Lance Owens is the director of ArtWorking, a Madison area nonprofit program that provides career development and support for artists and entrepreneurs with disabilities. He started the program in 2006 to help direct individuals with disabilities toward viable careers. The building, located just east of Monona, offers woodworking, printing, scanning and private art studios, along with a gift shop selling the artists’ creations. ArtWorking will also begin selling artworks by 45 different artists through a vending machine at the new Madison Public Market, which, according to its website, will have its first soft opening this month.
What do you think is the biggest challenge our community faces?
The biggest challenge we face right now is people being divided on ideological lines and not being able to come together as a community. When I first moved to Wisconsin, I was really struck at the level of cooperation that I would see. We had a really diverse state house, and you would see Republicans and Democrats and everybody sort of just being, like, “Well, this is what’s best for Wisconsin.” I was impressed with the community feel and I still feel like that's a great strength of the Upper Midwest—true for Wisconsin, Minnesota—and part of our Upper Midwest wiring. But right now, there are a lot of people trying to drive a wedge between one another. Trying to figure out how to get those wedges out, so that we can reunite as a community, is the biggest thing I'm concerned about right now.
What do you wish people in our community understood better?
I wish that people understood how, even if others look really different—this is true for people with disabilities, it's true across cultural lines—people's lives are really normal. I’m pretty neurodivergent on a number of axes, and our constituents are pretty neurodivergent as a whole. But whether it's around cognitive and intellectual function or culture or race—truly, our lives are just the same, boring lives. We all have the same boring existence, regardless of who we are. My life might look weird or my identity might look weird, but for me, it’s normal. I just wish we understood how much we all are the same at some level. Even though we’re different, with our basic range of human wants, needs, functions, we’re just really kind of all the same animals.
What is one change you would make if you could that would make life better for people in the community?
If I could, I would like to bring everybody’s anxiety way down. I think we’ve all gotten so stoked up in our anxieties about one another and about the world, life and politics. If there was a way to just calm everybody down, to deescalate everybody's anxiety and aggression, that would be great.
What in our community gives you hope?
I have a lot of hope for us person to person on the local level. I think that when our backs are to the wall, we figure out ways to come together and protect one another. I think this is also especially true for the Upper Midwest. I think that when push comes to shove, we’re able to look out for one another. I see that happening on very hyper-local levels and I think we have that capacity. I’ve seen it at close range and at a distance. We have the ability to move towards being more community oriented and have more mutual support for one another.
This interview is edited and condensed.
