Beginning Thursday, Miami University's Middletown Campus Community Center will feature the work of disabled artists from the Visionaries and Voices (V&V) studio and gallery.

Middletown's Diversity Council has partnered with the Butler County Board of Mental Retardation and Development Disabilities (MRDD) to sponsor and fund the V&V exhibit for the second year in a row, according to Jim Ewers, chair of the Diversity Council and associate dean for student affairs at Miami Middletown.

V&V and V&V North are two non-profit studios and galleries in Cincinnati that support disabled artists.

"Not only are we showing what our artists are capable of, but we're showing that they're just like everybody else, disability or not," said Niel Hartman, V&V North studio director.

Two exhibits from the V&V North studio will be displayed at the center in Johnston Hall: "Photographic Memory: Art and Images by Jarrod Arencibia and other Visionary Artists" and "A Day in the Life."

"Photographic Memory" is a compilation of works by 16 V&V artists living in Butler County, and "Day in the Life" features photographs of the studio and artists.

"The artwork is mainly photography, paintings and drawings," Hartman said.

According to Ewers, events will still be held in the Campus Community Center while the exhibits are on display, so that people from different organizations can see the artwork while using the center. This helps accomplish the Diversity Council's goal, according to Ewers.

"(The goal is to) give (the V&V artists) a forum for their expression and public exposure," he said.

An opening reception for the art show will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Campus Community Center. Both the opening event and exhibit are free and open to the public. The show will be featured in Middletown throughout the month of March.

According to Hartman, the reception includes a slide show introducing the program, followed by an opportunity for the featured artists to speak.

Last year's V&V exhibit was the first art show in Middletown's Campus Community Center, according to Hartman, and the upcoming exhibit is also special because the artists are only from the Butler County area, rather than compiling work of V&V artists from all over Cincinnati, as in the 2007 display.

"(V&V's) co-founder Keith Banner suggested featuring Butler County artists since Miami University Middletown is in Butler County, and the program is sponsored in part by Butler County MRDD," Hartman said.

The Diversity Council was introduced to V&V by one of its members, Cathy Howell, who worked with the organization through her job at the MRDD, Ewer said.

Founded in 1999, V&V's goal is to ensure that "artists with disabilities are valued members of the cultural community, and that they have opportunities for artistic success and creative growth," according to the V&V vision statement on the studio's Web site.

After the success of its first major exhibit, "Art Thing" in 2001, V&V opened its own gallery two years later in 2003 according to the Web site. Since then the non-profit organization has grown from supporting 12 local disabled artists to 300.

In March 2007, V&V opened its second studio, V&V North, Hartman said, and other than the Middletown exhibit, the two studios hold an annual art festival in Cincinnati called Visionnati. Several galleries and restaurants in the Cincinnati area also display the work of V&V artists.