Main Characters, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, April 10–June 14, 2025. Courtesy Creativity Explored, San Francisco. Photo: Jonah Reenders

While major museums increasingly value the work of artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), there is no existing comprehensive resource or framework for arts professionals on how to properly interact with, exhibit, and talk about the work of these artists. The goal of Groundwork: Guidelines for Partnering with Artists with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) is to establish guidelines on how to respectfully partner with artists with IDD during the exhibition planning and curating process, bringing these insights to the art community at large as a free online resource. Alisa Polischuk’s research project will develop in close collaboration with the IDD community. 

Creativity Explored (CE) was founded in San Francisco in 1983 by Florence and Elias Katz, an artist and a psychologist. Through its studio program and gallery, CE partners with over 140 artists with IDD to help create, exhibit, and sell their artwork, combining curatorial ethics with a Person-Centered Thinking philosophy to navigate situations that often don’t have one correct approach or answer. 

Works by Tranesha Smith-Kilgore. Installation view in Karl at Levi’s Plaza, San Francisco, January 17–March 12, 2025. Courtesy Karl SF and Creativity Explored, San Francisco. Photo: Jesslyn Goss

Polischuk’s research will collect quantitative data through online and in-person interviews with colleagues at sister organizations Creative Growth and NIAD Art Center (also in the Bay Area), exhibition managers from progressive art-making studios across the country (such as LAND Studio and Summertime Gallery in New York, Make Studio in Baltimore, and Art Enables in Washington, DC), museum curators, and practicing artists with IDD. She aims to establish a set of ten to twenty commonly encountered scenarios covering themes such as consent, narrative, and access. In summer 2026, Polischuk will host a panel discussion at Creativity Explored with select interviewees, and a launch of the guidelines is scheduled for fall 2026.

Alisa Polischuk is Exhibitions Coordinator at Creativity Explored, a nonprofit gallery and studio in San Francisco that partners with artists with cognitive disabilities to create, exhibit, and sell their artwork. In this role, she matches artists with opportunities in the art world—including open calls, awards, and public art commissions—and helps them navigate the process using a Person-Centered Thinking model. Prior to working in exhibitions, Polischuk worked in museum education departments across the country, including at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the de Young Museum (San Francisco), and the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC). In addition to her nonprofit work, Polischuk served as Director of Craig Krull Gallery (Santa Monica, CA), where she worked closely with contemporary artists throughout Los Angeles. Polischuk holds a BA in History from San Francisco State University and an MA in Art and Museum Studies from Georgetown University (Washington, DC). 

Allison Peters Quinn, Rebecca Senf, Gregory J. Harris, Barbara Tannenbaum, Elmhurst Art Museum