For immediate release

New York, NY - Gather round the table for a scrumptious family dinner, each dish lovingly sourced from artists’ memories and fantasies. Throughout their residency at Summertime Gallery in Brooklyn, YAI Artists exchanged secret recipes, reminisced about childhood, told familial fables, and dwelled on what makes a house a home.  

"This show emerged from conversations about family and all of the shapes it can take for the YAI Artists,” said Priscilla Frank, YAI Arts Supervisor. “It can be biological family, housemates or friends or fellow artists in the YAI Arts studio, pets or imaginary demons or anime ladies. We wanted to celebrate our ancestors real and imagined."   

The artists’ experiences inform this immersive exhibition, a hot pink 1970s dining room all dressed up for an indulgent evening of shrimp cocktail, escargot, baked potatoes, and pineapple ham, sculpted from papier-mâché and recycled materials. Make sure to save room for dessert, because there’s lots of cake, Jell-O, and whipped cream.  

Sense memories guided the artists throughout their creative process. You can get a taste of what home sounds, smells, and looks like to them: 

⧫ mommy’s blue nail polish  ⧫ Jeopardy at 7pm, Hallmark at 8pm  ⧫ I wish they would live forever ⧫  a chihuahua who wants a hug ⧫ square brown glasses ⧫ big Paula, small Paula ⧫ dark love, potions and black roses ⧫ Newman, Listen ⧫ I think of love ⧫ coke and steak ⧫ cuddly chaos ⧫ white diamond earrings ⧫ sizzling browning onions ⧫ like a brother ⧫ hot potatoes out of the oven ⧫ Channel 47 Telemundo ⧫ leftover soup ⧫ my bed, my book ⧫ munching in my ear ⧫ I love you, son ⧫ nanna’s slippers ⧫ big Charlie + momma cat ⧫ a wacky, kooky family 

Hurry on over to Summertime to celebrate before the food gets cold. And please don’t spoil your appetite. 

Summertime Gallery  
145 Ainslie St, Brooklyn, NY 11211 
March 24, 2023 - April 30, 2023 
Opening Celebration: March 24 from 6pm — 8pm 

YAI Arts Studios is a nonprofit studio program for artists with disabilities based in New York City. It provides artists with studio space, materials, and mentorship, supporting them in expressing their unique perspectives, deepening their creative practices, forging connections, achieving their goals, and growing careers as artists. For more information, please visit: https://yaiarts.funraise.org/

MEDIA CONTACT: Kamana Shrestha: kamana.shrestha@yai.org | 646.780.9936

ABOUT YAI: Founded in 1957, YAI remains at the forefront of an extraordinary movement aimed at empowering people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. YAI and its network of affiliate agencies offer children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities a comprehensive range of services. YAI is committed to seeing beyond disability, providing opportunities for people to live, love, work, and learn in their communities. YAI’s 4,000 employees provide supportive housing, education, medical, dental, and mental health care, job training, community integration, and social enrichment for more than 20,000 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and their families, in New York, New Jersey, and California.