Love.Craft Athens, a disability-inclusive art studio located at 160 Tracy St., is shown. Love.Craft Athens prioritizes accommodating all accessibility needs of Love.Craft’s participants (Crew members), all of whom are developmentally disabled adults while creating a supportive community, which Clarke Central High School 2018 alumna Lyric Barnett has appreciated. “I can (be) proud (of myself), but I can (also) say bad things about myself. (Love.Craft Athens Team members) take me from that, so I won’t think about it all the time,” Barnett said. “(Love.Craft staff members) are really great people to go to. I have days where I don’t function well with how things have come at me before and they are sweet enough to let me explain what happened or explain why I feel the way I feel.” Photo by Kye Streetman
Love.Craft Athens, a disability-inclusive art studio, fosters community and independence through productive and meaningful creativity.
Love.Craft Athens is an adaptive art studio that provides Crew members, developmentally disabled adults, with purposeful and meaningful artistic activities and bridge them with the wider Athens community through outreach events.
Love.Craft offers experiences in a variety of artistic forms including pottery, music, dance and painting. These activities are facilitated by volunteers and staff, who Love.Craft Crew member Lyric Barnett, a Clarke Central High School Class of 2018 alumna, appreciates.
Founder and Executive Director of Love.Craft Athens Susan Fontaine stands outside of the Love.Craft Athens studio located at 160 Tracy St. on April 1. Love.Craft Athens began based on the goal of fostering integration between Crew members and Athens community members not affiliated with Love.Craft Athens. “My dream is for individuals to walk down the road and see people with disabilities working in the stores, or in the restaurants, or in any capacity,” Fontaine said. “I just want to see them, and (they) haven’t been seen. I do feel like we’re moving in a positive direction. (I am) starting to see them more, but there was such a long time (when we didn’t).” Photo by Kye Streetman
“What I love about Love.Craft is (that) they’re very helpful. They understand me (and) where I come from,” Barnett said. “If something is wrong with me, I know they’ll be there to help. It’s a fun place to be at and it can be very interesting.”
Love.Craft Athens was founded in 2018 by Susan Fontaine, a former Clarke Middle School special education department teacher, with a mission to provide adults with developmental disabilities an experience that not only offers them ways of expressing themselves, but also facilitates skills that can be utilized outside of Love.Craft Athens.
“Our powerful words that we use are ‘productive’, ‘meaningful’ and ‘integrated.’ Every human in these walls is productive every day to their own (ability). When they’re here, they’re engaging with a peer, that’s a more productive day than normal, ” Fontaine said. “The projects that we’re doing have value to the community, which leads to integration, getting our (Crew members) out in the community.”
A teaser to “So Good So Good: The LoveCraft Band,” a documentary covering Love.Craft Athens band’s tour in 2024 is shown. Lovecrafts Executive director Susan Fontaine contributed to the creation of the band in 2021, and since then has observed the bands development and growth, leading to their eventual tour in 2024. “They (now) have weekly band practice where the six of them go in a room. They write music, play music and practice (music). They have since gone into a recording studio and recorded two songs which you can find on Spotify and other streaming platforms,” Fontaine said.“Last year, they took the band on tour. (The) Band (ended up) touring in six different five different cities. Video fair use of Chispa House
In addition to musical opportunities like dance and musical therapy, Love.Craft Athens also offers space and materials for various types of visual art including pottery, painting and paper making. According to Love.Craft Athens Studio Manager Imani Tkalec, these crafts are often modified to ensure that all Love.Craft Athens Crew members can enjoy them.
“Pottery is a really good art form to make accessible. We make all kinds of accommodations when it comes to tools, because our friends have a lot of different ways that they use their hands,” Tkalec said. “If a certain way of doing a process is hard for somebody, we’ll find an alternative way. There’s a lot of different ways to (create) the same end product with pottery. It’s really forgiving in that way.”
However, Love.Craft Athens’ strive to be accessible not only in its adaptive art practices. For many adults with disabilities, programs similar to Love.Craft Athens are inaccessible due to financial reasons. Part of Love.Craft Athens Community Coordinator Emma Brisendine’s role is to ensure that Love.Craft Athens remains financially accessible.
“We serve adults who have aged out of school. Opportunities for (adults with disabilities) are slim to none,” Brisendine said. “We don’t require adults to pay to come to our programming. We’ve been a nonprofit for around seven years. Keeping our doors open and making sure we stay accessible is important.”
Love.Craft Athens Crew member Ryan Thomas holds a craft project outside of Love.Craft Athens on April 1. Thomas joined Love.Craft three years ago and credits them as the reason he obtained his current job. “My sister found (Love.Craft) on the internet actually, and saw their website,” Thomas said. “It’s cool for me to come to a place (with people) like me all day, and it helped me find a job polishing silverware at The Classic Center.” Photos by Kye Streetman
Luckily for Love.Craft Athens, CCHS special education department teacher and Love.Craft Athens Board Member Jennifer Frost understands the importance of having a dedicated place for adults with disabilities to continue their education after high school. The special education department has taught various Love.Craft Athens Crew members, allowing CCHS and Love.Craft Athens to collaborate and facilitate individuals’ transitions from high school.
“(When) we have students getting ready to graduate, (if) we think Love.Craft might be a good fit for them, we transition them. There is a current Love.Craft individual who (used to be a student at CCHS),” Frost said. “She would go work at Love.Craft to get to know people, and meet friends. (Giving) them an opportunity to get to know her and what she needs. (CCHS and Love.Craft) have a very close partnership.”
“Our powerful words that we use are ‘productive’, ‘meaningful’ and ‘integrated.’ Every human in these walls is productive every day to their own (ability). When they’re here, they’re engaging with a peer, that’s a more productive day than normal.”
— Susan Fontaine,
Love.Craft Athens Founder and Executive Director
Once these individuals become a part of the Love.Craft Athens Crew, they will be among the 45 individuals that Fontaine works with to provide personalized care, based on their individual strengths and support needs.
“We treat every individual as an individual. I think a lot of people think that we’re just having class, and that’s not what we do at all,” Fontaine said. “We really get to know each individual and their needs, and we use the art process to (teach them) some jobs and other adult life skills. We serve 45 individuals, and we serve them off in 45 different ways, but it’s (also) a fun environment. We really just look for what they need and try to provide it.”
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