Harrell Fletcher and Chris Johanson collaborated with David Jarvey, Michael Loggins, and other artists from Creativity Explored to produce a publication and poster series of drawings and writings, A Place Called the Universe. The book was based in a thoughtful exchange of ideas and preoccupations among the artists. The finished book, published in 2002, features images by 32 artists alongside written texts and interviews about the concept of “the universe.”
Fletcher and Johanson planned to distribute the book for free to ten Bay Area grade schools where they would be presented to students in conjunction with classroom workshops led by the artists, but the full distribution plan proved difficult to realize.
Creativity Explored, based in San Francisco’s Mission District, provides a supportive studio environment for artists with development disabilities and opportunities for them to exhibit and sell their work. Since its inception, Creativity Explored’s innovative and respected programs, structure, and culture have served as an organizational model worldwide in the field of art and disability.
After receiving his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and his MFA from California College of the Arts, Harrell Fletcher studied organic farming at University of California, Santa Cruz and went on to work on a variety of small Community Supported Agriculture farms, which impacted his work as an artist. He has produced a variety of socially engaged collaborative and interdisciplinary projects since the 1990s and has exhibited widely. He is now an Associate Professor of Art and Social Practice at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.