Bit by Bit: Integrating Artists, Ideas, and Access
Opening reception for Bits by Bits: Six Artists from Buffalo’s Progressive Studio, University at Buffalo Art Galleries, 2025. Photo: Nando Alvarez-Perez.
How do we build a more accessible and inclusive arts ecosystem—bit by bit?
Join us for Bit by Bit, a day-long symposium exploring the intersections of art, access, and care. Hosted by UB Art Galleries, this event brings together artists, educators, curators, and cultural workers to share strategies and ideas rooted in the progressive art studio model.
Through panels, conversations, and tours of the exhibition Bits by Bits and Starlight Studio & Art Gallery, the symposium invites participants to reflect on how long-term support, creative autonomy, and inclusive design can reshape institutions, classrooms, and communities. Whether you’re an artist, educator, student, or advocate, Bit by Bit offers space for connection and shared learning.
10:30–11:30 AM
Tour: Starlight Studio & Art Gallery
340 Delaware Ave, Buffalo, NY 14202
Experience Buffalo’s leading progressive art studio firsthand. Meet artists in their creative environment and gain insight into the energy, community, and commitment that sustain this unique space.
12:00–1:00 PM
Lunch at UB Art Galleries
UB Center for the Arts Gallery
Register to join us for lunch and connect with fellow symposium participants.
1:00–2:00 PM
Panel: Learning from the Progressive Studio
Progressive art studios support artists with disabilities through long-term access to space, materials, and individualized support—centering creative autonomy over prescriptive outcomes. This panel considers what other art spaces, educators, and artists can learn from the model, and how its values of sustained relationships, radical care, and artist-centered structures can be integrated into the wider arts ecosystem.
Panelists:
Carrie Marcotte, Program Director, Starlight Studio & Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Anthony Marcellini, Founder & Program Manager, PASC, Detroit, MI
Jill Scheibler, Operations & Program Director, Make Studio, Baltimore, MD
Moderator: Emily Ebba Reynolds
2:15–3:30 PM
Roundtable: Integrating Artists with Disabilities into Buffalo’s Art Scene
How can Buffalo’s art community better integrate artists with disabilities into exhibitions, programs, and networks? This roundtable brings together artists, curators, and progressive studio staff to share opportunities, challenges, and strategies for building a more inclusive, connected, and equitable local art scene.
Panelists:
Ani Hoover, Teaching Artist, Fiber Focus at Stitch Buffalo WOW; artist
Brian Kavanaugh, Founder of Creativity-Ability
Kyle Butler, Curator & Teaching Artist at Starlight; artist
Larell Potter, Artist
Moderator: Cléa Massiani
4:00 PM
Tour: Bits by Bits: Six Artists from Buffalo’s Progressive Studio
UB Center for the Arts Gallery
Join curators for a guided walkthrough of the exhibition, highlighting the practices of six Starlight artists and the collaborative process behind the show.
5:00–7:00 PM
Art in the Open
UB Center for the Arts
Wrap up the day with UB’s annual campus-wide celebration of creativity. Explore open studios, exhibitions, live performances, and works in progress across the arts.
Presented by the Center for the Arts in collaboration with UB Art Galleries, Arts Management, Art, Media Study, Music, and Theatre and Dance.
Program Date: October 30, 2025