Manhattan hosts exhibition of world's only artist with Down syndrome
'14.01.2025'
ForumDaily New York
Rachel Handlin's exhibition opens in Manhattan. She is the only person with Down syndrome to earn a master's degree in fine arts, reports Present Tense.
For artists like Rachel Handlin, the doors to the world of great art have remained closed until now. So her personal exhibition, and even in Manhattan, can safely be considered a sensation.
A small but important community of people
Rachel Handlin is 29 years old. She has spent most of her life in school. First there was high school, then the California Institute of the Arts, where she became a professional photographer. Then Pratt Institute. Upon graduation, Rachel became the only person on the planet with Down syndrome to receive a master's degree.
The girl's steel sculptures are empty silhouettes. This is how she depicts herself in the sculptures and calls herself "invisible".
“People always ask my mother, not me, what my name is and how old I am. It’s frustrating. They ignore me. It makes me feel invisible because I have Down syndrome,” the artist admitted.
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For the past five years, Rachel and her parents have travelled the world – Peru, Australia, England, Spain. Rachel has used her huge Graflex camera to take portraits of her peers – university students with Down syndrome. Her images have made it clear that there is a very small but important community of people in the world. They may be chocolatiers, chefs, actors, artists. The only person Rachel has photographed remotely via Zoom is a historian named Bohdan from Lutsk, Ukraine. But Rachel is determined to get to him when the war is over.
“When my daughter was still in school, I would manually retype her textbooks to make the font size bigger. I felt terribly lonely then. I wondered: is there anyone else in this world who is sitting at a computer and doing this for their child? Then I found the first post on Facebook that one of these children had graduated from school. And what’s important: all the children in these portraits of Rachel and their parents “We didn’t know each other existed,” said the artist’s mother, Laura Handlin.
Rachel's talent was discovered by chance - the little girl was given a camera to keep her busy while her dad tried on a coat in a store. And Rachel began enthusiastically photographing shop windows.
“We looked at the pictures later and thought, ‘Hmm… these don’t look like your average schoolgirl pictures.’ They had a real point of view. We were completely blown away and knew there was a reason for it,” Rachel’s father said.
“But it wasn’t until after the end of the school year that we saw that all of her camera’s flash drives were loaded with amazing photos,” the mother added.
Fighting the system
Rachel's unique path would not have happened if the Handlin family had not fought for their child's opportunities from the very beginning. The world education system implies that children with Down syndrome, if they go to school, only go to special classes, and drop out long before receiving a certificate. Rachel, on the other hand, studied like all ordinary children.
“Our circle of parents, teachers, doctors and the children themselves – we all want people all over the world to see that this is possible. When one parent of such a child manages to win in the battle with the education officials, then others will be able to say: 'Now I know and have seen that victory is possible!'” – says Jay Handlin
“For my daughter, who also has Down syndrome, this exhibition is a phenomenal source of inspiration. She is still in school and is also a very creative person. This will give her strength!” emphasized exhibition visitor Lori McIntosh, the mother of a child with Down syndrome.
“She chose her own destiny, we just helped open the doors”
With her exhibition, Rachel tries to give inspiration and confidence even to those who are not yet born.
“When I found out I was having a baby girl with Down syndrome, I wondered what was in store for us. But after Rachel’s exhibition, I realised that anything is theoretically possible!” said Erin Atwell.
When asked, “What word would you use to describe your Rachel?” her dad replies, “Unstoppable,” and then adds, “She chose her own destiny, we just helped open the doors so that she had somewhere to confidently step forward.”
“Did we ever dream of her finishing college and then getting a master’s degree? You know, it wasn’t even out of the realm of possibility! A master’s degree seemed like a big deal. Crazy. We couldn’t even imagine it at the beginning,” Rachel’s father summed up.