Virtual Insights: Judith Scott

Wrapped, wound, and interwoven, Judith Scott’s cocoon-like sculptures offer viewers a powerful experience of intimacy, enhanced by the enigma of the artist’s intentions. Born deaf and mute with Down syndrome, Scott began creating at age forty-three, after being introduced to the Oakland-based, non-profit Creative Growth Art Center.

Reflecting on the 30th anniversary of the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act this year, Senior Curator Valérie Rousseau and Tom di Maria, Director of External Relations at Creative Growth, will explore Scott’s groundbreaking life and work, taking a closer look at her complex creative process and examining questions of interpretation and exhibition. This program is organized in conjunction with the current exhibition American Perspectives.

Space is limited and advance registration is required. Please consider making a donation when you register to support ongoing virtual programming.

Please email [email protected] if you have any questions.

About Attending Virtual Programs:

This program will be held over Zoom. Please note that after registering for the program, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions and the Zoom link for joining the program via computer or mobile device at the end of the email under “Additional Information.” Learn how to download the latest version of Zoom to your computer or mobile device prior to joining the program.

Valérie Rousseau is Senior Curator of Self-Taught Art and Art Brut at the American Folk Art Museum. Since 2013, she has curated exhibitions on artists from various countries, including the AAMC Award–winning When the Curtain Never Comes Down on performance art (2015), Art Brut in America: The Incursion of Jean Dubuffet (2015), and shows on Paa Joe (2019), William Van Genk (2014), Bill Traylor (2013), art brut photography (2019, 2021), and self-taught literature (2018). Rousseau holds a PhD in art history from Université du Québec à Montréal and an MA in anthropology from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris. She has authored various essays on arts emerging outside the art mainstream, from an international perspective, notably “Visionary Architectures” (The Alternative Guide to the Universe, Hayward Gallery, 2013), “Revealing Art Brut” (Culture & Musées, 2010), and Vestiges de l’indiscipline (Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2007).

Tom di Maria was hired as Director of Creative Growth Art Center in January 2000. Since then, he has developed partnerships with museums, galleries and international design companies to help bring Creative Growth’s artists with disabilities fully into the contemporary art world. He speaks around the world about the Center’s major artists and their relationship to both Outsider Art and contemporary culture. Prior to this position, he served as Assistant Director of the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive at UC Berkeley, and Executive Director of the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. He received his MFA in photography from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, in Baltimore, and a BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He has received filmmaking awards from the Sundance Film Festival and other festivals for his experimental filmmaking. In 2019, he received the Visionary Award from the American Folk Art Museum in New York.

Image: Untitled; Judith Scott (1943–2005); Oakland, California, United States; 1988–1989; Yarn and twine with unknown armature; 8 × 36 × 25″; Gift of Creative Growth Art Center, Oakland, California; 2002.21.2 Photo by Gavin Ashworth⁠.











When: Wed., Sep. 16, 2020 at 1:00 pm - 2:15 pm
Where: American Folk Art Museum
2 Lincoln Square
212-595-9533
Price: Free
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Wrapped, wound, and interwoven, Judith Scott’s cocoon-like sculptures offer viewers a powerful experience of intimacy, enhanced by the enigma of the artist’s intentions. Born deaf and mute with Down syndrome, Scott began creating at age forty-three, after being introduced to the Oakland-based, non-profit Creative Growth Art Center.

Reflecting on the 30th anniversary of the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act this year, Senior Curator Valérie Rousseau and Tom di Maria, Director of External Relations at Creative Growth, will explore Scott’s groundbreaking life and work, taking a closer look at her complex creative process and examining questions of interpretation and exhibition. This program is organized in conjunction with the current exhibition American Perspectives.

Space is limited and advance registration is required. Please consider making a donation when you register to support ongoing virtual programming.

Please email [email protected] if you have any questions.

About Attending Virtual Programs:

This program will be held over Zoom. Please note that after registering for the program, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions and the Zoom link for joining the program via computer or mobile device at the end of the email under “Additional Information.” Learn how to download the latest version of Zoom to your computer or mobile device prior to joining the program.

Valérie Rousseau is Senior Curator of Self-Taught Art and Art Brut at the American Folk Art Museum. Since 2013, she has curated exhibitions on artists from various countries, including the AAMC Award–winning When the Curtain Never Comes Down on performance art (2015), Art Brut in America: The Incursion of Jean Dubuffet (2015), and shows on Paa Joe (2019), William Van Genk (2014), Bill Traylor (2013), art brut photography (2019, 2021), and self-taught literature (2018). Rousseau holds a PhD in art history from Université du Québec à Montréal and an MA in anthropology from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris. She has authored various essays on arts emerging outside the art mainstream, from an international perspective, notably “Visionary Architectures” (The Alternative Guide to the Universe, Hayward Gallery, 2013), “Revealing Art Brut” (Culture & Musées, 2010), and Vestiges de l’indiscipline (Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2007).

Tom di Maria was hired as Director of Creative Growth Art Center in January 2000. Since then, he has developed partnerships with museums, galleries and international design companies to help bring Creative Growth’s artists with disabilities fully into the contemporary art world. He speaks around the world about the Center’s major artists and their relationship to both Outsider Art and contemporary culture. Prior to this position, he served as Assistant Director of the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive at UC Berkeley, and Executive Director of the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. He received his MFA in photography from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, in Baltimore, and a BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He has received filmmaking awards from the Sundance Film Festival and other festivals for his experimental filmmaking. In 2019, he received the Visionary Award from the American Folk Art Museum in New York.

Image: Untitled; Judith Scott (1943–2005); Oakland, California, United States; 1988–1989; Yarn and twine with unknown armature; 8 × 36 × 25″; Gift of Creative Growth Art Center, Oakland, California; 2002.21.2 Photo by Gavin Ashworth⁠.

Buy tickets/get more info now