Just off the Tufts campus, located behind Bello Field, is Outside the Lines Studio (OTL), an art studio devoted to providing a space for adults with intellectual and physical disabilities to engage in activities focusing on creativity, vocational training and wellness. Both artists and volunteers are involved in programming, including opportunities to show and sell artwork at local festivals and fairs. Some OTL volunteers have been Tufts students, demonstrating their commitment to both the arts and the local community.
Entering the Outside the Lines warehouse feels a bit like falling down a rabbit hole. In the main community room, art is everywhere - on tables, on walls and behind every door. There are large, comfortable chairs and games, colored pencils and markers, cloth and glitter. Sculptures of Frankenstein, bats and other papier-mache creations line the walls like a 3D funhouse.
Staff member Diana Rice, an artist who teaches classes at OTL, orchestrates programming such as daily cooking classes and two dance groups hosted by Third Life Studio, a center for performing and healing arts in Somerville, every Monday.
Through its activities, OTL tries to build a sense of community among its artists to provide a sense of empowerment through its artwork in a supportive community, according to Rice.
"The arts give people a way to exercise their will," she said. "And people with disabilities don't have a lot of choices."
OTL was founded in 1995, according to Rice, as an alternative environment for adults with what Rice described as challenging behaviors, but it soon became a mecca for creative work.
"Initially it was sort of a way to keep their hands busy, but then they became more self motivated and more interesting in drawing," Rice said.
Using art as therapy as a model of positive reinforcement, the alternative program evolved into a studio that has been able to change some maladaptive behaviors into adaptive behaviors, according to Rice.
"We started an alternative day program for people with challenging behaviors but then after a while they noticed that people were doing drawings and actually enjoying it," Rice said.
Senior Alma Rominger began volunteering at OTL during her freshman year to expand her extracurricular interests. She became involved with the Best Buddies program, organized through Tufts' Leonard Carmichael Society, which pairs a volunteer with an adult who has an intellectual or developmental disability.
She said she visited once a week to spend time with Alice, one of the artists at OTL.
"We would usually just talk or draw. She is a wonderful card maker," Rominger told the Daily in an email.
She added that she and Alice often went on walks and participated in the studio-organized cooking classes.
This past summer, Rominger said she worked as an intern at OTL, where she was able to engage with even more artists. She spent a lot of time hanging around the studio, helping other staff organize projects and facilitating the cooking class.
The hierarchy of the staff, volunteers and clients is intentionally blurred at OTL. That way, everyone is on more equal ground, according to Rice. OTL extends this philosophy to its art instruction as well, trying to avoid a set of preferred hierarchical types of artwork.
"Instead of trying to get them to fit some sort of idea of what art is supposed to be it's really getting to know the individuals on their own level, meeting them where they are, finding out what they're really into and building on that," Rice said.
Every Thursday morning, OTL has a community arts group where volunteers and both emerging and established artists join the OTL community to help make crafts that can be sold at local art fairs.
According to Rice, the community arts group gets clients of OTL excited about artists or volunteers taking part in its classes. She pointed out the positive contribution of volunteers and visiting artists to the atmosphere of OTL.
"I think that that means a lot to our folks because they're used to just having relationships with staff who provide them with direct care, and they're conscious of that," she said.
Rice discussed the simplicity of these relationships in tasks like participating in discussions or working on client's individual portfolios.
"It doesn't have all of the baggage and the implications that are implicit in the relationship with direct care person or of someone who works there," Rice said. "It's good for them to have that experience of that kind of relationship."
Adults with the kind of disabilities to which OTL caters have historically been unfairly excluded from society, according to Rice.
"People should not be hidden," she said. "They should be out in the community with everybody else."
Another intern at OTL, sophomore Will Freeman, has experience working with adults with disabilities in both music and art. He said he works on outreach for showings, fairs and events and occasionally helps out with the art classes led by Rice.
He described the environment as very free-form, noting a change from his experiences from previous, more structured internships.
"It's not really instruction in the traditional sense because it is very open-ended," he said. "I think that Outside the Lines is a very good place for people to work who are open minded and comfortable transitioning between multiple different roles."
According to Freeman, the clients are in charge of making their schedules while spending time at OTL. They decide what classes to take, or which projects to pursue independently, according to Freeman.
Rice emphasized that everyone always has a choice to participate. There are so many options, they can always decide to do something else, she said.
"I think that teaches some skills of responsibility and fosters a sense of independence as well," Freeman said.
The Tuesday afternoon drawing class at OTL is another popular creative outlet. Located in a more secluded section of the warehouse, clients can work on still lifes or on individual projects. These classes represent a unique opportunity for the artists to receive a more structured approach.
"It's always individualized, but we get people together looking at each other's art to facilitate some sort of conversation to get some feedback," Rice said.
In the location for the Tuesday afternoon classes, Rice tries to create a different, more secluded atmosphere.
"It's a space where I want people to feel there's something expected of them," she said. "I think if you feel like nothing is expected of you that's pretty depressing."
OTL has been able to show much of its artists' work this year at several art festivals, small business displays and even a haunted house, which included two 20-feet tall Frankenstein creatures made of chicken wire and papier mache.
"We recently had a show in Watertown Public Library and iYo in Davis, and there's also a holiday craft fair going on right now at a community center for adults with disabilities in downtown Boston," Freeman said.
Freeman said that he chooses much of the art that gets hung in coffee shops and community spaces for OTL events. He noted his preference for self-portraits and said they are the most evocative and compelling.
"A lot of the work, I feel, is very personal and inextricably tied up with the identity of the person who created it," Freeman said. "I find some of the work really moving and powerful."
Rice said she feels that she has also gained a lot through working with the members of OTL.
"I've just grown so much learning about different people's perspectives and learning about them through their art, and helping people develop as artists and as individuals," she said. "It's challenging, but it's really gratifying."
