2025 Emerging Young Artists
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Catalyst is the 21st exhibition presented by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Access/VSA Emerging Young Artists Program, a Jean Kennedy Smith Arts and Disability Program. This national art career development program and exhibition features fifteen artists with disabilities, ages 16-25. Each artist’s unique talent, mode of expression, and view of the world is highlighted and valued. With this exhibition, we aim to amplify the work of artists with disabilities throughout the United States, positioning them to broaden our understanding of disability and the arts.
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This year’s theme, Catalyst, invites artists to explore how the intersection of their art and their disability identity sparks something new. As you view the work and learn more about these incredible young artists, we hope it ignites new perspectives for you.
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ABOUT ACCESS/VSA EMERGING YOUNG ARTISTS PROGRAM
Our programs for artists with disabilities shape the future of the arts. The Access/VSA Emerging Young Artists Program amplifies the voices of emerging visual artists through career development and professional empowerment.
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This national juried exhibition seeks artwork that demonstrates the excellence and important perspectives of artists with disabilities, ages 16-25, residing in the United States. Fifteen artists each receive a $3,000 award, engage in professional development activities at the Kennedy Center, and have their submitted work featured in an exhibition. Learn more at kennedy-center.org/emergingyoungartists
The contents of this program and its exhibition were developed under grant H421F240164 from the U.S. Department of Education (Department). The Department does not mandate or prescribe practices, models, or other activities described or discussed in this document. The contents of this exhibition may contain examples of, adaptations of, and links to resources created and maintained by another public or private organization. The Department does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this outside information. The content of this exhibition does not necessarily represent the policy of the Department. This publication is not intended to represent the views or policy of or be an endorsement of any views expressed or materials provided by any Federal agency.
See the Exhibition
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The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
2700 F Street NW, Washington, D.C.
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Jun 20, 2025 through Jul 27, 2025
Amy Jacques
Kissimmee, FL · Age 17
Biography - Amy Jacques is a 17-year-old artist who was born with sickle cell disease, her condition has shaped her perspective on life and art. As a kid her peers had misconceptions about her disease, assuming it was contagious, they avoided her, leaving her alone in isolation. So, at an early age drawing became her way to cure her loneliness and communicate feelings too complex for words. Her chronic illness makes her body unpredictable, and art was the way she regained control and embodied her life. The process of creating is therapeutic for her, and she hopes to transform her pain and resilience into something that others will be able to relate to. In college, she hopes to study art history, and intends to use her degree to help others find their own voices through creative expression.
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Statement - My artwork is deeply personal and influenced by living with sickle cell disease and the complexities of having a chronic illness. It allows me to convey things that are not easily expressed in words. Much of my work revolves around themes such as pain, strength, and identity and captures both the adversity and resilience that exist within them. I tend to work with charcoal and colored pencils because their immediacy and texture allow me to channel emotion directly onto the page, capturing both the weight and nuance of what I am trying to express. My artwork is not just something that I do, it’s an integral part of who I am, art is how I cope with pain, emotion, and experiences too much to bear. Through sharing my story, I want to start discussions around disability, chronic illness, and how art can help connect those that may not share the same experiences. If my work can make one person hesitate, consider, or feel something differently, then I know I am doing what I am meant to do.
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Headshot photo by Amy Jacques
Angelica Jones
Baltimore, MD/High Point, NC · Age 21
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Biography - Angelica Jones is a multidisciplinary portraiture-based artist currently based in Baltimore, Maryland. Her approach to portraits is inspired by drag, Black Southern aesthetics, and the process of finding queer connections in digital spaces. She grew up in High Point, North Carolina surrounded by a tight-knit community emphasizing ancestry and spirituality. Her work has often served as an open archive where she documents feelings and experiences of her community on and off-line. Her work has been featured in shows across Night Owl Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland, the United States Capitol Building, and most recently, a solo show in Fred Lazarus IV Center in Baltimore, Maryland. She is currently studying at Maryland Institute College of Art in pursuit of a BFA in Painting and, while not in school, is an educator with Summer Arts for Learning and a Gallery Assistant at Make Studio.
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Statement - Through the use of textured surfaces and vibrant mediums, I create images that call into question the conventions of representation and beauty. I collect tender, vulnerable, and visceral moments from my communities’ lives and magnify them through an exaggerated lens inspired by Club-Kids, Afro-Futurism, and my own Southern upbringing. My work places relaxed and authentic Black figures onto objects like scrap wood and found fabric. I paint on “found objects” that carry with them deep histories, experiences, and energies. The haze of chalk pastels, the vibrancy of acrylic, the grit of oil pastel all come together within my work to aid in creating complex narratives around interpersonal dynamics, marginalization, and poverty. My work is an open archive, capturing images of nightlife, domestic scenes, and family photos. Used in conjunction with neon glazes to highlight the way nostalgia, escapism, and trauma can distort experiences/memory. This divergence from reality is meant to act as a consistent reminder to myself and viewers to envision a world beyond these struggles.
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Headshot photo by Jordan Carter
Austen Maybee
Boulder, CO · Age 17
Biography - Austen Maybee works in both digital and traditional forms, including illustration, painting, and design. In their digital art, they freely experiment with the canvas, playing with placement and scale. For example, Doodle Diaries is a series of densely-placed monochromatic drawings, reminiscent of a coloring book, where viewers can zoom into the detailed elements. Austen’s traditional work showcases the organic and singular nature of illustration and painting. For example, in their painting: Kitten Dreams, soft shading and layers of colorful oil paint evoke the warm fuzzy sensation of holding a kitten. Austen finds physical work particularly rewarding because there is only one copy. Austen is a high school senior in Boulder, Colorado, and spends their time fostering kittens and going on walks when they’re not drawing. Austen plans to make art into their full time career after attending art college.
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Statement - My piece Kitten Dreams was one of my first oil paintings. I was inspired by my foster kittens and how I watched them become more adept at socializing and less fearful of humans. It depicts a version of me with two of my favorite foster kittens, ‘Mikey’ and ‘Sugarplum.’ My artistic process was to apply my digital rendering techniques using oil painting. As I worked on the piece, it took a lot of experimentation and revisions to render the image I had envisioned.
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Headshot photo by Jenny Maybee
Cathleen Luo
New York, NY · Age 24
Biography - Cathleen “Cat” Luo (they/them) graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelor’s in Visual Arts and Creative Writing and is a Museum Educator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They have exhibited in group shows at Field Projects, The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s staff show, Bethany Arts Community, and FABnyc. Luo was awarded the Asian American Arts Alliance’s What Can We Do grant to carry out community art programming in Manhattan’s Chinatown during Asian American Heritage Month as a way to share their practice and serve the public. They have also received The Color Network’s Studio Grant, CERF+’s Get Ready Grant, SICK Magazine’s Microgrant for Disabled Sculptors in 2023, and is currently in the Powerhouse Artist Subsidy Program. They have been interviewed for Ratrock Magazine and featured in publications including The Columbia Review and SICK Magazine.
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Statement - As a sculptor and educator, I explore themes of modern spirituality. I reappropriate surrealist techniques to reclaim the term “queer” by distorting my figures beyond anatomical accuracy to question how a body is a container for complicated histories and contemplation. Drawing on Chinese Buddhist iconography, my meditative pieces unite my communities through their installation presence in my curated people-centered performances. My work delves into the term “alien” which is legally defined as individuals who are not citizens: foreign(ed) bodies. Beyond a personal exploration of my experiences of alienation from society and self, my work validates marginalized experiences and works toward collective healing. By embracing the aesthetic of the uncanny/unheimlich, my art creates a space that honors Otherness. Clay empowers me to work with my hands as a person with a visual disability. My sculptures are experienced through touch, and I often host touch tours of my pieces, inspired by my work as an educator for The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Access Programs where I teach Seeing Through Drawing. My art process aims to represent a psychological truth for people like myself; my figures are in process, balancing precariously, deeply human, yet aware of their eternal performance in stillness.
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Headshot photo by Rommel Nunez
CJ Hutchings
Birmingham, AL · Age 17
Biography - Catherine “CJ” Hutchings is a mixed media visual artist dedicated to promoting neurodiversity awareness through their energetic, cartoonish rabbit characters. The experience of living with ASD, ADHD, and GAD has fueled CJ’s passion to make autobiographical portrayals of their own struggles for over five years. As they graduate from the Visual Arts program at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, AL, CJ aspires to continue their current work whilst pursuing further education in neurological differences to simultaneously support their community and develop a deeper self-understanding.
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Statement - There is no way I can describe my perspective without my neurodivergence. Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD and Generalized Anxiety Disorder are fundamental and permanent parts of my identity. I struggle to communicate my true perspective to others, which has led me to use “rabbit-like” characters to represent my complex experience. Through layered, life-size cardboard illustrations adapted from quick, fervent doodles enhanced with vibrant painted colors and sketchy detailing, I confront misconceptions of neurodivergent people and inspire others like me to reflect on their own challenges.
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Headshot photo by Celeste Pfau
Delia Preston
Madison, NJ · Age 21
Biography - Delia Preston (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus in painting and photography. Her work is heavily influenced by her Deaf experiences and education in disability theory and history. Having grown up in a primarily hearing world with little representation, her pieces prioritize and center D/deaf and disabled subjects. By doing so, she hopes to engage audiences in conversation about D/deafness and disability. Delia is currently completing a BA in Studio Art at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. When not there, she is home with her family and two dogs in Madison, New Jersey.
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Statement - Legacy of A.G. Bell confronts the impact of eugenics on the Deaf community, especially how this history led to the development of hearing devices intended to “cure” deafness. I photograph my friend, Amé, another Deaf person, and center her agency in determining how deafness and hearing devices are perceived. Overlaying her face is a projection of Alexander Graham Bell’s “Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race,” a text detailing the threats of deafness to humanity and how to eliminate deafness. Despite these threats, D/deaf people still thrive in a world that prefers to erase deafness.
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Headshot photo by Delia Preston
Ellery Thompson
Lousiville, KY · Age 25
Biography - Ellery Tye Thompson is a painter born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. Her work examines questions of uncertainty and the fluidity of absence and presence. In 2021, she received a degree in Art and Art History with a minor in Interdisciplinary Writing from Occidental College. In 2024, she graduated with a Master’s in painting from the LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting at Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work has been exhibited in Baltimore, Maryland; Louisville, kentucky; and Los Angeles, California. In November of 2024, she attended a residency at Vermont Studio Center. Her work has been published in New American Painting’s MFA issue 171 and Friend of the Artist volume 19. She currently lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky. www.ellerythompson.com
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Statement - Chronic disease and disability create a flickering state of being. I want to use this state, like John Keats’ concept of Negative Capability, to dwell fully within uncertainty. Within all my paintings, ambiguity and fragility are situated within the figures and the world surrounding them. My figures exist like nosebleeds or tears, exiting their bodies and pushing into and out of their environment in ways they shouldn’t. Figurines, dolls, and toys become objects for meaning and narrative to be placed on. Sickness creates a need for fiction, a need to explore other worlds during the time when it’s impossible to be fully present in the everyday world. These objects waver between their dime-store cheapness and the sentimental attachment and meaning that can be projected onto them. The figurines hesitate between motion and stillness; they feel moveable but not necessarily mobile. Animation of the inanimate questions formation, the process of something coming into being, and the ability for something to be altered or tainted before it’s fully formed. Within these spaces, toys and animals intermix with themes of athletics and exercise. I’m exploring how motion and stillness disrupt and transcend our perception of time, how athletes need to care for their bodies, mimicking the relationship sick people have to theirs, and the role observation and stillness have in watching sports. The way we use our bodies in daily life, the way our bodies allow themselves to be used, alters our experience of time and motion.
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Headshot photo by Adam Brennan
Joseph Roach
Manheim, PA · Age 24
Biography - Joseph Roach is a self-taught abstract artist from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Known for bold pen and ink pieces where every line is precise, purposeful, and inspired by nature, he sees the world in vivid shapes and colors. Diagnosed with autism at a young age, Joseph was a bright spark in a system that couldn’t see his light. Art tells his story. Joseph has exhibited at the Pennsylvania Capitol, raised funds for the Eagles Autism Foundation and other charities, and built a résumé that reflects both grit and grace. Now, as he writes his memoir, “Finding Joseph’s Many Colors,” he continues proving his disability is his ability. Follow Joseph Roach on Facebook.
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Statement - My colorful, precise, and detailed pen-on-paper art is a testament to a journey that has never been easy. From the moment I was overlooked in school—my potential ignored, my needs unmet—I was placed in the background. But every piece of my art tells a different story. It reflects the resilience, strength, and power I always had within me, despite the lack of support to help me fully evolve into who I am today. Through my award-winning art, I refuse to let past rejection or low expectations define me. I’ve learned this: it’s not enough to just look back. I refuse to stay stuck in the past. Instead, I’ve chosen to create beauty from my pain, to turn that struggle into purpose. That’s what sets a life of mediocrity apart from a life of meaning. I don’t just choose a life with purpose—I create it. One pen stroke, one story, one dream at a time. I am Significantly Joe. I am Joseph James Roach. I am different, and I embrace that difference. I move in a world of shapes and colors. I see things through a unique lens—and that is my gift. To those who feel overlooked, to parents and caregivers of children with special needs: walk this journey with me. Let’s refuse to let a lack of understanding silence us. Together, we can be the beautiful, powerful individuals we were always meant to be.
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Headshot photo by Mary Ellen Wright
Kendrell Daniels
Starkville, MS · Age 25
Biography - Kendrell Daniels is a multidisciplinary artist who explores identity, resilience, and accessibility through photography, video, and painting. He combines technical innovation with emotional depth, creating self-portraits, documentary images, and expressive visual narratives that challenge societal perceptions and invite more inclusive ways of seeing. Daniels photographs using a custom-mounted camera on his wheelchair and paints using his feet, integrating his physical perspective into both his process and vision. His subject matter ranges from intimate, personal work to broader social themes and sports photography. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from Mississippi State University, with minors in Film Studies and Art History, and is based in Starkville, Mississippi.
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Statement - My work is rooted in storytelling—emotional, honest, and deeply felt. Whether through photography, video, or painting, I create images that reflect healing, resilience, and identity. I am drawn to moments carrying emotional weight—quiet expressions, physical tension, spiritual symbols- and I use my work to create space for those feelings to be seen. Born without arms, I photograph using a camera mounted to my wheelchair and paint with my feet, developing methods that give me full control over my creative process. These adaptations help form my independence, which allows me to create on my terms. I believe art is a way to reflect what’s often unspoken and to make space for truth, both mine and others. I’m not interested in perfection or performance. I’m interested in honesty. Through my exploration, I hope to open a window into deeper emotional landscapes and invite viewers to slow down, reflect, and feel.
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Headshot photo by Kendrell Daniels
Luke Cooper
Blacklick, OH · Age 19
Biography - Luke’s work has been featured in several prominent exhibitions including the Cincinnati Museum of Art, Massillon Art Museum, Springfield Art Museum, and Franklin Park Conservatory Art Gallery. With a mature colour palette, Luke’s painting style is versatile and sophisticated, rendered with a calm resolve, and an ease that belies his busy life as both artist and college student. “Art has become my sanctuary and means of self-expression, enabling me to communicate complex emotions that are sometimes difficult to articulate. The ability to hyperfocus while creating has been invaluable in capturing the intricate details within my work.”
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Statement - My creative inspiration is drawn from a variety of sources, including humor, moments of epiphany, self-reflection, architecture, and nature. Whenever something captivates my attention, I capture it through photography and later reinterpret it on canvas. Painting is often accompanied by listening to informative podcasts, which further fuels my creative process. I am particularly influenced by Impressionism, a movement that encourages viewers to appreciate both the overall composition and intricate details. This influence is evident in my “Garden” series, where finger-tapped textures and blended colors create vibrant, organic landscapes. I am naturally drawn to shapes, curves, and fluid forms, which also manifest in my self-portraits.
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Headshot photo by Kent Smith Photography
Madi Snow-Gould
Waco, TX · Age 25
Biography - Madi Snow-Gould (she/her) is a fiber artist living in Waco, Texas. Disabled by several chronic illnesses, Madi picked up weaving six years ago to pass her time in bed and found a deep love for the medium. She studied social work at Baylor University and is self-taught in her artistic practice. Her work is characterized by bright color, maximalist texture, thoughtfully sourced materials, and aesthetic abundance. Snow-Gould is a proud disabled woman, and the transformative liberation of her experiences in community with other disabled people is the engine of her life and art. When she’s not getting weird with yarn, Madi works part-time doing research for the Baylor Collaborative on Faith and Disability. You can view her work on Instagram @confetti.weaves, or online at confettiweaves.com.
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Statement - My artistic tastes have been primarily shaped by my experience with chronic pain. I think absurd goodness brings balance against the absurdity of unresolvable pain, and I pursue that in color, texture, and material choice. Many people have only learned to conceptualize disability as a kind of flat tragedy, when of course it is so much more. I know the landscape of disability to be lush with resilience, joy, community, and possibility. With that in mind, I engage dimension and bright color to explore a complex, countercultural vision of disability. My work is an invitation to disabled people to celebrate their particularity, and a challenge to nondisabled people to reimagine what they believe about different bodies.
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Headshot photo by Madi Snow-Gould
Nana-Tawi Bey
Bowie, MD · Age 22
Biography - Nana-Tawi (he/she) is a 22-year-old, disabled, Black lesbian. Their art practice primarily consists of digital animation and illustration, as those are the mediums more accessible to them. Their endeavors feature a creative entrepreneurial fellowship at Maryland Institute College of Art, an officer of Student Animators for Inclusion, and exhibition of their artworks in “Unmasked,” a disabled art showcase. They also have in previous years had their work showcased in the District of Columbia Public Library’s, “Know Your Power,” social justice focused art contest.
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Statement - Maryland based animator, illustrator, and sequential artist Nana-Tawi, is heavily inspired by the magical realism that we lose sight of as adults. Their work is heavily influenced by classic emotionally driven narrative animations such as The Lion King, they also draw inspiration from the warm, textured colors, magic that mists the air, and wonder provided by older animation like Kipper the Dog. They create because it allows them to romanticize the little things in life, and channel their perspective of disability into something that resonates with others, so they can feel a little less alone. Nana-Tawi believes there’s magic everywhere, animation just makes it easier to see!
Rebecca Panos
Chicago, IL · Age 23
Biography - Rebecca Panos is an artist based in Chicago, Illinois. Her meticulously crafted pieces serve as reflections of the contemporary discord within her fragmented queer identity, bridging tradition with the contemporary. Panos was recently named a Fulbright Semi-Finalist for open research in Greece (2025-26). Recent exhibitions include: Landscapes of Ornamentation, Curated by Marie Catalano, Broadway Windows at NYU, NYC (2024); Hos-pes, Curated by Lila Nazemian, Commons & Rosenberg Gallery, NYC (2024); Traces: Archive as Practice, Curated by NYU VAA, Commons Gallery, NYC; Queer Knowing Curated by Blair Simmons at All Street Gallery, NYC (2023); To Darken, Lightly, Curated by Audra Lambert at LIC-A Art Space, Long Island City, New York (2023); Transversal: Where We Come From and Where We Are Going 80WSE Gallery, NYC (2023).
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Statement - In my practice, I delve into the rich tapestry of narrative—unraveling threads of ancestry, identity, and the stories woven between individuals. Rooted in the historically significant materials and mediums tied to domesticity and matrilineality, I merge the practical and the artistic. Weaving, sewing, and crocheting, skills passed down through my Greek lineage, serve as both mediums of creation and vessels for narratives.
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The concept of “home” reverberates throughout my work, whether anchored in a site or network, connecting the tangible with the intangible moments that shape an individual’s life. Whether exploring the complexities of emotional labor, translating people’s experiences into tangible artifacts, or delving into the nuances of personal and shared histories, my work aims to make every moment equally impactful.
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In my practice, duration is not merely a measure of time, but a reflective process. Through oral histories and fragmented self-narratives, I strive to capture life as a series of attempts—the intricacies, vulnerabilities, and the threads that bind us all together. My work becomes a diary of sorts, a first-person narrative that speaks to the labor of relationships present and passed down, echoes and imprints.
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Headshot photo by Rebecca Panos
Schuyler Dragoo
Brookline, MA · Age 23
Biography - Schuyler Dragoo is a Boston-based interdisciplinary artist working in experimental new media. Her research-driven practice explores how understanding is shaped through attempts at connection—especially across species boundaries, digital systems, and the edges of human perception. She composes original fiddle music and works across painting, sculpture, performance, and digital media to stage layered encounters with the unfamiliar. Her neurodivergent perspective shapes a practice attuned to complexity, care, and connection—inviting speculative empathy and new ways of relating across difference. She hopes her practice cultivates a way of being and witnessing with others—human and more-than-human—that begins in curiosity and leads not to answers, but to deeper forms of care and relation. Schuyler holds an MFA from the School of Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and is pursuing an MA in Psychology at CCSU. She can be reached at schuylerdragoo.com.
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Statement - My work begins in the space between recognition and misrecognition—between gesture and meaning, movement and memory. I am drawn to the moment where something starts to take shape but resists full comprehension. Mimicry becomes a way of staying with that resistance—not to master it, but to be changed by proximity. I treat mimicry as a speculative practice: a method of relation rather than replication. It allows me to move alongside unfamiliar rhythms—those of geese, machines, bodies, or objects—not to become the same, but to become with. Co-presence becomes a form of relational research. As a neurodivergent artist, I move through systems that weren’t built for how I sense or make meaning. I linger in ambiguity and prioritize curiosity over clarity. My mimicry becomes a way of asking: What if this is something I haven’t learned how to see yet? I believe in forms of care that arise from slowness, from not-knowing, from sustained attention. To witness is already to be in relation. And sometimes, a gesture—imprecise, absurd, unfinished—is enough to begin.
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Headshot photo by Darcey Stone
Sophia Pineda
Fredericksburg, VA · Age 21
Biography - Sophia Pineda is a 21-year-old woman with Down syndrome who lives life out loud and in vibrant color. She has studied Chinese brushstroke and Sumi-e watercolor painting for several years. More recently, she’s begun to explore acrylic painting, pottery, and collages—as well as helping to create murals in her community. Sophia’s paintings have been displayed at the Chinese American Museum D.C. and the Artists4ERA campaign. She’s been the featured solo artist for shows at Capitol One headquarters, Children’s National Medical Center, the Pozez Jewish Community Center, the Fredericksburg Area Museum, and a forthcoming exhibit at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.
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Statement - When asked to discuss her art, Sophia says, “Art makes me happy. I like feeling professional, proud, strong, and confident when I make art.” She sees the world as “full of wonderful and happy surprises.” In her view, “Art can show people how to be strong and how to treat others. Art can show you how to love.” She wants people to make friends with her art. Sophia takes pride in showing the greater world that people with an intellectual disability contribute a lot to their communities and can do great things when they have no limits and more opportunities.
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Headshot photo by Andre Pineda