William Britt is an award-winning, self-taught artist with developmental disabilities who has been painting for more than 50 years. Born in 1935, he spent most of his first four decades institutionalized at Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, New York. After Willowbrook’s closure due to overcrowding and deplorable living conditions, he lived in group homes and eventually his own apartment. Some of his paintings have sold for several thousand dollars. He once presented a painting of the White House to First Lady Nancy Reagan, and was commissioned to paint the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, on the occasion of Rose Kennedy’s 100th birthday. In 1986, he received the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement. At the award ceremony, Maya Angelou read her poem about his life. Today, at 86, he lives in Westchester County, New York, in an apartment in an Individualized Residential Alternative operated by the Hawthorne Foundation. He still paints every day and his art is represented by Pure Vision Arts .
https://publications.ici.umn.edu/impact/34-2/make-art-make-money
Collezione : MIDB Perm Art Collection