Larry Bissonnette

Larry Bissonnette is a disability rights advocate and artist who lives in Williston, Vermont. He has been painting and drawing since he was a young child and exhibits his art regularly both locally and nationally. His work has been most recently featured at the Amy Tarrant Gallery at the Flynn Center for Performing Arts in Burlington, Vermont in a solo exhibition in 2015 entitled, “Looking Out: The Self-Taught Art of Larry Bissonnette”, a 2016 group exhibition entitled “Amazing GRACE (Grassroots Arts and Community Effort) – Celebrating 40 Years of Artmaking” and in a 2017 group exhibition at Lesley University entitled “3 Artists Celebrating Autism”. In the 2016 South End Art Hop, he was awarded second prize in the juried artist show.

In 1991, Larry learned to communicate through typing and began combining words with his art to express his thoughts and ideas. Over the past 20 years, he has been a featured presenter at many national educational conferences and has written and spoken on the topics of autism, communication and art. He is also both the subject and writer of an award winning film about his art and life, called, “My Classic Life as an Artist: A Portrait of Larry Bissonnette” (2005) and starred in a feature length documentary directed by Gerardine Wurzburg about adults with autism called “Wretches and Jabberers” (2010).

Larry receives support services from Howard Center, located in Burlington, VT. Howard Center offers mental health, substance use, and developmental services across the lifespan. The agency's 1,600 staff provide help in over 60 locations, primarily in Chittenden County. More than 16,000 clients and community members received support from Howard Center last year.