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About Us

THE MISSION of Make Studio is to empower artists with disabilities to grow as professionals with visibility and voice in their communities.
We create opportunities for everyone to connect through art. We envision a world of acceptance and inclusion where art opens doors for everyone.

Inclusivity We are building a studio community, the wider community of Baltimore, and a world that is welcoming and respectful to all.
Community We foster connections through which we share, learn, grow, and thrive together.
Self-Expression We support everyone in our community in finding and expressing their own voice.
Self-Discovery We seek to help everyone in our community understand themselves and where they want to go.
Fun We relish in the joy that artistic expression, inclusion, and community bring to our lives.
Opportunity We support our artists in marketing their work and earning income as artists, and building job and life skills that increase their options and earning potential.
Social Justice We seek to actualize equal rights and access to opportunities for everyone.
Mutual Respect We value each other and the diversity of our experiences and perspectives.
Fidelity We seek to be true to our values and commitments.
Visibility We work to expand our community, reach, and impact by marketing the work of our artists and organization, and the talents of and issues facing people with disabilities known to more people.



Where we started: 400 sq. ft.

Make Studio today: 5000 sq. ft.

History

Make Studio started as a “field of dreams” concept first developed in 2009, incorporated and opened our first (one-room, windowless, 400 sq. ft.) studio in 2010, and received nonprofit designation in 2011. Make Studio was founded by three future staff members and member artist Jerry “Partyman” Williams, in the now defunct, trailblazing Load of Fun Studios in Baltimore’s Station North Arts District. Our cofounders are indebted to our incorporating Board of Directors, our families and friends, and Sherwin Mark (LOF) for providing the many forms of support needed to open “the studio”.

Make Studio’s founding mission was to provide multimodal arts programming to adults with disabilities in a supportive and inclusive environment. That mission was initially informed by the expressed needs of the many disabled and neurodiverse artists like Jerry (and other early artists Bess, Louis, & Tony), who were looking for adaptive workspaces and professional platforms for sharing and selling their artwork after aging out of special education. Our cofounding staff — arts & disability program veterans (Stefan & Jill) and art therapists (Cathy & Jill) were inspired by seminal progressive art studios, but motivated by a shared love of Baltimore and putting art and abilities to work in this City. In the ensuing years, Make Studio’s mission, vision, and model have evolved in the ensuing years to reflect the input of our growing artist collective and to meet the needs of our wider community.

After the closure of Load of Fun, Make Studio relocated briefly to the Woodberry neighborhood, prior to settling into our current home — the Deco Schwing Motors building — in 2015. In our approx. 5000 sq. ft. Schwing Arts Center, we operate our first floor gallery and our professional studio program for adults artists, offer programming for youth with disabilities, and put on inclusive arts activities for the general public year-round.

People

Staff


Jill Scheibler, PhD, ATR-BC, LCPAT
Operations & Program Director
jill@make-studio.org


Cathy Goucher, ATR-BC, LCPC, LCPAT
Associate Director, Artist Services & Outreach
cathy@make-studio.org


Stefan Bauschmid, Dipl. Beh.-Päd., Dipl.-Graf.
Associate Director, Studio & Art Preparations
stefan@make-studio.org


Rosie Eck, BFA
Program & Exibitions Associate
rosie@make-studio.org


Emily Feinberg, ATR-BC, LCPC, LCPAT
Artist Services & Outreach Associate
emily@make-studio.org


Terri Ball, BFA
Studio Assistant
terri@make-studio.org


Board


Abbie Flanagan, Esq., Chair,
Assistant Director for Outreach and Advocacy in the Center for Community, Service and Justice, Loyola University (Baltimore, MD)

Kathryn Bruno Mills, Vice Chair,
Kennedy Krieger, Baltimore County, and Prince George’s County Schools (former)

Lisa Scherer, MA, MSW, LCSW-C, Secretary,
Behavior Support Services Team Lead,
St. Elizabeth's School (Baltimore, MD)


Cheri Isles, Treasurer,
Revenue Auditor, State of Maryland

Jarron Jackson, MScM
Acting Executive Director,
Johns Hopkins University Public Safety (Baltimore, MD)


Vicki S. Koussoglou
Chief Operating Officer,
Education Forward DC (Washington, DC)


Patty Laibstain, CCC-SLP
Director of Speech-Language Services for School Programs,
Kennedy Krieger Institute (Baltimore, MD)


Jason Lechmanik
Sub-Vendor Relationship Manager,
TEKsystems (Hanover, MD)


Jean McAllister Brooks, MA, MPhil
SPARK Community Advisory Council, Simons Foundation (New York, NY)

Danielle Szimanski, MS
Ecologist/Coastal Practice Implementation Lead,
US Army Corps of Engineers (Baltimore, MD)


Leah Vogely, BFA
Director of Delivery Enablement & Design, Customer IT,
Exelon (Baltimore, MD)

Become an Artist

Our studio program is open to adult artists who identify as disabled (or as having one or more disabilities). Whether you are an experienced, intermediate, or beginning artist, we can design a plan to meet your goals. Our artists can expand their practice by exploring new techniques and media, earn income and recognition of their creative talents, and increase job and life skills. If you are interested in becoming a Make Studio artist, you, a family member, or an advocate/case manager can contact us to find out how to get started. We charge a fee-for-service, comparable to other community-based services, which can often be covered by DDA funding. Different scheduling options, virtual participation, and individual clinical art therapy services (stand-alone or add-on for artists) are available. Please contact us for further information about services and funding strategies.

Download the Program Description (PDF)

Get Involved

We are always welcoming of and grateful for the time and talents of volunteers and interns! The support of volunteers is always appreciated in many different areas, such as:
• Providing in-studio support to artists
• Representing us at art shows and other public events
• Administrative, development, PR, and marketing tasks

And having all ourselves been interns at one point or another, Make Studio’s staff recognizes the importance of meaningful and well-matched internship opportunities! We accept interns from various fields at both the undergrad and graduate levels. An internship, with academic/vocational implications and requirements, is often a more involved form of collaboration than volunteers’ commitment to Make Studio. Please consider interning with us if you are currently studying in a related field or plan to undertake such studies and feel that our programming and mission align with your specific interests.

We always try to match volunteers’ and interns’ interests and talents with our organizational needs, believing that it’s only a good fit when both sides feel enriched by working together. This means that we cannot accommodate all such inquiries at any given time, as our needs fluctuate and change during the course of any year. Please contact us to inquire about current openings.

Gallery

You may be interested in renting our gallery for a private event OR in showing your own artwork in our gallery. For venue rentals, please click HERE. If you wish to learn more about opportunities to exhibit as a guest artist, to collaborate with our artists on an exhibition or project, or have a residency with Make Studio, shoot us a note by email.

Impact

© 2010-2024 Make Studio