ABOUT SUMMERTIME
Summertime is an art studio, residency, and gallery based in New York City where artists with and without disabilities create and display artwork together. We celebrate neurodiverse artists with rigor and joy, fighting for a more inclusive art world.
Founded in 2019, Summertime is revolutionizing the art world. Summertime radically transforms the lives of artists by spotlighting their passions and talents, fostering lifelong relationships, and busting open doors.
Our programming acts as a force of inclusion, bucking systemic obstacles by treating great artists as great artists regardless of their diagnoses. Summertime builds community, visionary creations, and an art oasis free of pretension or exclusivity. It also enables artists to generate essential income, providing independence and empowerment.
VALUES
Reverence
Artists and their creations are sacred and should always be treated with awe, curiosity, and respect.
Togetherness
Creativity thrives in community, and so do human beings. We are a meeting place where people can feel free to express their full, dynamic selves and form relationships from this place of vulnerability and liberation.
Celebration
We find joy and meaning in the big and small triumphs of everyday life, and we’re determined to revel in them all together.
Yes!
Enthusiasm is our guiding light. We approach opportunities and challenges with excitement, optimism, and generosity of spirit.
A NOTE ABOUT LANGUAGE
Our mission strives to one day eliminate the necessity for labels such as “artists with intellectual disabilities” or “neurodivergent artists” and rather refer to everyone exactly as they are — artists.
This will be evidence that we’ve done the work we’ve set out to do! But for now, we use language such as neurodivergence, intellectual and developmental disabilities (e.g. autism, Down syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, etc.) to ensure that our mission is clear to everyone.
