The Look. At. Me. Project
Join us in creating...
an extraordinary space where community comes to pause and learn
...and embrace the fellowship of persons with intellectual disabilities.
"We know that there are many of you whose lives have been profoundly touched by association with someone with a developmental disability; you already understand the profound blessings of that relationship. We would be honored by your participation in this empowering effort to convey that understanding to the wider community."
Elizabeth McClancy Artist, L.A.M. Creative Director
of the upcoming L.A.M. series.
Elizabeth McClancy, 2012, Oil on canvas
From now, through mid-2016, renowned portrait artist Elizabeth McClancy will create a series of paintings of those we tend to overlook - or look away from - individuals with intellectual disabilities. The paintings will serve as the driving concept for a multimedia exhibition - a fluid interaction with and among the paintings, narratives, sound-sculpture and film. -Designed in accordance with established tenets of behavioral science, the installation will enlighten viewers as to the extraordinary benefits of relationship with a person with intellectual disabilities.
How will it work? A powerful community awareness model
Wonderful art exhibitions are distinctive destinations, placing those who enter into a suspension where authentic self and beauty and truth can converse and reinforce each other. The “place” defined by the L.A.M. exhibition – within the Look. At. Me. Project – will create the teachable moment for a liberating appreciation of how profoundly these vivacious individuals can enrich our lives. The narrative beside each painting will teach visitors how to begin that relationship. The interactive sounds sculpture will find and then fill the voids in our understanding, and the coordinated, age-appropriate curriculum will translate the learning to each attending group’s real world (classroom, community, etc.) environment.
Each installment will be leveraged by major museums to launch ongoing relationships with their intellectual disabilities communities. Long-term attitude change will also be reinforced with print and online curricular materials.
The exhibition will debut in 2016. Prior to each installation, the Project will make do groundwork with regional community organizations to make them aware of the project and various ways it might be leveraged to support their distinctive missions.
The Look. At. Me. Project is seeking grassroots donations from those already in relationship with someone with an intellectual disability - as well as support and input from individuals with intellectual disabilities.
The Exhibition
The Subjects:
Look. At. Me. is built around the faces 12 individuals with intellectual disabilities. The selection will be representative of age, ethnicity, global culture, and manifestation of intellectual disability (Down’s-, Williams’-, Asperger’s-, and Charge-syndromes; autism, cerebral palsy, etc.).
The Artists:
Elizabeth McClancy – the faces in oil, canvas & text www.elizabethmcclancy.com
Michelle Jaffe – sound-sculpture www.michellejaffeart.com
Videographer (subject-specific video as part of the show) – to be discussed (TBD)
Documentarian (film of the artwork’s creation, implementation and outcomes) – TBD
Exhibition Venue(s): A neutral exhibition space, convenient to major art museums
Location(s): Initial debut, New york City. Subsequently, to major U.S. and international markets
Implementation Scope: Highly flexible; as many or as few partners as choose to participate
Social Change on Two Fronts
Exhibition attendees. By leveraging the power and rarefied space of visual art – and by incorporating research-based behavior-change stratgeies – L.A.M. is strategically designed to reconfigure the prevailing, mutually-isolating relationships.
Major museums will be invited to use the occasion of each opening to launch ongoing relationships with their regional intellectual disability communities.
The Artistic Director’s Vision
I think the clearest way to convey where we are headed with the Look. At. Me. series is to walk you through a recent conversation. I have a new and wonderful friend in Washington. Her 17-year-old daughter’s intellectual disability is compounded by a syndrome that also prevents her from seeing, hearing and swallowing. I recently asked her, ‘If we put an individual in front of a painting of her, what do they need to understand?’ This was her response.
“I have come to believe that these individuals are 90% divine. She doesn’t know People magazine; these guys don’t know self-consciousness or maneuvering for stature or the gross penalty for flaunting cultural norms. She and they are free of all that.”
Unencumbered.
She went on to explain that the power of these disabilities pulls one into that purer reality. “Engaged with a person with an intellectual disability, one’s self-consciousness; one’s need to establish stature and comply with established norms – all fall away. In the immediacy of this consecrated relationship, those concerns have no negotiable tender. To be with these people is to be instantly and necessarily unburdened of all that.
That was my moment of revelation. Simple, welcome, and profound. Compelling art creates a suspension where authentic self and beauty and truth can converse and reinforce each other. The crux of this series will undoubtedly shift with the revelations to come, but that is a true measure of the caliber of understanding we seek to facilitate.
Elizabeth McClancy, Artist and Artistic Director, 2013
Enduring social change through layers of encounter
The installation will provide a series of layered opportunities to dialogue through:
- The paintings
- The narratives that accompany the paintings
- The sound sculpture
- The video element
- Exhibition catalogue that will lead viewers through the exhibition
- Online curriculum for post-exhibition study and dialogue
- Documentary chronicling the creation of the art and social-change as it unfolds
- One or more persons with intellectual disabilities in attendance on designated exhibition days
- Usage of the installation space as a centerpiece for regional nonprofits that serve this population to leverage for the purposes of education and awareness- and fund-raising
- Ongoing gallery talks by curators paired with ID service-providers
Who is this for? The Look. At. Me. Project will be:
A catalytic destination for regional public, private and nonprofit organizations that seek a deeper awareness and appreciation of this population for their organization, community, and/or families.
Through the exhibition itself, a galvanizing "centerpiece" that will facilitate and effect:
- Increased dialogue among disparate organizations and civic entities;
- Myriad and ongoing benefits to the ECU student body and faculty;
- A distinctive opportunity for shared mission among appropriate disciplines within the university; and
- A high-stature backdrop for top-tier events convened by the university and outside groups.
- A locus from which to launch and facilitate ongoing, long-term relationships among art-related institutions and this population.
- A model of mutual learning which, once formalized, can be published
and circulated as a model for other institutions and their regional
populations of individuals with intellectual disabilities.
The Social-change/Education Component: The Look. At. Me. Curriculum
On site: During the visit to the exhibition, attendees will interact with each painting and a
strategically designed narrative by or about its subject.
Community Follow-up : The Look. At. Me. Customized Curriculum
Benefits to the ID Community• A simple, accessible reinforcement tool for families, communities and classrooms
• Translates the L.A.M. experience into the real-world setting to which it is to be applied
• Printed and online versions of curricular tools can be created
• Activities & learning components may be added later, as appropriate
• The L.A.M. Project's principal participating art-related institution (e.g. the internationally renowned Phillips Collection, at present) will leverage the launch of the Look. At. Me exhibition to pioneer a program to initiate/augment the relationship between the museum and the community’s I.D. population.
- A high-stature, shared resource to meet a fundamental, shared need;
- A top-tier, dynamic space in which to members of the ID community may hold events;
- A locus of contact for the ID community for both intra-organizational relationship and external systemic affect;
- Online $5 - $500 gifts encourage ownership, stature, and breadth of participation;
- The Project will seek Friend-level donations from persons with intellectual disabilities;
- The Concept is replicable (via fine art prints, training in curriculum, online, etc.).
- The Project will commit to hiring a person with disability as part of the planning staff
Look. At. Me. paintings by Elizabeth McClancy • sound & sculpture by Michelle Jaffe • galvanizing the greater I. D. Community • relationship enabling tools • an interactive online presence • on-site & follow-up curriculum • L. A. M. notecards, calendars, coffee-table book, etc. • potential for a L.A.M. documentary film • fine art prints of the paintings for traveling and/or satellite shows • curricular updates/ enhancements as indicated
Look. At. Me. is currently seeking major funding in the amount of $200,000 to build and exhibit the first installation, which will debut in 2016 in New York City. The fundraising drive will be launched in the summer of 2013. If you would like to stay informed about the Look. At. Me Project, please sign the Contact Form below.
Kairos: A Greek word meaning a moment in time that will never come again – because of (a) the integrity of the initiative in question, (b) the caliber of the people gathered together, and (c) the situational factors in place to accomplish what must be done.
This is such a moment.