FRA ART STUDIO

Pictured: Candra Cloyd, Artist, Photo Credit: Kari Orvik

Fairbanks Resource Agency's Progressive Art Program is a small, but growing program. It currently has no funding source, and it has relied on a few small grants to continue. To support the development of fine artists, program coordinator Phoebe Rohrbacher, is hoping to create a more functional work environment and art space. Phoebe would like to get cabinets to organize and store materials. She desires improved lighting on the art space and would like to refinish the giant wooden table artist use, which is currently scarred from decades of use. She would like to get chairs so artist can be comfortably seated at the table. In addition, Phoebe would like to purchase more materials for the creation of art and frames to display artists’ work. These upgrades and materials will last a long time, and will help ease the financial burden of this program.

The Progressive Art Program has little to no budget, and relies solely on grants and donations to keep it going. The program strives to provide an art studio space where artist can work. Artists’ works are displayed in the most professional way possible, using high quality art supplies and framing the work in a clean, unified manner.

If funded, this project will allow FRA to make a more functional studio environment, help organize the space, and give the artists more opportunities to expand their creativity. The artists will continue to work towards local exhibitions.  Additionally, it will support FRA's mission of introducing new artistic voices into Fairbanks, exposing the community at large to their fantastic artwork and continuing to shift the narrative about people with developmental disabilities in Alaska.

Artists with developmental disabilities are very underrepresented in the local and statewide arts community and many people are unaware of their presence and contribution. FRA's Progressive Art Program is one of very few progressive art studios in the state and the only one in Fairbanks. Their studio program enriches the self-taught artists, by providing a career in the arts, educating the community and getting people’s with disabilities closer to the goal of true belonging and inclusion into our society. In doing this The Progresssive Art Program presents people with disabilities in a new light, which reaffirms their inherent dignity and value.