What Forever Feels Like: Artists and Autism

Mary Mahler, harpist, performs at the exhibition event on October 17, 2014 – a celebration of poetry, storytelling, music, and dance.

The Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts exhibition What Forever Feels Like: Artists and Autism is about artists who triumph over the challenges of autism. The myth that individuals living with autism “cannot speak” could not be further from the truth. They have a lot to say, and their art says it all. The exhibition is co-curated by Allison Leatzow, Autism Consultant at the FSU Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD) and Susan Baldino, member of the CARD advisory board. Susan Baldino has written that the artists of the exhibition

represent the wide range of the autism spectrum, from the non-verbal to the verbose; the intellectually challenged to the savant. They convey how they feel about life and living with autism with varied techniques, but the uniting factor is that art offers a vehicle to communicate where social interaction may falter.

In his artist’s statement, Matthew Seegar speaks for many of the exhibition’s artists when he says:

My biggest desire is to normalize autism and show people that we are not special or inspirational, we are just people. I just want to be seen as an artist and I want to be seen as someone who is competent but who has some drawbacks just like everybody else.

Stop by MoFA to see the new exhibit, going on from October 10, 2014 – November 16, 2014.

Continuing Events

FSU Veterans – Past, Present & Future – Salute Vietnam Veterans:  10/10/14 – 11/16/14
Birds of the Enlightenment & Elegant Waders:  10/17/14 – 11/23/14

For more information, visit MoFA‘s website.

Jim Dafoe selected this iconic US government photo for the announcement of the exhibition to honor Vietnam veterans. Jim and Sandy Dafoe, co-curators, worked within the Florida State University Student Veterans community to bring artifacts and artwork-tributes to MoFA. The exhibition is one of the offerings that include a symposium in late October called “A Conversation on Vietnam” and a film on Veterans Day entitled Last Days in Vietnam, a documentary directed by Rory Kennedy, who will be in attendance at Ruby Diamond Auditorium for the screening (November 11, 3pm).