2021 Annual Report

I had the startling realization today that this in only my second annual report! I had to do a reality check, how can it have only been two years? It seems like a lifetime ago that I took on the role of Executive Director for Art Possible Ohio. Since 2019 we have gone from a staff of one to a team of two, changed our organization name and brand, endured a global pandemic, moved to virtual formats for most of our programming, exhibited Accessible Expressions Ohio in a museum outside Columbus for the first time in 25 years, grappled with social issues, political turmoil, and economic uncertainty. It has been a lot. Fortunately we have not done it alone. We are all tired and dazed. We are all looking around wondering how we will emerge and recover. When I feel weary of questions like "what will the new normal look like?" I remind myself that "normal" never actually was normal. I think about how artists and creatives challenge us to question "normal" because it is at best limiting and at its worst dangerously complacent. I invite us to go into 2022 encouraging each other to stop trying to shrink ourselves into those "normal" places we have outgrown.