The in-person Disability Pride art exhibition at Disability Network Washtenaw Monroe Livingston (DNWML) has its roots in the virtual world of 2020.

"I had recently become our arts manager," said Claire Moore, "and we were looking for ways to expand creative opportunities for our blossoming arts program. What began as a virtual art class in March 2020 has become a robust arts program with visual, performance, dance, and writing arts, as well as teaching opportunities for disabled artists. ... As our reputation for centering the arts has grown, so has our reach for the Disability Pride art exhibition."

The Disability Network is "run by people with disabilities for people with disabilities," as stated on its website, offering peer support, training, advocacy, and much more, but it's also become a creative hub, with the Disability Pride exhibit as a centerpiece.

"I truly believe offering a consistent, no-cost art exhibition for disabled artists, during Disability Pride month, is something so necessary—and completely aligns with our mission as an organization," Moore said.

The third edition of the Disability Pride exhibition, in DNWML's Gallery Be, is titled In This Together: Joy & Interdependence in Disability Culture. Moore put out a call for works by asking "artists to emphasize the jubilance and support they experience as members of the disability community."

"Pride is a many-faceted, completely individual experience," Moore said. "What circumstances, what experiences allow someone to feel proud of themselves? At DNWML, we really emphasize interdependence: our community members' successes are integral to and deeply entwined with our own organization's success. This year, I wanted to move from a broad overarching concept to something more personal and defined; the artists really delved into those radical moments of joy and support that feed their creative processes."

While many of the 23 artists in this year's show heeded Moore's prompt, it wasn't mandatory to be selected for In This Together.

Leora Druckman's ceramics and mixed media work My Everyday Face is one of the standout works, featuring a frazzled-looking head with wires popping out of the hair and ear areas, a hand covering one eye as the suspicious other eye looks back at the viewer, and a red digital mouth with the scrolling words, "How are you? I'm fine."

The sculpture doesn't evoke jubilation but another aspect of dealing with a disability.

"My piece, My Everyday Face, is much more about the frustration of dealing with chronic illness than 'jubilance and support,'" Druckman said, "so I was surprised, but pleased, when it was accepted into the exhibit."

The Ann Arbor artist writes of My Everyday Face:

On the outside I look like an average, happy, healthy, aging woman. My disabilities are mostly invisible. When I am feeling well enough to go out, I smile, nod and exchange pleasantries as I interact with people. ... Only my closest friends are aware of the depth of my debilitating fatigue, my loss of function including hearing loss, vertigo and balance difficulties, dysfunctional immune system, cognitive changes, lack of physical energy and other challenges.

“My Everyday Face started as an experiment with clay slab hand-building techniques," Druckman said. "I am relatively new to working with the medium and was simply discovering and playing with its possibilities. At the time, early 2025, I was filled with quite a lot of angst about the state of the world and frustrated with aspects of my life. As I worked on the piece, I let these feelings take over, which created a tactile conversation with the clay, informing and directing my work. I was pleasantly surprised by the final piece that evolved from this process."

There are several pieces in the exhibit that address invisible disabilities, including Hidden in Plain Sight by Flint's Samantha Finley. She's a specialist in animal portraiture, so it's no surprise that her red-flower-covered zebra is expertly rendered, but there's a deeper meaning to her selecting that creature to paint.

"It is common for medical students and current practitioners to be told to think of the common causes first" when diagnosing illness, Finley said. "The phrase is, 'When you hear hoof beats, think horse, not zebra.' The Ehlers-Danlos [Society] took this and made the zebra their symbol."

Finley deals with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a disorder that can affect joints, skin, and blood vessels but isn't always easy to diagnose.

"Ehlers-Danlos and its comorbidities are still seen as rare diseases or syndromes," Finley said. "Most of my doctors still don’t know what I have and will Google it right in front of me. ... During my process of getting diagnosed, every symptom that pointed towards Ehlers-Danlos syndrome was there, the doctors just pretended they did not see them, didn’t know what Ehlers-Danlos was, or believed it to be too rare so I didn’t have it. Therefore, the zebra is 'hidden'—though it really isn’t and never was."

While Hidden in Plain Sight "was a piece that was already created," Finley said, "it fit the prompt perfectly. When I was fighting for my diagnoses, I had to go to multiple specialists and wait years to find answers. While I was waiting, I found community who were going through or went through the same things as I was going through currently. Many of the times, I felt ostracized within my family or friends because I couldn’t do the things they could or I couldn’t keep up. ... Finding the disabled community allowed me to find myself beautiful again. The flowers not only stand for the 'hiding' part of my painting, but it stands for the beauty in different life experiences as well."

Jubilation abounds in We Are Resilient Like Flowers by Salem Township's Megan Braun, who has cerebral palsy. While much of the artwork on her website features colored markers, black-line drawings, and some paintings, she opted to create a vibrant magazine-based collage of a flower for In This Together.

"I created this piece in response to the prompt," Braun said. "Previously, using nature-based symbolism for an exhibit gave me the idea to show interdependence as a flower, since flowers need many different things to thrive."

Braun first explored collage as a student at Washtenaw Community College, and she liked the creative process so much that she wanted to create a piece with this technique for In This Together. It's the act of creation that moves Braun, not the medium that she uses to express herself, so she's open to trying new things and letting things happen, no matter the outcome.

"Because of a disability that affects my hands, unintentional things often happen during the process, and I use that as part of the piece," Braun said. "The final result is usually different from the original plan. Art-making is not about being able to produce art the way you imagined it. It is about enjoying making and letting the creative process happen. I want my experience as a disabled artist to serve as disability advocacy in action."

Alex Menzor's Can You Hear Me? captures a different kind of action: The self-portrait depicts sound waves of concentric circles beaming into the cochlear implant implanted in the artist's head.

"I created the piece at the beginning of this year, starting it just after my four-month mapping appointment at the University of Michigan's hearing rehabilitation center," said Menzor, who is based in Kalamazoo. "I wanted to create something to commemorate the long, strange trip of going deaf as a young adult and then adapting and relearning to hear through electricity. The goal was to capture the vibrancy, wonder, and peculiarity of regaining a sense, so the piece depicts this through 'loud' colors and my best attempt at an artistic rendition of sound waves."

Menzor's painting is one of the most well-crafted and accomplished pieces in the exhibit, but the mix of self-taught artists and trained creatives is what makes In This Together so captivating and varied.

"I think the exhibit is a fantastic visual representation of the community," Menzor said, "in that disability can affect anyone at any time, and yet we learn, adapt, bridge, celebrate, and lead fulfilling lives. I feel honored and proud to be a part of the show, and I hope that it fosters needed connection during these challenging times."

Christopher Porter is a library technician and the editor of Pulp. 

"In This Together: Joy & Interdependence in Disability Culture" is at Gallery Be, inside the Disability Network Washtenaw Monroe Livingston, 3941 Research Park Drive, Ann Arbor. It runs July 7 to August 15, Tuesday through Thursday, 9 am to 4 pm. Admission is free. Visit dnwml.org/dispride25 for more information. You can also view all the artwork, including two video pieces, on the website.

Full list of artists: Carolyn Girard, Heather Banet, Sue Reeves, Charles Miller, Megan Braun, Carlie Suris, Krista Koehler, Christine D. Crosheck, Dana DeBord, Dennis Johnson, Ashley Mungons, Bailey Ryan Hammond, Heather Banet, Keith Vailliencourt, Lana Oeschger, Elizabeth Brinkerhoff, Alex Menzor, Leora Druckman, Samantha Finley, Sharon Vance, Sue Reeves, Amy Everett, and Heather Hockin.