Art Spark Texas will hand out its 9th Annual Artist of the Year Awards on Sunday, September 27, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Rollins Theatre inside the Long Center for the Performing Arts at 701 W. Riverside Dr. in Austin, honoring a slate of Texas artists, advocates, and creative leaders whose work spans wheelchair-tire painting, community theater direction, and veteran-focused art therapy. The free event includes award presentations, artist spotlights, and stories about each recipient's achievements, and it centers artists with disabilities.
According to CultureMap Austin, the ceremony will bring together artists, families, supporters, and community members from across the state to recognize honorees whose creativity, leadership, and dedication embody the nonprofit's mission. Admission is free with registration, and ticket information is available through Eventvesta, though the event notes that weather or other concerns could alter the schedule. Per Eventbrite, the ceremony will also feature live captioning and ASL interpretation upon request, and the Rollins Theatre is a fully accessible venue.
A Wheelchair That Doubles as a Paintbrush
Among this year's honorees is Jonah Dillon, an Austin artist living with muscular dystrophy who received the Director's Commendation Award. Dillon creates abstract canvases by wrapping his power wheelchair tires in wrap, coating them in paint, and letting the motion of his wheels do the work of a brush, a technique the artist began experimenting with in high school after noticing that paint left tracks when driven over, according to Art Spark Texas.
Also honored is Donna Provencher, an autistic journalist, actor, and director who received the Haven Street-Allen Award for Texas artists with disabilities. Provencher directed two 2026 Central Texas stage productions, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown at Boerne Community Theatre and Legally Blonde at the Wimberley Players, and is a past recipient of Texas Associated Press Managing Editors journalism awards, per BroadwayWorld.
From UT's Performing Arts Stage to Pastel Pet Portraits
Pebbles Wadsworth received the Gloria Bond Creative Aging Award, given to artists 65 and older. Wadsworth spent 15 years directing the University of Texas at Austin Performing Arts Center before shifting her focus to creating pastel pet portraits in Wimberley, donating proceeds toward emergency veterinary care for low-income pet owners, according to her official website.
Glenn Towery, a Vietnam War combat Navy veteran, received the Creative Veteran Service Award. Towery founded the Veterans Suicide Prevention Channel and the Austin Veteran Arts Festival to help veterans cope with PTSD through creative expression, a mission documented by Bold Journey Magazine, which also notes Towery graduated as the first Black valedictorian in Columbia College Hollywood's history in 1997.
Honorees Reach Beyond Austin
The awards also reached outside the capital city this year. Penny LeLeux, founder and president of the Barefoot on the Bayou Film Group and director of the Texas Film Belt Project, received the Lynn Marie Johnson Media Arts Award for her work promoting independent film production and disability representation in East Texas, as reported by the Orange Leader.
Rachel Salcido, a disabled Xicane painter and printmaker from El Paso, received the SPARK Award for emerging artists. Salcido served as the inaugural featured artist for the University of Texas at Austin Disability Cultural Center gallery, where her 2025 solo exhibition, Cuerpos Fronterizos, explored disability, nature, and borderland identities, according to the UT Austin Disability Cultural Center.
Three Decades of Disability Arts Advocacy
The awards land during a milestone year for the host organization. Art Spark Texas was founded in 1996 as Access Arts Austin by Betty Siegel, Kathy Blackburn, and Audley Blackburn, later operating as VSA Texas before rebranding to its current name in 2019, and the nonprofit is marking 30 years of disability arts advocacy in Texas in 2026.
The organization's accessibility work has already made local headlines this year. Weeks before announcing its 2026 honorees, Art Spark Texas helped stage an accessible bluegrass dance show, providing ASL-interpreted and audio-described performances for Performa/Dance's production of Bluegrass Junction. Taken together with the September 27 ceremony, the organization's recent run of projects shows how deeply adaptive creative processes and accessible arts infrastructure have become woven into Central Texas' cultural life.
