What We Do

NIAD is a supportive  and inclusive community where art makes each individual and their story visible. 

  • A photograph of a group of people gathered in front of a tall set of grey stone stairs. The people are all wearing face masks and looking at the camera. Some of the people are seated in wheelchairs. Some are waving at the camera or holding up peace signs.

  • Now in its 42nd year in Downtown Richmond, NIAD’s programming is designed by 75 adult artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities with support from a staff of 30 creatives and working artists.  

    Learn NIAD’s Story
“

Being part of the community of artists is incredibly motivating. At NIAD the studio environment is abuzz with this generous exchange of ideas, stories, techniques, and material processes. There’s a lot of cross-pollination among departments and between friends. And a willingness to collaborate that I think is really valuable.

NIAD Facilitator Em Kettner
a photograph of a person standing in front of a large colorful abstract painting. The person is a man with brown skin and black hair, wearing headphones, a face mask, and a black suit. He is holding a blue sculpture shaped like a guitar.

Studio Programs

NIAD currently offers Virtual Studio spaces on Zoom and in our 23rd Street Art Center five days a week.

We provide artists with art materials, support from teaching artist facilitators, and professional development opportunities.

NIAD studio artists create decades-long careers in the arts through practices that span traditional media—painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, fiber, printmaking—to more experimental explorations in digital art, sound and performance. 

Additionally, our Virtual and In-Person studios offer workshops in Creative Writing, Dance and Movement, Animation, Sound Recording, Art & Justice, Jam Sessions, Cooking Corner, Fashion Design & Illustration, and Digital Animation.

The studio is also a conduit for artist leadership, hosting the Artist Advisory Council and Quarterly Advisory Committee meetings, where artists make a direct impact on NIAD's policies and practices.

Meet NIAD Artists
“

I love when people have my art in their homes. I love how people love everything I make.

A photo of a person sitting in front of a museum gallery wall. The person is the artist Maria Radilla, a woman with brown skin, short wavy black hair, and a pink sweater. She stretches her arm up to gesture toward the wall of art behind her. The wall is hung salon style and includes colorful artworks made in all media. There are paintings, fiber works, wood sculptures, and prints. Maria's small embroidered bobble hangs on the wall a few feet above her head.
NIAD artist Maria Radilla

Exhibition Programs

Frequently remarkable, surprising, and engaging, NIAD artwork has become a highlight of the Bay Area art scene and has received recognition from the national and international contemporary art world.

Work by NIAD artists has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum, the Studio Museum of Harlem, and OMCA, among others, and in galleries from El Cerrito to Hong Kong.

NIAD art can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, SFMOMA, MADMusée, Belgium, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami, among others.

NIAD artists are represented by galleries in Los Angeles, Portland, and New York, and have received significant contemporary art awards such as the Wynn Newhouse Award and SFMOMA's SECA Art Award.

Curators from the Bay Area and beyond collaborate with NIAD artists on exhibitions and public art opportunities, and their expertise has been tapped for various curatorial projects.

NIAD artists regularly give artist talks and lead workshops for the public, and earn a 50% commission on art sales.

View NIAD Exhibitions
A photograph of two people in a museum courtyard working on a large painting. The figure in the center is man with light skin who is seated in a walker. He wears a grey baseball cap, a blue face mask, and a grey jacket. A white woman with grey hair in a bun stands to him. She is wearing a blue scarf, yellow sweater, and white pants. A large painting with green, yellow, and red shapes is laid out flat on a table in front of them.
“

Whoever can support our community would be deeply appreciated. I do believe that our art is the most important thing.

A portrait photograph of a person in an art studio. The person is a woman with light skin and glasses. She is smiling and looking at the camera. She wears a red baseball cap, pink headphones around her neck, and a black tee shirt with an image of an orange truck with headlights ablaze. There background is blurred, but it's clear there are large windows, tables, and artwork hanging on the walls.
NIAD artist Robin Rakoczy
A photograph of several people talking in a museum courtyard. The figure on the left wears a yellow teeshirt, jeans, and a dark face mask. They gesture toward the person on the right, who is laughing and wearing a mask, a black sweatshirt, a white apron, and camo pants. There is a camera on a tripod set up between them, and a person with a baseball cap standing nearby. Figures mill around in the background on a tall stairway that leads into the museum.

Community Programs

NIAD's Community Programs team supports all aspects of services to NIAD artists. They manage intake, enrollment and liaison work with artists' teams, continually striving for more accessibility, equity and advocacy in each interaction with our community members.

Community Programs focuses each day on improving access to community and culture for studio artists, with weekly museum, gallery, studio and nature trips.

The team also makes it possible for NIAD artists to represent their own work in person at opening receptions, facilitating travel for artists and their care teams to the SF Book Art Fair, the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art, the NYMOMA, and more.

Become a NIAD Artist
“

The history of Bay Area art is incomplete without recognition of the work and stories of the artists from Creativity Explored, Creative Growth, and NIAD... We’re thrilled to have collaborated with the artists, and these studios who provide them with essential resources to express themselves and thrive.”

Carin Adams, Senior Curator of Art, OMCA
a photograph of a person standing outside in a museum courtyard, before a microphone on a stand. The person is the artist Halisi Noel-Johnson, a black woman with short curly black hair, a tie-dyed sweatshirt and a blue headband. She raises her fist in a powerful gesture, and wears a bracelet that reads "black lives matter." She is photographed having just finished addressing the crowd. The background is blurred but there appears to be a large green sign, and another figure wearing a mask and a white shirt.

Play!