Artist Talk: Emily Sara

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Emily Sara (she/her) is a queer, disabled, neurodivergent, researcher, publisher, organizer, artist, designer and Assistant Professor of Graphic Design. She specializes in teaching Accessible Design and has an active studio practice as well. Using the language of advertising and animation, her work critiques the Medical Industrial Complex (MIC) and societal control over disabled bodies.

As a member and activist of the disability community, Sara’s work and research explores the pressures the social and physical world place on the disabled body. Sara negotiates how sick and disabled bodies are shown, or excluded, from the imaginary, the infrastructures surrounding them, and the malleability and pressures of conforming to a certain standard. Using the language of graphics and drawings found in the American healthcare industry, advertising, and cartoons in popular culture, Sara creates acute critiques with playful narratives.

Founder of two initiatives, she is editor-in-chief at cripple, a publishing initiative that exclusively supports disabled artists and designers—and sick and tired, a design firm that focuses on accessibility, consulting, and providing opportunities for other disabled talents.

Emily received her undergraduate degree from Boston University in Advertising and Art History and her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. She is the author of the article Fighting the Art World’s Ableism published by Hyperallergic and is presently conducting research for Center for Book Arts on the intersections of accessibility and book design.

Aside from teaching full-time via a Visiting Assistant Professor Position at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, she is also currently collaborating on several publications due out in the coming year, giving lectures throughout the so-called U.S., and fabricating a new series of sculptures/drawings when her body allows. She is also applying for a service dog, searching for an affordable accessible van for her wheelchair, attempting to keep her chronic pain at 7 out of 10 or lower, and staying alive.

They currently have work on display as part of the Playthings exhibition in the Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, as well as a forthcoming show in the Scholes Library special projects gallery.