Unlocking the Palette of Healing: A Journey Through Art's Restorative Power

Our journey through the intersection of art and healing continues with Meow Wolf Foundation nonprofit grantees. So far, we’ve featured leaders from two of our desert communities—Albuquerque, NM, where Keshet Dance and Center for the Arts creates safe spaces for art, dignity, and justice, and Las Vegas, NV, where the Obodo Collective fosters community and resilience in the Historic Westside. Our third feature, Dallas Art Therapy in North Texas, just outside Dallas, shared how art honors and uplifts veterans, helping them navigate toward a hopeful future. Now in this final nonprofit installment, we visit the mile-high city of Denver Colorado, where Access Gallery has dedicated their work to ensure inclusivity and belonging at the center of everything they do.

Part 4: Art for All - a conversation with Damon McLeese Executive Director at Access Gallery

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Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe is a renowned hub for arts and culture, home to hundreds of artists, galleries, studios, theaters, and creative organizations. This vibrant district embodies the neighborhood’s rich cultural heritage, serving as a testament to its storied history and promising future. Among the district’s bustling activities, you can find a local treasure: Access Gallery. A standout nonprofit in the Denver art scene, Access Gallery is a role model of community support, solidarity, and inclusivity that inspires many across the city. 

Access Gallery was established in 1978 to reduce common barriers to the arts for people with disabilities, including prohibitive costs, inaccessible facilities, and a lack of economic opportunity. Through the arts, Access Gallery challenges misconceptions and stereotypes about people with disabilities, cultivating a supportive community of in-house, emerging, and nationally recognized artists with disabilities. 

Its Executive Director, Damon McLeese, has been with Access Gallery for nearly 30 years. What was once a small, scrappy advocacy and education organization has grown into a renowned cultural institution. In response to challenges in engaging employers to hire people with disabilities, Access Gallery shifted its mission in 2016 to focus on economic opportunity through the arts, particularly visual arts. The organization began creating jobs for its artists with disabilities to make artwork for businesses through corporate commissions. 

Today, the space operates as a studio, gallery, community art space, learning center, and social enterprise to expand economic opportunity in the arts for individuals with a wide spectrum of disabilities, including intellectual and developmental disabilities. By utilizing person-centered creative programming, art education, and economic opportunity, Access Gallery combats stigma around individuals with disabilities in the workforce.

Damon is a pillar in the Denver metro community and we were fortunate to spend some time with him to learn more about the magic that happens within the doors of Access Gallery. 

Root us in place - tell us about your community. What would you like us to know?

Access Gallery is a community of artists and creatives, most of whom have a disability. We operate a gallery, a studio and most recently a digital art lab. We support nearly 50 artists from the greater Denver Area. Many people do not know this but people with disabilities are unemployed at a rate of 70% - 90% in this country. A few years ago, we made the decision to include economic opportunity to combat this statistic. We sell art created in our studio programs to individuals and businesses. If you need affordable accessible art, we are your go-to place!

Share your organization’s mission and how you use art or the artistic practice to bring healing to your clients/community.

“Access Gallery is an inclusive nonprofit organization that engages the community by opening doors to creative, educational and economic opportunities for people with disabilities to access, experience and benefit from the arts”. 

The core of our mission often revolves around creating economic opportunities, but ever since the pandemic started to lift, my thinking has shifted. Yes, economic opportunity is important, but what I think  the most important thing we do is provide a safe community for people to come and create together. It is no secret this country is facing an epidemic of loneliness. Being in a safe, accepting, supportive place, sometimes for the first time– that is where the magic happens. 

What have been the most important insights from the work of your organization?

Too often we look at numbers served, or budget size when we talk about the impact of nonprofit organizations. I think the most important insight I have gained from nearly 30 years with this organization is really this – we are all creative beings. This society tends to confuse creativity with conformity. We start by teaching children to “stay within the lines” with coloring books and it really never stops. The most impactful thing we do is to provide an environment where people who often feel they have little control over what happens to them are given means to express themselves regardless of their ability or disability status. We are not too interested in staying within the lines.

Please provide us a story about one person's life who was healed through your work.

We don’t really think in terms of healing or as our work being therapeutic. All creative practice is, of course, therapeutic but our work is about meeting people where they are. Too often the concept of disability lives within a medical model, where a person with disability needs to be “fixed” – we see disability as part of the normal human experience. We have seen so many people find their voice through their art, even when they may not be able to speak. For me, it is really not about healing more about agency, having some control over what often seems like a chaotic world. 

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Is art essential, why?

I believe art is the most important social response we have. Too often art and creative pursuits are treated as an afterthought. Schools cut art, music and dance programs first. If anything, I believe we need to invest more in the arts, not less. I do not think there is a problem we face that will be fixed by doing what we have always done. We need creative thinkers to ask, “What about this?” We need artists to continue to shine light on the injustice in the world. We need to tell stories that have not been told, we need to bring art into the darkest places. Now more than ever, we need art to make sense of the world.

As an artist and a caregiver, where and how do you seek solace?

For a very long time, I bought into the false narrative that art and creativity were for other people. I was an arts administrator, not an artist or creative. Shortly after my mother passed away, I started writing, drawing, taking photographs and collaging. I ran an arts organization yet did not believe I was creative. I realized and will tell anyone who will listen to me, that creative practice is an investment in your future self. Study after study has shown that people who have a creative outlet live longer healthier lives, take fewer medicines, and generally feel less depressed. Sounds like a good thing to me. 

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In the spirit of our shared humanity and our collective healing as a global community, share a quote or a mantra that grounds or inspires you.

“There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.” – Edward Debono

Website for more information: https://www.accessgallery.org/

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