National Scrollathon
Dallas Museum of Art
Dallas, Texas 2019-2020
Collaboration with 1,700+ participants
Scroll Space, Dallas interior wall, National Scrollathon, Dallas, TX .
Signature Plate of 1700+ participants, National Scrollathon, Dallas, TX, archival paper, ink, 22.5 x 44 inches
Scrollathon was brought to Dallas and Atlanta as part of “speechless: different by design,” a pioneering art exhibition exploring the spectrum of sensory experience and new approaches to accessibility and modes of communication within the museum setting. Co-organized by the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA; Dallas, TX) and the High Museum of Art (HMA; Atlanta, GA) and curated by Sarah Schleuning, the Margot B. Perot Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, and interim Chief Curator at the DMA, the exhibition included a new commission by artists / brothers Steven and William Ladd. Their focus was to design and create a participatory environment in which senses can merge.
Over the course of four weeks in July/August, 2019, Steven and William engaged with over 1,700 community participants, including students, seniors, youths in detention centers, and the visually impaired. Each participant made a work of art associated with a personal experience;one by one, stories were shared with the group,reinforcing the power of contemporary art to articulate and give voice to personal truths.Next, individual voices were combined as the community artists formed groups to contribute to the Collaborative Masterwork, Scroll Space, a vibrant, tactile room composed entirely of 10,000+ hand-rolled scrolls.
Scroll Space, 2019
Portrait Mural of 1,700+ participants, National Scrollathon, Dallas, TX
Scroll Space, interior floor and walls, detail
Wooden dowels centered in each scroll identify participants.
Community Groups, Dallas
Dallas Museum of Art
DMA Meaningful Moments
DMA Teen Ambassador Program
DMA Teen Advisory Council
Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas - Mesquite
Center for Brain Health
City of Dallas - Park in the Woods Recreation Center
Connecting Point of Park Cities
Fretz Recreation Center
Harbor Chase of the Park Cities
Martin Weiss Recreation Center
Project Transformation - North Texas
Resource Center
The Stewpot Art Department
UTD Callier Center for Counication Disorders
WellMed Charitable Foundation Senior Activity Center
Community Groups, Atlanta
High Museum of Art
Bolton Elementary School
Boyd Elementary School
Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta - Chamblee
Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta - Warren
Cary Reynolds Elementary School
Center for the Visually Impaired
Common Good Atlanta
Department of Juvenile Justice
Global Village Project
Langston Hughes High School
Tapestry Charter School
Speechless Participants Portraits displayed on the wall at the Dallas Museum of Art
Support
Scroll Space and the Speechless Scrollathon were generously supported by Dallas Museum of Art, High Museum of Art, Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne, Bank of America, City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, Texas Commission on the Arts, Texas Instruments, and the Wish Foundation. Special thanks to Agustín Arteaga, Audette Rackley, Bonnie Pitman, Charles and Barbara Ladd, Cristina Grajales Gallery, Daniel Krawczyk, Jenny McGlothlin, Kevin W. Tucker, Linda Thibodeau, Mari and Gary Teeter, Mary Ann Bonet Guardia, Monica Obniski, Randall Suffolk, Tandra Allen, Tina Fletcher, and Virginia Shearer.
