Museum to host Ohio’s Annual Day of Arts
The Springfield Museum of Art (SMOA) will celebrate Ohio’s Annual Day of Arts for All with a new exhibition that puts the emphasis on all.
The SMOA has been selected as the first Ohio museum outside of Columbus to host the 2021 Accessible Expressions Ohio exhibit, consisting of 43 works created by Ohioans with disabilities.
While the show will open to the public Saturday in the Beach Gallery, it will also be marked with a live virtual opening that will include a tour of the exhibition at 11 a.m., a virtual workshop led by SMOA educator Annette Eshelman at noon and a live awards ceremony.
Given the exhibition’s works have been created by people from all over the state, staff of Art Possible Ohio, the Columbus-based
organization curating the Accessible Expressions exhibition, chose to take it out of its home of nearly a decade.
Previous associations with SMOA, which has hosted similar exhibitions with artists from local organization The Abilities Connection or
TAC and its centralized location made it an ideal landing place, according to Megan Fitze, director of programs for Art Possible Ohio.
“We’re so thrilled. A lot of our artists have never had their work exhibited in a museum before and Springfield
is a neighboring city,” she said.
Works include a few 3D, but mostly 2D such as ceramics, mixed media, photography, drawings, oil paintings and acrylic paintings on canvas. A new category was added this year: A current events category of works dealing with topics such as the Black Lives Matter movement, the COVID-19 pandemic and human trafficking.
Fitze said her organization doesn’t define what the participants’ particular disabilities are, whether physical or mental, but emphasizes the diversity and changing perceptions of the term disabilities.
“For far too long, artists with disabilities were not celebrated. This is a chance to celebrate artists with disabilities through a real diverse exhibit of emerging and professional artists,” she said. “We want people to see this because of the art.”