16th Annual Disability Art Exhibition (2023)

Event Details

Date: Friday, October 13, 2023 - Sunday, November 12, 2023
Location: Los Angeles City Hall Henry P. Rio Bridge Gallery
City Hall 201 N. Main St., 3rd Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Admission: Free and open to the public.
Download E-Booklet: Download the 16th Annual Disability Art Exhibition E-Booklet.

Please note: To visit the exhibition enter City Hall and check in with security and get a visitor’s badge. Take the elevator to the third floor and head toward the Henry P. Rio Bridge Gallery. Open Monday – Friday: 8:00am-5:00pm, closed on the weekends.

The City of Los Angeles Department on Disability, in collaboration with Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez and the Department of Cultural Affairs, proudly presents the Sixteenth Annual Disability Art Exhibition, commemorating October's National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM).

This year’s NDEAM theme, “Advancing Access and Equity,” recognizes the importance of ensuring all people have equal opportunities to contribute their unique skills and talents. Despite significant job gains over the past two years, many workers are facing higher levels of unemployment. Last year, the unemployment rate for persons with a disability was about twice as high as the rate for persons without a disability. Many Angelenos live a disabled reality, about 20 percent or more of the adult population and 15 percent of students live with one or multiple disabilities.

People with disabilities are a diverse group, some born with a disability and others acquiring a disability later in life due to an injury or illness. Disabilities include a wide range of visible and invisible health and functional limitations that can present significant challenges to daily life activities. Art’s creative process is limitless and allows everyone the opportunity for self-expression and self-employment.

The Department on Disability is privileged to showcase disabled artists and the organizations that support the artistic talent and abilities of children and adults with disabilities. By exhibiting these works we promote disabled artists' access to artistic expression and a means to achieve financial empowerment.

This exhibition was made possible through partnerships with the Academy of Special Dreams, Braille Institute of America, Exceptional Children’s Foundation, L.A. GOAL, and Tierra del Sol Foundation. Their work advances access and equity to people with disabilities to achieve their potential as productive and valued Angelenos.

This exhibition is sponsored in part by the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles. For more information on the City Hall Bridge Gallery, please contact Rosie Lee Hooks, Acting Community Arts Division Director, at Watts.Towers1@lacity.org, Phone Number: (213) 855-7739.