A wash of bright, cheerful colors, papering one large wall like a quilt, is the first thing you notice when you walk into Interact Center’s brand-new gallery in St. Paul. Dozens of paintings and drawings by artist Andy Seymour line the gallery’s entry space nearly from floor to ceiling, with each piece filling an 18-by-24 piece of paper in red, white, yellow, orange, and blue. Instantly, you get the sense you’re peeking into something special.

Seymour has been a part of Interact since 2002. He, like Interact’s 120-plus other artists, lives with a disability. He’s also a working artist who has presented in exhibitions across the state, including at the Minnesota Museum of American Art. But this show, in the first exhibition space within Interact’s new gallery next to its workshop and office building on Minnehaha Avenue, is his first solo show and career retrospective.

The artist’s “Summer” series, which he’s been working on for nearly two decades, is mostly made up of tiny hand-drawn circles, colored in with different markers in patterns and designations only he fully understands. The works are often vivid, intriguing, and rainbow-happy. Others are as monochromatically dark and moody as the night sky.

“Andy doesn’t use a lot of language,” gallery director Brittany Kieler says. “And yet in interviews with him about his work, we’ve learned the circles can represent people. Sometimes they represent people in the studio at Interact, and sometimes they represent family at his lake cabin in northern Minnesota, which is referenced in the name ‘Summer.’ Some look like constellations.”

Thanks to the new gallery’s expansive space, Interact can open two other shows at the same time as Seymour’s retrospective—one a smaller exhibit focused on the myriad ways Interact artists interpret portraiture, and one an expansive multimedia collection called “Collect Our Dream Branches Into a Pile.”

“That show is for all the artists who practice at Interact, and the work is organized and curated by the advocates who work closely with the artists daily,” Kieler says. “So the title, which comes from a book of poetry by an Interact artist and advocate, speaks to the idea of collaboration and working alongside each other.”

Interact has been tightly woven into the Twin Cities’ greater creative community since the organization began in 1996. Artists with a range of disabilities work with staff and advocates, all of whom are practicing artists, in disciplines that interest them: performing arts, ceramics, painting, fiber arts, drawing, and beyond. Artists sell their work through Interact’s website and shows and receive half the proceeds as commission. The other half goes back to Interact to fund programming. Performing artists host original plays and concerts in venues throughout the Twin Cities.

Displaying this magnitude of work at one time would never have been possible in Interact’s former gallery, which lived in the same building as Can Can Wonderland on Prior Avenue in St. Paul. The new space, right next door to Interact’s workshop and rehearsal building on Minnehaha Avenue, is more than twice the former gallery’s size, at around 4,000 square feet. Three distinct exhibition areas mean the organization can host multiple shows at once, and ample free parking, accessible restrooms, and a single-floor building are easier for both visitors and artists to navigate.

“It’s less open than the previous gallery, but it’s more focused,” gallery archivist and collections manager Colleen Harriss says. “We can do three shows; have three things going at once. The space can be used for lots of different things, like community events as well as our art shows. It’s exciting to think about the building and the gallery, not just as a resource for Interact artists, but for the general creative community in the Twin Cities.”

The space will open with a bang: Interact is hosting a giant grand opening celebration on Saturday, May 31, which will give audiences a chance to see all three opening shows, meet Interact artists, watch special performances, and tour Interact Center’s recently renovated workshop and practice space. After that, the gallery will be open a few hours a day Tuesday through Thursday and by appointment.

But it’s not all rainbow-happy colors and performances at Interact.

“The thing is, we’re having this really exciting time of growth amidst a really scary year,” says executive director Joe Price.

Most of Interact’s funding comes from Minnesota’s Department of Human Services and grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Grants and sponsorships from foundations, as well as art sales and personal donations, also help keep the lights on. But Price and the Interact team aren’t sure yet how a recent $300 million DHS budget cut will affect Interact’s funding. Several other arts grants also remain in limbo.

Interact’s staff and supporters remain optimistic about its future, though, and hope the gallery will lead to increased awareness—and sales for the artists. They have no plans to back down.

“There are such massive ideas here at Interact,” Kieler says. “It feels really poignant to show so much of it at once in the gallery for these shows.”

Visit Interact Center and Interact Gallery for the gallery’s grand opening celebration on Saturday, May 31, 1–4 p.m., 1860 Minnehaha Ave. W. and 1902 Minnehaha Ave. W., St. Paul, interactcenterarts.org