Giving- Access Gallery

There is affordable art and then there is affordable art. This fall I visited the Access Gallery and fell in love twice. First with the art-o-mat where $5 buys you original art for about the cost of a pack of cigarettes. And only one of those vended products kills you. I spent some time choosing my options and ended up with a small clay pikachu. No reason not to share the love between mulitple generations. 

As I stood staring at my new obsession I became aware of a low murmur beside me.

I had tagged along with a friend who was planning to drop off something or other and frankly the whole trip was procrastination on my part. Getting out of my bubble to another part of Denver seemed possible when someone else was driving. So along I went, spinning Pokestops on the way. (Yes I do play Pokemon Go but there is no way that Pickachu was for me. None at all.) 

Although I am sure she had passionately explained the mission of Access Gallery over sushi mere minutes before I had to sneak a peak at my phone to check in with the website to understand the magic that I had stepped into. Here is what I read:

Access Gallery is an inclusive nonprofit organization that engages the community by opening doors to creative, educational and economic opportunities for people with disabilities to access, experience and benefit from the arts.

I pulled myself away from the lure of the art o mat and the blur of my phone to put faces to the sounds I heard on the other side of the room.  There were a large handful of artists seated at a well patinated table bent over work. Some of them wanted to talk to me. A lot. One artist gave me a tour of the intricate dragon world of her making. As she talked... and talked I began shifting from foot to foot. It wasn't good manners that kept me by her side (I find those hard to come by) but interest in her story. One of the other artists who had not lifted her head to greet me offered me a seat. So I stayed for a while. 

When we reached the final page of the sketchbook I got up to browse gallery. Distracted by the art-o-mat I had missed an important sign. In plain text it told gallery goers:

Seventy percent of all sales go to artists with disabilities. 
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So I shopped. I bought posters and postcards and a painting and little figures made out of tape. I re-visited the art-o-mat for a second Poekmon figure (taking one for the team.)  As  I doubled back to say goodbye to some dragons I realized that I had gotten more than I came for.

​In many ways.