The Feels

April is Autism Acceptance Month! In celebration, we have decided to feature and engage our many artists affected by Autism for a special exhibition to spread awareness, promote acceptance, and ignite change. Autism Spectrum Disorder is a complex, lifelong developmental disability that affects essential human behaviors such as social interaction, the ability to communicate ideas and feelings, imagination, self-regulation, and the ability to establish relationships with others. Individuals with ASD often have heightened emotional responses which are very difficult for them to control. These unregulated emotions can manifest in impulsive behaviors, anxiety, irritability, outbursts, aggressive behavior, and self-injury. On the flip side, some individuals with ASD are full of good energy and maintain a self-imposed positive attitude that can seem unshakeable at times. Considering all of the big feelings that come along with Autism, we try to encourage art-making as a positive way to cope and communicate. For this exhibition, we have prompted our artists on the spectrum to create works that are all about emotion. The result is a dynamic and self-reflective body of work that seeks to understand the human condition, and gives us all “the feels.”