Art from the Gertrude A. Barber
National Institute

Annex Gallery
July 11, 2008 – October 4, 2008

The Gertrude A. Barber National Institute is a well known
part of the Erie landscape, and one of the region’s biggest employers. Most people know that the Institute provides services for people with developmental disabilities, such as autism. What most people might not know is that the Institute
is a hotbed of artistic creation.

Frank Fecko is the director of the Institute’s art program, a position he has held for more than eighteen years. He’s an artist himself (he also does occasional design work for the Barber Institute, and designed their logo). But his relationship to the artists at the Institute is that of a practical collaborator, a point he is quick to make. He finds people sometimes have the misconception that he dictates artistic content, but in fact he is very protective of the individual’s creative vision; his own creativity comes into play in creating adaptations that allow people with disabilities to overcome their apparent limitations, and express themselves to the fullest.

For example, if you have difficulties with fine motor control, it is problematic to hold a slender pen or a paintbrush. In that case, a thicker handle may be in order. In general, working on a larger canvas is easier (Fecko recommends this to all artists). Consequently, much of the art coming out of the Barber Institute is large scale, and this lends it greater impact too. This is in line with Fecko’s original goal to move the art program away from what he thinks of as “refrigerator art,” and towards art as a serious and flexible means of expression.

One of the more dramatic ideas that Frank and the staff have come up with is wheelchair painting. Individuals who need to use an electric wheelchair to get around might find it impossible to paint in the usual way, but they can paint with their wheels. A canvas is set up on the floor Jackson Pollack style, with a palette of colors also on the floor around the perimeter. The artist selects colors and paints lines across the canvas by controlling the machine. This is action painting with an electric motor, and the results can be graceful, dynamic, subtle, densely textured—each piece is as individual as the artist who made it.

One of the wheelchair painters, named David, also creates compositions using mat board rectangles on canvas. He carefully nudges his materials, shifting the pieces until he’s satisfied with the result. The rectangles are fixed to the canvas, and his collaborators paint over the entire surface and then remove the rectangles after the paint dries. The process is repeated, and a layered pattern emerges, often over the course of months. David’s wheelchair armrests look a bit like a veteran artist’s palette, with small smudges of thousands of different colors. People are often curious about this colorful phenomenon, and when they ask the cause of it, David delights in explaining to them: “I’m an artist.”

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