Artist Galleries

The Communities of Care project fosters and supports artists whose work contributes to conversations about disability, community, and care work. Painters, poets, performance artists, and others funded through the Communities of Care project have explored what it means to live with a disability or experience a mental health crisis, to receive a diagnosis, and to build caring networks that work toward personal and interpersonal fulfillment and social justice.

Communities of Care Artist Galleries

The UB Communities of Care project considered grant proposals from artists working in Buffalo and Western New York. We are happy to share the work of each awardee in our Artist Galleries.

  • Julia Bottoms
    9/30/25
    Julia Bottoms is a visual artist based out of Buffalo, NY working primarily in oils and acrylic. Her work often addresses the topic of race and identity as it relates to one's position in mainstream culture. She views her portraits as an opportunity to counter the harmful stigmas and stereotypes imposed by popular media. 
  • Claire M. Connolly
    10/20/25
    Claire Connolly is a figurative artist who creates in the spirit of exchange, to express her relationship with anti-patriarchal experiences. She uses art as a living language—one that can complicate our prevailing order, which exclusively values progress, triumph and fixed ideals. 
  • Megan A. Evans-Rakeepile
    9/30/25
    Megan A. Evans-Rakeepile (Founder, Director, and lead choreographer of MahataMmoho Collective).  Buffalo NY native Megan Rakeepile has studied a wide range of dance styles and techniques for the past thirty plus years. The two genres of dances that she specializes in, Afro Caribbean and Afro fusion. Both genres share similar foundations influenced by the African diaspora and the survival of colonization.
  • Kyla Kegler
    10/26/25
    Kyla Kegler is a choreographer, visual artist and curator who makes paintings, videos and performances that explore existential humor, dynamics of care, community and pleasure. She is the founder and director of performance / movement space Agatha Falls.
  • Legendary The Poet
    10/27/25
    Specializing in freestyle, Legendary The Poet, is a spoken word artist from Buffalo, NY. He has published 10 books of poetry and has been on the poetry scene for 13 years. He has been nominated for three awards, two local and one national, and has been internationally published in the UK. Beyond his artistic work, Legendary also mentors and advocates for disabled people, and teaches about his disability, Cerebral Palsy. Legendary is a fan favorite at the annual disability pride festival. The event celebrates the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26, 1990.