Our arts programming began in 1999, when our parent organization MSS, a day support service provider for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, hired our first art facilitators.

By 2009, we had identified individuals who had an intuitive drive for creating work and began supporting them in developing a more intentional artistic practice. Over the next decade we began showing and selling more of the artwork by artists in the program and in 2015 we opened our first gallery space in St. Paul. In 2018, we formalized our studio program, and in 2021 we rebranded the studio program as Fresh Eye Arts and now have 3 studios serving 60+ studio artists with a variety disabilities.

Our current gallery space, Fresh Eye Gallery, opened in 2021 as well. In this space we showcase artwork by artists from our program, alongside artists from the community. Our programming includes open calls, invitationals, guest curated exhibitions (including artist curators from our program), workshops, community nights, and our annual collaborative exhibition, Eye to Eye, where we pair artists of all abilities together to create artwork and foster new connections.

Our purpose is to provide support for artists with disabilities at every stage of their career development. This includes developing and maintaining an artistic practice in our progressive art studio program, facilitating their professional development, providing opportunities for networking and connection with other professional artists and the arts community, and finding opportunities for artists to show and sell their work locally, nationally, and internationally.