William Scott was born in San Francisco in 1964 and has worked from the Creative Growth Art Center, Oakland since 1992. A nonprofit organization founded in 1974, Creative Growth, provides a professional studio environment, gallery exhibition, and representation for artists with developmental disabilities. William Scott’s practice imagines alternative realities that stem from a fundamental belief in the potential for positive human transformation. While deeply rooted in personal history, Scott’s paintings address wider questions of citizenship, community, and cultural memory. His portrait series of predominantly Black figures encompasses actors, musicians, politicians, and civil rights leaders, as well as self-portraits, family members, and women from the Baptist church he has attended since childhood. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; LACMA, Los Angeles; Oakland Museum of California; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.