Mutual Admiration Society 2025

Mutual Admiration Society, now in its 5th year, is above all else an opportunity for artists to talk about art.

During the live, virtual program, artists took turns presenting their selected works. Artists from Make Studio, Art Enables (Washington, DC) and Creative Clay (St. Petersburg, FL) chose pieces they admired from two exhibitions, Cordially Invited (in Make Studio’s gallery/online) and Outside Forces (on display at Art Enables/online).

In the audience, individuals, families, and studio spaces full of working artists tuned in to watch, including the presenting studios as well as Arts of Life (Chicago, IL) and Open Hearts Art Center (Asheville, NC).

Make Studio artists on the call.
The viewing party at Creative Clay.
The HUGE viewing party at Creative Clay. Thank you to Creative Clay for capturing the moment!
Make Studio artists on the call.

For those who couldn’t join that day, here are some highlights.

An Art Enables artist selected *Untitled* by Irene Riva of Creativity Explored (CA). Patrick Dwyre commented that the piece reminded him of Aztec art.

Tyrone Weedon was presenting about Lewis Sandoboe’s (Arts of Life) piece, *Universal Studios 1997-2012,* when artists realized that piece was on the wall right behind where the Make Studio artists were sitting. Four artists pointed to it all at once, some with two hands, to Lewis’ amusement. Lewis and the audience swiftly crowd-sourced a list of favorite movies that featured this logo.

Lindsay Johnson from Creative Clay selected the piece *Tiya* by Kiki Chireau-Rodriguez from Center for Creative Works (Wynnewood, PA). Lindsay appreciated the facial expression on this bird and Kiki shared that Tiya is an ostrich.

Another Art Enables presenter selected Hawaiian Shirt by Gav Sears from SAGE Studio (Austin, TX). This piece was a group favorite; in the audience, several Make Studio artists commented, “I would wear that,” and “That shirt looks real.”

Patrick Dwyre (Make Studio) selected the piece A1 Diner by Bruce Winslow of Spindleworks (Brunswick, ME). He mentioned he would like to go there and pointed out a favorite part of the piece: the “robot,” just to the right of center with three dots and a tiny antennae.

Ivy Jenkins from Creative Clay selected Be Not Afraid by Maven Kahn from VisAbility Art Lab (Rockville, MD) and an Art Enables artist selected her piece, *Jabberwocky*. Multiple artists mentioned connecting to Maven Kahn’s work through the lens of mental health.

Towards the end of the program, the audience took a brief virtual tour of a few pieces by other artists that were also on the call. One of these was Ian Bruin of Project Ability (Glasgow, Scotland). Ian’s surreal painting, Home Cinema pictured below, also happens to include ostriches. Ian tuned in from the U.K. at 6 pm local time with an evening cup of tea. Cheerio!

Each year, Mutual Admiration Society offers artists a chance to directly hear feedback on their art, brag on each other’s work, hear a variety of diverse but allied voices, and to quite literally peer into the spaces where each group of artists is working, all across the U.S. and beyond!

(Special thank you to Rosie Eck, who prepared and expertly ran the Zoom call, as well as captured and compiled these moments.)

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