April 17, 2025 By CDHD artAbility Showcase sneak peek with Emily Pearson There is less than a week to go to the 2025 artAbility Showcase! This year’s gallery event will be held on April 21 from 5-7 pm at the 1912 Center. Planning is in full swing to ensure another year of celebration of our participants and artistic expression in the Moscow community. And while Project Coordinator Emily Pearson is busy leading the charge, she was able to sit down for a few minutes to take a little peak at this year’s event and how the year of artAbility has gone … Emily, thank you for taking the time. I know that you’re very busy with the Showcase just a few days away! Let’s jump right in – what is artAbility? Emily: artAbility is a project run by the CDHD and a student trainee that provides free and accessible art workshops for adults with disabilities in the community. And what is the artAbility Showcase? Emily: The Showcase is the opportunity for the artists to display the work they make throughout the year. They can choose to sell their art and generally just celebrate all the work they put into the project throughout the year. When is this year’s Showcase? Emily: This year’s showcase is Monday, April 21 from 5-7 pm. And where is the Showcase this year? Emily: [Laughs] It will be in the Great Room at the 1912 Center. Just making sure we get those important details out first and foremost. But, just as important, who can attend the event? Emily: Everyone can attend. And everyone should attend! Community members, family members, friends … everyone! Agreed! What can they expect if they attend the artAbility Showcase? Emily: There will be just over one hundred pieces of art on display, representing a variety of mediums. A lot of these pieces will be available for sale by the artists who made them. The artists will also be there! It’s a great opportunity to meet them and talk to them about their work. Plus, there will be free food! [Laughs] Ah, free food – the ultimate incentive [laughs]. You’ve already kind of touched on this, but (in addition to free food) how many artists and art pieces will be on display this year? Emily: There are 24 artists and, I think there are 107 pieces of art. As mentioned, visitors have the opportunity to purchase art pieces. Emily: Yes, with cash or check. We’ll have a table set up that any interested visitor can visit to purchase. Excellent! I know it means a lot to the artists to have the opportunity to sell their work. And all proceeds go directly to them. Emily: Absolutely. Shifting gears a little here. How does it feel to be this year’s Project Coordinator? Emily: Right now it’s stressful [laughs]! Overall, it’s been an honor really because I love this project so much. I love who’s involved with it, so it has been a great pleasure. Oh good! And when you were planning this year’s workshops, did you have an overarching theme in mind? Emily: Yes. We tried to stay very nature-based. Whether that was in the mediums we used or the subject matter for the pieces. Everything was very inspired by nature. That’s great – what was your favorite workshop this year? Emily: I think this may be biased since it was the most recent one, but the last one we did was a lot of fun. We got to be outside and do oil paint. It was a pretty new medium for a lot of the participants, and being outside just allowed the creativity to take over. All the pieces turned out really nice. It was two workshops, right? Did the weather allow both to be outside? Emily: The first one had to be inside. That was kind of nice too because the people that attended both workshops got a different experience at each one. Ahh, oh yeah. That’s true. Who was the artist who led that workshop? Emily: Matt Aiello. He works at Moscow Middle School. He also very kindly created all the canvas frames for those two workshops. They were very cool. It was nice of him. Last year, for the 10-year anniversary, we held a collaborative storytelling activity. Will that be returning this year? Emily: As far as I know – yes! The results from last year have been compiled, digitized and cleaned up, so people can see the impacts that artAbility has had on our community for the last 10 years. Nice! That will be a cool instillation for people to check out. Aside from that, what are you looking forward to the most about this year’s Showcase? Emily: I’m looking forward to getting to celebrate with this year’s artists. That’s pretty exciting for me [laughs]. I’m excited to see them be proud of their work … and to show my parents what I do. My parents will be here. That’s exciting – do they live locally or will they be coming to Moscow for the event? Emily: They are travelling! A special trip – I like it! What has been the biggest surprise for you in coordinating artAbility and the Showcase? Emily: It’s a lot of work behind the scenes. The actual active parts of the project are really short – just two hour workshops and the two hour Showcase. The behind the scenes work is a lot more than you would think for these little windows [laughs]. It does get busy [laughs]! But, what has been your favorite part of all that? Emily: Getting to work with everybody involved. Student trainees. CDHD staff. Participants and their families. Just getting to work with those people has been very rewarding. It really gives you an appreciation for what the project does and provides for everyone. What about planning the Showcase? Emily: I would say the same thing. It’s been very rewarding. How did your role as the Project Coordinator enrich your time at the CDHD? Emily: Similar to my previous answer. It got me more connected to the community, I think. It also gave me hands-on experience with how to empower adults with disabilities so they can fulfill their creative potential. Nice! What about your time at university? Emily: I’m studying special education and just education in general. This idea of creating an environment and providing the right tools to let people create be themselves really lined up with my degree and career aspirations. It’s always so great when that happens! Emily: Yeah, definitely. What would you tell someone who knows nothing about artAbility to get them to come to the Showcase? Emily: I think I would tell them that if they love art and free food and being in their community, then they should come [laughs]. But also! I think it’s interesting that all the art pieces have really cool names. Ohh, come for the names. Emily: Exactly. They should come check out all the names and find their favorites. I mean, we’ve got some pretty creative names this year. I think my favorite is Elvis and … Emily: Swellvis! Yes, yes, yes! That’s a good one. Did we have any new participants this year? Emily: We did. We had a few fresh faces this year, which is great! That’s excellent! It’s always nice to see new people. Last question – is there anything we didn’t cover that you would like people to know about this year’s event? Emily: I think we covered the main topics. I’m really proud of the artwork this year. I know the artists are. We tried a lot of new things this year, so there’s going to be a lot on display that people haven’t seen before. Mats, planters, even the natural inks are something we haven’t done before. It’s going to look very natural … Emily: Yes, a nice spring-time theme. I like it! Thank you again, Emily, for your time and for leading this year’s project. The Showcase is going to be amazing and a wonderful reflection of all your hard work. We can’t wait to see everyone there! For those who may not be able to join us on April 21, we will be launching our Digital Showcase at 4 pm PT on the same day. For all the details, check out the artAbility website.