SAGE Studio & Gallery booth at the Friends Fair, The Loren Hotel, Austin, May 15–17, 2025. Courtesy Sage Studio & Gallery. Photo: Allison Eden

SAGE Studio & Gallery supports adult artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), providing materials, studio space, and exhibition opportunities from its location within Canopy, an arts hub in East Austin. Co-founded by artist Katie Stahl and social worker Lucy Gross, SAGE centers artistic autonomy, economic opportunity, and public visibility for artists often excluded from the contemporary art field. SAGE currently supports fourteen artists in its Studio Program and annually organizes six exhibitions in its dedicated gallery space. Across all programs, artists participate in exhibition planning, pricing, and public programming, with decision-making power embedded into every stage of the studio and gallery process. 

From September 2025 to August 2027, SAGE will produce eighteen in-house exhibitions featuring a mix of solo and group shows, with an emphasis on studio artists. Confirmed presentations include a solo exhibition by Chris Cody, whose practice draws on pop cultural portraiture, and a fiber arts group show featuring Molly Hale, Anna Burke, and Montrel Beverly. Three exhibitions will be co-curated by guest collaborators, including independent curator Adam Oestreich, Austin-based artists, and SAGE studio artists, continuing the model of 2024’s artist-led Don’t Talk to Me Until I’ve Had My Lasagna, co-curated by Montrel Beverly. SAGE will also stage five off-site exhibitions, including two at the Outsider Art Fair showcasing artists such as Beverly and Ike Morgan.

SAGE Studio & Gallery booth at the Outsider Art Fair, Metropolitan Pavilion, New York, February 27–March 2, 2025. Courtesy Sage Studio & Gallery. Photo: Nicholas Knight Studio

In fall 2025, SAGE will launch a new Visiting Artists Program that brings together Austin-based artists with and without disabilities for a series of workshops in a newly developed auxiliary studio and exhibition space. Each cycle will culminate in a collaborative exhibition, emphasizing shared learning and mutual creative exchange. Additional programming includes structured gallery visits within Canopy and ongoing collaborations with peer studios such as Creative Growth (Oakland), Creativity Explored (San Francisco), and LAND Gallery (Brooklyn).

Katie Stahl is the cofounder and cocurator of SAGE Studio & Gallery, a nonprofit creative space for artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She is a practicing artist with more than twelve years of experience working with adults with disabilities in art settings. Alongside Lucy Gross, she has curated over fifty exhibitions in Texas, New York, and California. Her goal as a curator is to highlight underrepresented artists with a distinct artistic vision and a drive to create, to challenge people’s preconceived notions about disability, and to bring the broader community together in celebration of art and expression. Stahl earned a BA in Psychology from Dartmouth College and an MA in Art Education from The University of Texas at Austin. 

Lucy Gross is a practicing social worker with more than a decade of experience working with adults with disabilities. As the cofounder and cocurator of SAGE Studio & Gallery, alongside Stahl, she has curated over fifty exhibitions in Texas, New York, and California. Her work in curation is the byproduct of career-long advocacy for the increased visibility of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Gross earned a BA from Emerson College and an MS in Social Work from Texas State University.

Kelsie Conley, Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA)