ALBANY — Though the artists who work at the Carriage House Arts Center all have disabilities, it’s not to be thought of as a center for art therapy, said its director.
"This is about creating quality work, just like any other artists’ studio," said Anne Murphy.

The teachers are professionals, the students are serious about their creations, and the materials are the best quality, Murphy said.
"You won’t find any crayons or chalk here," she said.
Called, by its teachers, the region’s "graduate school" for artists with disabilities, the Carriage House Arts Center is a program of Guilderland’s Living Resources, a non-profit organization that provides services to people with disabilities. The arts center has about 175 students and a waiting list at its main location and three satellites.

The students have a wide range of disabilities, including mental retardation, cerebral palsy, autism, traumatic brain injury, hearing loss, and visual impairment.

Art is crammed everywhere in the studio, on the walls and counters, piled on the floor, even on the shelves in the bathroom. The students each work on their own projects, following their own interests. As she led The Enterprise through the building, Murphy, an artist herself, stopped often to pull a painting or a drawing out of some nook or cranny.

Murphy insisted on a little renovation when Fred Erlich, Living Resources’ chief executive officer, first brought her to the 1920’s-era carriage house on Cuyler Avenue in Albany, she said.
"I said, ‘This wall has to come down. This wall has to come down...’" Murphy said. "We opened the whole thing up."

The building is divided into two studios on two floors. This Monday, while The Enterprise visited, students downstairs worked on painting, drawing, and jewelry making while students upstairs worked in the videography studio.

The video students, under the direction of teacher Marcus Anderson, showed off one of their latest pieces, a clever story about a day in the life of a family of pencils, done with stop-motion animation. It will debut in May at the Opalka Gallery at Sage College of Albany.

Later, the students were out in the driveway, shooting live footage for their next movie.

Artists first

The Carriage House started in 1997 with two part-time teachers. Now, it employs 14, some full-time, all professional artists, plus a number of volunteers. They teach a wide range of skills. Among the latest are weaving and photography.
"We try to be innovative," Murphy said. "We’re moving ahead of all artists’ studios."

Next, Murphy said, the Carriage House is moving into the performing arts. It already offers some music instruction. Murphy showed pictures of a trip some of the students took to a farm in Voorheesville where they harvested gourds, dried them, and crafted them into drums suitable for peformance.

As for the students themselves, Murphy said, they are artists first and then people with disabilities. Some of their pieces sell for hundreds of dollars and Carriage House artists have won several awards, competing against artists without disabilities.

Most recently, James Keneally, an autistic man, was selected as the guest artist for a holiday gathering at the Governor’s Mansion. He was asked to present an original piece of art, and his painting of the mansion now hangs there. An exhibit of Keneally’s work is now at 124 Jay Street in Schenectady.

For her sculpture, young Carriage House artist Jennifer Grey won first place in the third-grade division of the Horsing Around with the Arts Contest from the National Museum of Racing.

The jewelry made at the Carriage House, which has been certified as museum-quality, is sold at the Albany Institute of History and Art and the Albany Visitors’ Center.
"Our artists just get so inspired," Murphy said.
Working with them, said teacher Rebecca Rents, is "wonderful." She described "the intensity with which they create a work and the joy they get from doing art."
"Don’t get her started, she’ll go on and on," joked one of the students, Matt Layton, looking up briefly from his calligraphy.