Vibrant Palette Arts Center
Vibrant Palette Arts Center (VPAC) in Seattle is modeled after Creative Growth Center in Oakland, California, an arts specific day center that has served people with disabilities for over 40 years. VPAC founder and Executive Director Diane Knoll has researched and visited the Oakland organization, and also been in contact with a similar organization in Philadelphia, The Center for Creative Works. Learning from these amazing projects, Vibrant Palette Arts Center directly helps both individuals with and without disabilities in the city of Seattle. Through appreciation and inclusion of their fine arts and crafts, VPAC advances public knowledge and awareness of artists with disabilities.
Collaborating with Pratt Fine Arts Center for use of studio space, VPAC provides a 6 hour structured day program. Program activities include studio time for painting and clay mediums, guest art teachers, and community outings to local galleries/museums to have our program participants learn about the creative processes and experiences of other artists. VPAC will host three art shows per year showcasing and selling our artists’ work with a 50% commission that is funded back into our organization.
Self portrait painted by a VPAC workshop participant
VPAC artist Joey Joeseph works on a ceramic piece.
Mission Statement: "Vibrant Palette Arts Center serves adult artists with developmental, mental, and physical disabilities. This project encourages artistic growth in a professional studio environment and promotes a social atmosphere among peers. VPAC not only wants to provide artistic expression for their students, but also promote engagement within the Seattle art community by hosting multiple gallery showings of their work each year."
VPAC Leadership Team
Diane Knoll, Executive Director and founder of Vibrant Palette Arts Center, has worked as an occupational therapist with individuals with disabilities of all ages for over 14 years. For the past 11 years, she has worked in special education as a specialist for students with motor delays and sensory processing differences. In the spring of 2015 she learned about Creative Growth (whom Vibrant Palette is modeling themselves after) through a news article, and immediately felt the need to bring a similar type of program to Seattle. Diane has experience in curating art shows in Bloomington, Indiana before relocating to Seattle in 2011. In her spare time, she is also an artist, working as an encaustic painter in a studio based out of Georgetown.
Sharece Philips has five years of experience working with individuals with disabilities. For three years, she worked as a behavior coach, an art instructor in the Hozhoni Art Studio, and website manager for Hozhoni Foundation in Flagstaff, Arizona. The Hozhoni Art Studio is an advanced art programs for artists with developmental disabilities. She has curated several Outsider Art shows for the Hozhoni Art Program and the New Hampshire Institute of Art, where she received her degree in Art Education. In 2015, she moved from Flagstaff to Seattle, where she met Diane who was searching for an experienced art teacher for Vibrant Palette Arts Center.