. 

Raphael is a student who was identified as a talented artist and model-maker early on in the project, and as a result was mentored one-on-one by artist and animator Jake Carlshausen. Together they created a collaborative animation fusing his artworks with his fellow students’ artworks.

Over a four week period Raphael learnt stop-animation processes, digital drawing and drawing animation techniques using simple programs on his iPad. These skills have been documented for the school so many more students have access to this option or creative play and communication in the future. 

The result of this mentoring program is an animation called Inside Out.

Improved mental health/well-being

“At SDBS you've got young people who were dealing with some pretty complex things in their lives, but when they entered the High VisAbility workshops, they were just artists,” says Michelle White, CAN Executive Producer. “They weren't defined by any limitations. It was all about what can you do, and how can we help you mark-make, participate and get some joy out of this.”

For student Robert, High VisAbility provided an opportunity to re-engage with school. When the project began Robert was being homeschooled due to dysregulated behaviour. His support worker says that through participating in High VisAbility, Robert has been able to better regulate his emotions and reintegrate into the school system. He now identifies as an artist and is inspired to keep making art.

Joy and connection

Many students found joy in the opportunity to experiment with new materials to create art.

Marley, for example, thoroughly enjoyed exploring the wet paint area, and was won over by the silhouette drawing process, exploring light and shadows. She also loves to dress up and was absolutely beaming throughout the photo shoot session with Christophe Canato, who captured portraits of the students.

Asokan appreciated the variety of creative options offered during the workshops and with gentle guidance would happily give everything a try. He created beautiful works with charcoal and fell in love with the fluoro paint sticks.

Other students relished the chance to work collaboratively. Priya thoroughly enjoyed working with other students and the artist mentors, contributing many illustrations to the joint artworks. NiO, too, loved to collaborate with other students and enjoyed sharing the canvas with Mandy, contributing strong, bold strokes of paint to the joint canvases.

Professional opportunities 

At the heart of this project is the idea of providing pathways into the arts for people with disabilities.

For lead artist Mandy White, who has an intellectual disability, High VisAbility has been an opportunity to expand her skill-set from practitioner to role model and teaching artist. Working alongside experienced facilitating artists Tegan Jenkins and Natalie Scholtz, Mandy had the chance to watch the way they interacted with the students and then experiment with those techniques herself, as well as offer her own artistic techniques. The relationship was one of artistic exchange, with all three artists learning from one another.

The project has been professional development for Mandy, and she is now being offered other opportunities to deliver workshops.

Making disability arts visible in a public, professional space

As the name High VisAbility suggests, making artworks by artists with disability – and the artists themselves – visible to the general public is one of the central tenets of this project.

“Having disability arts in the cultural centre, at PICA, between the State Theatre, the Art Gallery of WA and the WA Museum, elevated into magnificent contemporary pieces, was so important,” says Michelle.

When the student artists came to visit the exhibition, they were thrilled to explore and engage with the finished works.

“We dreamed that the students would have that total explosion of joy, seeing their artworks in this celebratory space. For them to have that exact reaction was a real win,” says Tegan.

Leaving a legacy

The teachers and support workers at SDBS commented on the way in which the processes utilised by Mandy, Natalie and Tegan opened up creative possibilities for the students. These are techniques which they will be able to use in their own teaching going forward.

In particular, the teachers loved the concept of creating large-scale collaborative works, and saw how to set up that kind of creative process. They also learned about how to know when a work is finished, when to stop the activity.

The teachers and students have also been left with skills for creating animated works.

Following the success of the High VisAbility Pop-up exhibition at PICA in September/October, an expanded version of High VisAbility will be shown at FORM Gallery in early 2025. Stay tuned for more info!

Pictured top: A detail from the installation at the High VisAbility pop-up exhibition, at Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts // credit Edwin Sitt