When I arrived at Access Gallery Tuesday morning, Damon McLeese informed me that we had about ten minutes before it got loud. The space was expecting its usual Tuesday group: roughly 25 adults with developmental disabilities who come to Access for art lessons and hands-on projects. In addition to their lesson on Matisse and Mondrian, this week the group was beginning work on their next big project: a solar powered bubble tower wrapped in colored vinyl, which they would be priming that day.

Damon McLeese, Executive Director of Access Gallery

The bubble machine is just one of the projects under construction at Access. As he puts it, Damon’s job is more or less to come up with good ideas to serve the wide range of audiences that come through their doors. While the adults who come in may have a task like priming these sheets of vinyl or making mobiles à la Alexander Calder, younger guests may be working on a mural or graffiti project on a nearby wall. In each of these programs is an intent and a strategy for teaching skills that the students can take with them when they leave the Gallery. Kids who come to Access as a substitute for the art classes their schools no longer offer take on responsibilities for creating, cleaning, and sharing and gain competencies that will help them hold a job someday.

Every First Friday of the month, Access Gallery opens its doors to over 1,000 visitors as part of the Santa Fe district’s monthy Art Walk. Many of their pieces come from artists with working with disabilities, and they hail from Denver and beyond.

First Friday on Santa Fe is next Friday, May 6. If you happen to be in the area, stop by 909 Santa Fe Drive and see the current exhibition from Clark Barker, who has a set of abstract expressionist pieces as a reflection of his father’s suicide. It’s an emotional show of beautiful large-format canvases and is well worth a visit.

_______________________________________________________

For more on VSA and Access Gallery, see their website. To meet more remarkable local leaders, visit the Beanstalk website, where you can find and support people like Damon doing incredible work in your neighborhood.