In the 1990s Tom Eccels, the Executive Director of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, organized a group exhibition by adults with learning disabilities at The Third Eye Centre, an art space in Glasgow, Scotland. The name of the show was Abilities. Our current show at Riverview School is a tribute to that effort. It contains the work of 8 artists who all have or had intellectual disabilities. Dwight Mackintosh, Dan Miller, William Scott, Nicole Storm, Ron Veasey, and Alice Wong all come out of an arts program by the name of Creative Growth in Oakland, California. Helen Rae lived in Northern California and Julian Martin is from Australia. In the course of their lives these people have been defined by their disabilities. This show highlights their abilities as artists and allows the world to see them in a different light.
–Martin Eisenberg