Gateway: An art center

Gateway Arts is a magical place filled with colorful crafts, contemplative and whimsical paintings and over 95 talented artists with disabilities learning a vocation while realizing their dreams. This unique, non-profit service includes the Studio Program, The Gateway Crafts Store, and The Gateway Gallery.

Visiting Gateway, one finds three studios brimming with creativity, energy and joy. Bicycle wheels threaded with sparkling gold and silver material, pieces crafted in folk art class, hang from high ceilings. Window gardens lining the perimeter often contain tiny sculptural surprises among the greenery!

Wooden looms clack rhythmically while industrious weavers produce multi-striped chenille and rayon material for scarves and blankets. In the ceramic studio, people hand-build sculptural pieces ranging from miniature pool tables and clocks to enormous bowls glazed with unexpected and colorful designs. Silk scarves, tote bags and children’s clothing are decorated at a large, round wooden table decorated over the years with its own abstract pattern of paint. In the accessible studio behind the Crafts Store, turquoise stones and handmade beads are lovingly strung and made into beautiful necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Music, drama, and writing are offered along with daily adult education classes. And everywhere, paintings are evolving – on paper, canvas, chairs, and, yes, even on guitars!

For 30 years, talented adults with disabilities have been coming to Gateway from diverse backgrounds. Some first arrived in the ‘70’s from closing state institutions where their talents might have remained forever undiscovered. Now, many who work at Gateway live in group homes, with their families, or on their own. As a service of the non-profit Vinfen for 20 years, Gateway and the professional artists who form its dedicated teaching staff help these artists to earn a profit from everything they create by selling their pieces in the Gallery and Store or at outside venues. Funding for our programs come from many diverse agencies, such as the Department of Mental Retardation, the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, Perkins School for the Blind, the Department of Mental Health, the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, public schools, as well as private fees and donations.

Whether or not Gateway participants can speak, hear, or see well, they have found a way, through the arts, to communicate and share their inner voices and visions. According to Director Rae Edelson, ”Making art professionally can create a life that is of value and one that gives value back to society.” Come back and visit with us here, online, or at our charming Brookline Village location. Join us in the adventure that is Gateway Arts!