Momentum Partners with Interact Artists to Bring Artwork into Commercial Design

Momentum partners with Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts to bring nine artists with disabilities into commercial interiors through a collection of customizable digital wallcoverings.

Lauren Brant

Nov. 9, 2026

5 min read

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A chalk-style drawing of pink, red, and yellow tulips digitally printed on a wallcovering, with curved yellow chairs and round tables in the foreground

Various grey and yellow shapes form a landscape image on a wallcovering. — Devin Wildes’ work has been exhibited throughout the Twin Cities. This painting transforms scenes of landscapes into a wallcovering.

Artwork transforming into wallcoverings might seem like a straightforward design transformation. For Devin Wildes, one of nine artists with the Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts participating in the center’s new collaboration with Momentum, it represents more.

“I did not know my drawing could become a wall,” Wildes said. “Now it can. That is cool.”

A wallcovering of brightly colored forms suggestive of flowers, trees, and mountains. — Kaia Burg’s pencil on paper piece draws from both memory and imagination as she transforms familiar forms into something entirely her own.

Working with nine artists with disabilities, the Momentum and Interact Center partnership brings original artwork from the Minnesota-based nonprofit into Momentum’s Digital Art Library, transforming their distinct creative perspectives of the world into large-scale digital wallcoverings for commercial interiors. The collection includes expressive florals, imagined landscapes, and graphic architectural forms, allowing interior designers new ways to bring creativity, individuality, and storytelling into hospitality, healthcare, workplace, and educational spaces.

A personal connection sparked the collaboration. As a longtime industry professional, SANDOW Design Group executive vice president and design futurist AJ Paron introduced the organizations. She also happens to be the mother of Interact artist Devin Wildes.

“My son Devin has been a part of Interact for approximately 9 years. Not only does Interact give him access to different materials and mediums to experiment with, as well as resources to learn new skills and techniques, but, more importantly, it has given him community,” Paron explained. “It is a place where labels aren’t relevant and where the artists are being celebrated for their creative value.”

A colorful Rainbow Patchwork features bright colors that blend together. — Katie Bretzman’s artwork uses color and pattern to invite the viewer to wander through each scene, moving across vivid patches of lime, magenta, deep blue, and more.

When Momentum explored the partnership’s possibilities for digital wallcoverings, the opportunity felt natural.

“We saw an opportunity where we can lend greater visibility to the amazing community of artists there and really give them a new viewpoint within architectural spaces,” said Sarah Nelson, creative director at Momentum.

Interact gallery director Brittany Kieler explained how the partnership also reflects a shared commitment to broadening creative representation. Founded in 1996, Interact provides a self-directed, open-studio environment where professional artists with disabilities hone their skills, explore mediums, and foster community. The gallery archive has amassed thousands of original works throughout its history. Participating artists Bill Crane and Andy Seymour have practiced at Interact for over 25 years.

Following Chicago Design Week in 2025, Momentum’s team toured Interact’s studios and gallery, met with artists, and browsed the archives. The team chose nine pieces from the archives that could translate into horizontal wallcovering formats while retaining each artist’s distinctive visual language.

A wallcovering of various mushrooms in bright colors. — Sarah Armstrong’s work illustrates various shapes and colors of mushrooms, inspired by summers camping with her family.

Some pieces required creative adaptation. Momentum’s team grouped individual animal illustrations into a large collage. Other works like a mushroom composition already suited the intended format. They also discussed different colors, patterns, and visual narratives that could complement different commercial settings.

“Each of these artists brings such a unique perspective and creative voice of their own,” Nelson said. “There’s a freedom and individuality in their work that I feel is really refreshing. It brings something unexpected, personal, and obviously incredibly human into the spaces that we create.”

Bright pinks, purples, and yellows represent tulips on this wallcovering. — Tulips is an explosive field of colors, representing Bill Crane’s interpretation of nature.

Kieler hopes designers recognize the individuality within the collection because Interact’s artists contribute more than visual interest. Their work brings perspectives shaped by their experiences, interests, and creative processes to interior design, while reflecting the organization’s broader culture of inclusivity and community building.

Artist Katie Bretzman captures that spirit in the collection’s lookbook: “I want this work to inspire people to make artwork themselves.”

As designers peruse the lookbook and specify these wallcoverings, take the opportunity to consider how the stories behind materials influence the experience. Artwork can introduce warmth and comfort in healthcare spaces. Expressive compositions can encourage curiosity and conversation in educational settings. Shared visual narratives help people connect and develop a sense of belonging in workplace and hospitality spaces.

A series of lines and circles create an otherworldly wallcovering. — Michael Engebretson’s Cosmic artwork showcases his kaleidoscopic piece that imagines a future beyond Earth.

Nelson encourages designers to see a mural as more than a standalone decorative element. Artwork informs a broader design strategy that influences color palettes, furnishings, materials, lighting, and the space’s aesthetic.

“It’s not just choosing something because it’s beautiful and there’s a story behind it, but how do you use that in the rest of the space?” she said. “How do you flow that element through intentional design into the entire environment?”

Bright circular shapes as a wallcovering. — Summer by Andy Seymour is a piece that represents memories of summers spent at his mother’s lake cabin in Minnesota.

In addition to bringing the artists’ work into commercial interiors, Momentum will donate a portion of collection sales to Interact to advance its mission of encouraging artistic expression, challenging perceptions of disability, and building community connections. Artists also receive compensation through the licensing agreement, creating more professional opportunity and recognition.

“My art is different. I am different. Different can be good,” said Wildes.

Momentum configured the collection’s wallcoverings at 120 inches high by 200 inches wide, but designers can customize the dimensions to meet project requirements. Explore the artwork through Momentum’s Digital Art Library, where the team can help scale and adjust each piece.

This wallcovering depicts animals from sharks, coyotes, cheetahs and roadrunners. — David Bauman’s piece features various animals, capturing a sense of wonder about the world.

“As Interact celebrates its 30th anniversary, we want to emphasize that Interact artists continue to break down barriers through high-profile collaborations like this, to showcase their undeniable talent,” said Kieler. “The art world has made strides in recent years to increase the recognition of artists with diverse lived experiences and identities, but, despite a wealth of incredible work and creative achievement, artists with disabilities are still underrepresented in major institutions. This collaboration with Momentum translates the artists’ work into large-scale, immersive formats, showcasing their truly singular perspectives on a premier commercial stage.”

The collection marks the beginning of a longer relationship between Momentum and Interact. Throughout 2027, Momentum plans to spotlight each of the nine artists through digital features, exploring individual practices and creative perspectives.

“Interact is my place to make art,” Wildes said. “Momentum helps my art go places.”

When the design industry makes room for more creative voices, the impact is greater than a new surface or product collection. It fosters recognition, connection, and a more inclusive built environment.

A snowy mountain scene wallcovering. — Carl Clark’s snow-capped mountain painting comes together with brush strokes of blue, white, and black.

Meet The Artists

Andrew Seymour sits in his wheel chair with one hand holding his ball cap. A wall of his work is seen behind him. — Almost every piece that Andrew Seymour has created in the last decade is titled *Summer*—a reference to summers at his mother’s lake cabin in northern Minnesota. Seymour describes the circular forms throughout his work as people, and they appear in every piece. In some cases, they represent family at the lake or artists in the studio. Seymour begins each piece by drawing a circle in the top left corner of the paper or canvas, working across the page in a way that echoes the process of writing.

Bill Crane sits in his wheelchair as he paints on a large canvas with a paint brush. — In the last 20+ years, Bill Crane has developed a massive body of work composed largely of ink drawing and acrylic paintings. In densely filled pages, explosive fields of color, and loosely rendered figures, Crane expresses his love of nature, animals, and friends—often referencing scenes from the Interact studio, where he has long found inspiration. An avid observer of the everyday, Crane records the people and places that move him.

Carl Clark leans over one of his drawings on a table. A background of his art hangs on the wall. — When asked what he would like people to know about his work, Carl Clark says, “I wanted to pass time.” Clark composes expansive spaces—skies, fields, mountains, and seas—with contemplative, measured strokes. He brings a pragmatic approach to his paintings, lacing them every now and then with a liminal quality. A small town, articulated in transparent hues, recedes softly into a mountain. Ships traverse grey waters, appearing to be at once moving, frozen, or sinking. Some works seem to suggest the supernatural, with indecipherable structures and enigmatic, billowing puffs of light. In others, dramatic shifts in scale present minute details huddled inside grandiose vistas. Looming hills are dappled with tiny houses, their windows and doors so small as to be painted in just a few weightless gestures.

David Bauman stands in front of wall featuring his artwork. — David Bauman was an artist at Interact from 1997 to 2014. In addition to his visual art practice, Bauman was a talented comedic performer as part of Interact’s theater cast. His visual art reflects Bauman’s long-held interests in animals and the natural world. Studies of big cats, racoons, and dinosaurs later gave way to an extensive series on sharks and whales after David took a family trip to Hawaii in 2005 that would change his life. Taken with the clouds, the craters, the waves, the animals, and the volcanoes, Bauman made Hawaii the focus of his work. In 2014, his sister helped him relocated to the Big Island, where he spent the rest of his life.

Devin Wildes stands in a photography studio. — Devin Wildes’ drawings, paintings, and mixed media sculptures span a broad range of subjects, from natural landscapes to cartoons and anime to famous landmarks. Wildes’ recent works on paper respond to photographs sent to him from friends and family. In patches of bright, flat pigment, they convey rural and urban scenes in both the U.S. and abroad. Wildes’ graphic minimalism and tight cropping distill these images into tranquil arrangements of shape, pattern, and color, sometimes nearing abstraction.

Kaia Burg smiles in front of a wall featuring her vibrant artwork. — Kaia Kathleen Burg’s wildly energetic drawings transport the viewer into a world defined by expressive marks and charged colors. In her work, Burg distills personal experiences and interests into simplified shapes, arranging them in dramatic compositions that stretch to the edges of the image plane. Oblong shapes may represent trees or flowers or figures; triangles may stand in for moutains; loosely symmetrical patches of color may represent butterfly wings. Burg draws on her own memories and inventions to develop each composition, saying, “It’s in my head.”

Katie Bretzman smiles in front of a colorful background. — Katie Bretzman describes her quilt-like drawing as aerial views of living spaces and scenes from home. To make her drawings, she carefully repeats a series of vertical marks, using a systematic rotation of the same markers throughout a piece. In these intimate studies, each one about the size of a blueprint, Bretzman meditates on her own experiences in domestic spaces and built environments. Her playful choice of color and use of pattern invite the viewer to wander across the image, traversing patches of lime, magenta, and deep blue, and inhabit Bretzman’s prismatic scenes.

Michael sits in front of several of his artworks. — Michael Engebretson’s kaleidoscopic drawings and paintings imagine a future beyond Earth, a utopian civilization that he refers to as a “Class Seven.” “Class Seven inhabitants are trans-dimensional, multiversal, nonlinear space-time continuum thinkers,” he says. “They are more free-thinking than we are. They are open to any possibility, any idea, any conversation, any scenario. They have better health care and economics and special support systems that can help them out. They can help human/alien hybrids and cyborgs and robots with disabilities with specialized psychological and biological care that is designed for them.”

Sarah Armstrong smiles in front of a background in shades of turquoise, green, and red. — Sarah Armstrong’s luminous paintings capture scenes from Minnesota’s North Shore and beyond. In rich swaths of pigment and loose but measured strokes, each piece reflects the stillness and peace Armstrong finds in nature. Her process is calm and relaxed, while leaving room for discovery. “You have to be patient,” she says. “If something doesn't look right, you keep trying and paint over, paint over, paint over, until you find what you were looking for.” She revels in new beginnings. “I love starting the day with a blank canvas.”

About the Author

Lauren Brant

Staff Writer, interiors+sources and BUILDINGS

Lauren Brant is Staff Writer for both interiors+sources and BUILDINGS. She is an award-winning editor and reporter whose work has appeared in daily and weekly newspapers. In 2020, the weekly newspaper won the Rhoades Family Weekly Print Sweepstakes—the division winner across the state's weekly newspapers. Lauren was also awarded the top feature photo across Class A papers. She holds a B.A. in journalism and media communications from Colorado State University-Fort Collins and a M.S. in organizational management from Chadron State College.