Collaboration with 1,700+ participants

Scrollathon was brought to Dallas and Atlanta as part of speechless: different by design, a pioneering art exhibition exploring the spectrum of sensory experience and new approaches to accessibility and modes of communication within the museum setting. Co-organized by the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA; Dallas, TX) and the High Museum of Art (HMA; Atlanta, GA) and curated by Sarah Schleuning, the Margot B. Perot Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, and interim Chief Curator at the DMA, the exhibition included a new commission by artists / brothers Steven and William Ladd. Their focus was to design and create a participatory environment in which senses can merge.

Over the course of four weeks in July/August, 2019, Steven and William engaged with over 1,700 community participants, including students, seniors, youths in detention centers, and the visually impaired. Each participant made a work of art associated with a personal experience; one by one, stories were shared with the group, reinforcing the power of contemporary art to articulate and give voice to personal truths. Next, individual voices were combined as the community artists formed groups to contribute to the Collaborative Masterwork, Scroll Space, a vibrant, tactile room composed entirely of 10,000+ hand-rolled scrolls.

Sponsors
Scroll Space and the Speechless Scrollathon were generously supported by Dallas Museum of Art, High Museum of Art, Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne, Bank of America, City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, Texas Commission on the Arts, Texas Instruments, and the Wish Foundation. Special thanks to Agustín Arteaga, Audette Rackley, Bonnie Pitman, Charles and Barbara Ladd, Cristina Grajales Gallery, Daniel Krawczyk, Jenny McGlothlin, Kevin W. Tucker, Linda Thibodeau, Mari and Gary Teeter, Mary Ann Bonet Guardia, Monica Obniski, Randall Suffolk, Tandra Allen, Tina Fletcher, and Virginia Shearer.