Artful partnership creates accessibility

Spider Man, Black Widow, and Captain America combine with skyscrapers, skylines, and life-sized pop art. Hands form clay and mouths elicit the spoken word. Creative Clay’s six-month Artlink Apprenticeship Program is yielding a diverse collection that will adorn the walls and fill the spaces of St. Petersburg’s Museum of Fine Arts.

Collaborators work in tandem to create art that celebrates each partner’s unique talents and touches. These collaborators weren’t colleagues back in March when they met for their first Artlink session, but today, they’re partners, friends, and advocates.

The Artlink Apprenticeship Program is one way that Creative Clay, a non-profit in St. Petersburg, Florida, creates accessibility for all through the arts. Artlink pairs a professional artist with a member artist from Creative Clay’s Community Arts Program, one of seven programs that serves individuals with neuro-differences.

Each week since Artlink II began in March, ten professional artists from the St. Petersburg community have met weekly with Creative Clay member artists, working in tandem to create a body of work for a September exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts.

Large-scale cartoon figures, flowers, and paintings are some of the mediums represented. So is the spoken word. Musician, actor, and artist Michael J. is paired with local radio personality Rick Crandall, who is teaching him radio show production, effective voice projection techniques for on-air talent, and interviewing techniques.

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