"Disabled people know what it means to be vulnerable and interdependent. We are modern-day oracles."
- Alice Wong
About the Exhibition
Opened May 11, 2020
We Are Not Disposable launches Interact's first entirely online exhibition -- an artistic response to public perceptions of disability, and how access to critical healthcare is threatened for people with disabilities in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At 20% of the entire population, people with disabilities are the nation’s largest minority, and yet consistently omitted from policy decisions around equity and self-determination. Now, the stark reality of treatment scarcity and overburdened medical systems threatens to push people with disabilities aside, where their quality of life may not be seen as having equal value when prioritizing who gets treatment and who does not.
Featuring original work by 44 Interact artists and curated by Interact artists and staff,We Are Not Disposable is an ode to the vitality of the disability community. The exhibition features an array of works created by artists who are recognized for their fresh perspectives and creative voice.Interact artists are not only talented actors, poets, and painters, but resilient leaders and community builders. As exhibition co-curator Bart Bartholomew says, “We’re here, we’re human. We are a part of the community.”
The exhibition is inspired in part by the work of Alice Wong, creator of the Disability Visibility Project, an online platform that creates, shares, and amplifies disability media and culture. Wong puts the threat of COVID-19 medical decisions in a nutshell: “People see me and presume that I have a poor quality of life because I have a tube attached to my face and that I sound different.”
Your purchase of We Are Not Disposable artwork will support the artists who created it and their voices in shaping change. Artists receive 50% of the value of sales, and we are contributing the remaining 50% to support the work of the Disability Visibility Project.