ZOOM — Join our Zoom Party with artist Matthew Forrest and the Imagine Art artists January 30 at 6 PM. You must register in advance for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4995648053?pwd=VlBqaWhTaTJ2MW5McGZiK3ZtVlMrUT09

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Flatbed is excited to share our first 2021 exhibition Nothing About Us Without Us with the community. This is an exhibition of works by Matthew Forrest who worked in collaboration with artists from Imagine Art during 2020. The timing of the exhibit is for PrintAustin 2021, and it celebrates the inclusive nature of printmaking and the power of collaboration. The title of the exhibition was taken from a centuries-old slogan asserting that no policy should be created without the full and direct participation of those it affects. It was adopted by the disability rights movement in the 1990s as a call to action around the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Matthew Forrest is an artist, educator, and printmaker based in Gray, Georgia. Forrest has over 12 years of fine art publishing, and community outreach experience which he uses within his classes to connect community needs to in-class projects. He is driven to make printmaking more accessible for students with disabilities and has worked with a number of groups to advance art outreach within middle Georgia and beyond.  

Over the past six months, Forrest has collaborated with Imagine Art, which is a creative incubator in Austin where artists with and without disabilities gather for artmaking and exhibitions. Forrest worked with a team of staff and students from both his college and Imagine produce a limited run of screen printed board games to help promote conversation, teamwork, community, and to develop the core skills of peer support and self-advocacy within Imagine Art's program, Training 4Transformation .   

A highlight of the exhibition is the specially designed and printed board game and Forrest's own series of lithographs and screenprints which reflect the art that has been shared with him during online meetings with artists who call Imagine Art home.  Forrest states that he was honored to work with so many talented artists to achieve his own inspired works of art from the project, and more importantly, produce a game that will help serve as a lasting work of art that can be used weekly by the I.A. Peer Support Specialists in training