Art Beyond Sight Awareness Alert 3:
Accessible Programming
Art Education for the Blind’s Art Beyond Sight Awareness
Week. Celebrate October
11-25!
Awareness Week is a chance for museums, libraries, schools
and other community
institutions – even individuals –to showcase the work they
are doing to promote art
education for people who are blind or visually impaired.
DON’T MISS OUR FREE TRAINING!
This Monday, October 18. 9 am – 9 pm EST.
ART EDUCATION FOR THE BLIND’S TELEPHONE CRASH COURSE
This 12-session course covers a wide range of topics, from
research on tactile
perception to best-practices for developing a program for
people who are blind. Click
for schedule and instructions about dialing in. Join us for
one or all of these
sessions. This is a FREE telephone conference call.
Art Beyond Sight Awareness: You Can Do Your Part!
·
Send this email to everyone on your list
·
JOIN ART BEYOND SIGHT ONLINE COMMUNITY: in your Field or in
your Neighborhood
Discussion Groups -- share your experiences and talk to
experts.
We have five different discipline-based groups: Museums,
Educators, Learning Tools,
Community and Advocacy, and Theory and Research.
Listservs. State-by-state or Around the World
·
PARTICIPATE in our eBay Benefit Auction. There are three
easy ways you can help: Sell
an item on eBay on behalf of Art Education for the Blind
(you choose the percentage of
your proceeds that go to AEB); buy an item being sold to
benefit AEB or make an
in-kind donation!
·
Register your accessible art program or museum on Vision
Connection’s Help Near You
searchable database at www.visionconnection.org. This will
increase participation in
your programs and attract local patrons and tourists who are
blind or have low vision.
·
BECOME A MENTOR ! If you are a museum or an arts
professional and would like to
participate in an e-mentoring program for someone who is
blind or visually impaired,
please email your contact information to
[log in to unmask] ; subject line: Mentor
program
What is Art Beyond Sight?
Art Beyond Sight is an international collaborative of
community-based groups and local
affiliates of national agencies; museums and other
arts-related organizations;
elementary and high schools; colleges and universities;
national and international
advocacy groups; and blind, visually impaired, and sighted
art enthusiasts. Art Beyond
Sight provides a forum for ongoing interdisciplinary
dialogues among researchers and
practitioners, who share expertise and materials. On the
local level, the
collaborative assists museum professionals and other
educators; parents; artists; and
art lovers to create vehicles for lasting change in their
communities.
Art Education for the Blind's October 11 Press Conference to
be televised
Manhattan Neighborhood Network, MNN cable television, will
broadcast Art Education for
the Blind's October 11 Press Conference, held on the steps
of New York City's City
Hall, at the times below.
The press conference was held to officially kick off Art
Beyond Sight Awareness Week.
Speakers included: Elisabeth Axel, founder and Executive
Director of Art Education for
the Blind,
Mindy Fliegelman, Second Vice President of National
Federation of the Blind of New
York, Dr. Dennis Sparacino, AEB Consultant and Volunteer;
Ken Struve of the South Street Seaport Museum and also a
member of the NYC Museum
Access Consortium; Rebecca Hinde, access advisor, Lower East
Side Tenement Museum, and
secretary of the Museum Access Consortium; Reed Devlin,
representative of the Museum
of Modern Art; Dr. Carole R. Gothelf, Assistant Executive
Director of Programs and
Services, The Shield Institute; Leon MCCutcheon, an Artist
and Participant in The
Shield Institute’s Program; Carl Jacobsen, President of
National Federation of the
Blind of New York; Dr. Nina Levent, Associate Director of
Art Education for the Blind
Airing times are:
Sunday 10/17/2004 at 12:00 pm (noon)
Sunday 10/17/2004 at 4:00 pm
Wednesday 10/27/2004 at 12:30 pm
Friday 10/29/2004 at 12:00 pm
Wednesday 11/10/2004 at 10:00 pm
MNN broadcasts in the NYC area on Time Warner's channel 34
(with converter box) or 78
(without converter box) and RCN Cable's channel 107 (with
converter box) or 110
(without box). There is a possibility of additional
showings, but they are
unscheduled, so we cannot alert you to them in advance.
READ ON FOR MORE on the artists, museums and exciting
projects and events of the Art
Beyond Sight Collaborative and Art Beyond Sight Awareness
Week 2004.
International Conference: Ancona, Italy. October 21-23, 2004
“Art Within Reach: Achieving Barrier-Free Educational Access
To Our Cultural Heritage”
Organized by the Museo Tattile Statale Omero
and the Istituto dei Ciechi F. Cavazza of Bologna.
Conference goals
The long standing debate about access to culture, accessible
museum pathways,
integration of the visually impaired into mainstream
schools, the workplace and
society in general, has led public and private museums to
examine the multiple
psycho-rehabilitative functions of an aesthetic education.
The perception, cognition
and interpretation of aesthetically-rich images can induce
structured and creative
learning processes which play an important role in both the
individual and collective
formation of the person.
The subjects to be discussed at the conference have been
chosen to contribute to our
overall aim which is to create methods of teaching Art that
can be used by the
visually impaired and the sighted of all ages and in diverse
contexts. Our starting
points will be disciplines such as the physiology and
phenomenology of vision, the
psychology of optical and tactile perception, typhlology,
aesthetics, pedagogy, theory
and teaching of the arts and epistemology. The conference
prepares the ground for a
fruitful interdisciplinary debate between the various
experts whose fields of
knowledge we consider to be complementary. The results will
be published as a
scientific paper, which will describe the current situation
in this field at both
national and international level. It will also be a useful
handbook for anyone working
in art education in museums, art galleries, or schools.
The conference will be held over three days: the first two
days will focus on
aesthetic, cognitive and psycho-rehabilitative approaches,
as well as the importance
and benefits of a special artistic education for both the
sighted and the visually
handicapped. The third day will concentrate on access
policies to museums and, in
particular, access for the visually impaired. The day will
start with speeches by
international experts in accessibility and heritage
preservation and continue with
reports from some of the most prestigious museums of the
world detailing their
experience in this area. There will be guided tours of the
Museo Tattile Statale Omero
and there will be an illustrative exhibition with
translations of some famous
paintings into bas-relief, organized by the Museo Anteros of
Bologna.
For more information, go to:
http://www.museoomero.it/omero_convegno.html
Contemporary Artist Focus
Ann Cunningham, sculptor and educator
Ann Cunningham has been carving stone since she was fifteen
years old but it
wasn't until 1990 that she wondered if the slate low relief
sculptures she was
making could be interpreted by touch as well as sight.
This question led Ann to explore how the underutilized sense
of touch
might be trained through art to function on a higher level.
The bas relief stories and
exhibits that she has developed out of this exploration
include
most recently a commission for the National Federation of
the Blind.
It depicts Erik Weihenmayer's assent of Mount Everest, as
the first blind climber to
reach the summit. Since 1998 Ann has been teaching art
classes to develop
self-expression through the sense of touch at the Colorado
Center for the Blind.
Cunningham is currently launching a publishing house to
present affordable visually
and tactually accessible books.
This multi-sensory reading experience is designed to create
a deeper and more
meaningful impression for students of all abilities and
ages. You can see the work at:
www.acunningham.com
Current exhibition The Feel of Flight (October 9 through
December 5, 2004) at The
Wildlife Experience, 10035 South Peoria, Parker, Colorado
80134 (720) 488-3300 Bronze,
marble, slate and painted plaster; 3D and low relief
sculptures that explore birds and
the world from their perspective. This exhibit is entirely
tactually and visually
accessible. The exhibit has Braille and print text, sound
recordings of bird calls and
a tactile graphic to take home.
Image left: Young smiling girl touches edge of a white
marble sculpture of
bird,displayed on pedestal. Braille and text information is
visible on pedestal.
Project Focus:
Non-Visual Art Project
Orchard House Preparatory School, Chiswick; Dorton House
School for the Blind, Royal
London Society for the Blind; and the Victoria & Albert
Museum, London, UK, are
running an experimental art project concerned with
integrating a partially non-visual
art curriculum in schools. The premise behind the project is
to create art through
non-visual reference, which is appreciable by students who
are blind and sighted.
Throughout October, students at Orchard House will attempt
to represent pieces of art
verbally to each other through non-visual reference, and
attend programs by visually
impaired students and art educators on understand artifacts
through non-visual means.
Students from both schools will then collaborate to create
non-visual self-portraits
and work related to pieces from the Victoria & Albert Museum
collection, with an
exhibition of the students work proposed for early Spring
2005.
WXXI-FM and Reachout Radio Program
The Radio Reading Service For The Blind/Visually Impaired,
Rochester, New York
WXXI Reachout Radio is a radio reading service that provides
24-hour per day readings
of local and national newspapers, magazines, and books for
people who are
print-handicapped. Eligible print-handicapped* individuals
include those with visual
impairment or blindness, those who suffer from a physical
disability which prohibits
the holding of printed material, or one with a learning
disability such as dyslexia.
WXXI Reachout Radio is closed-circuit and is accessible
through a specially-tuned
radio which is provided free of charge to eligible
applicants. The service is also
made available for people who are temporarily disabled due
to surgery or accident.
WXXI Reachout Radio is provided in partnership with
ABVI-Goodwill Industries of
Greater Rochester.
Reachout Radio is located in the WXXI Public Broadcasting
facility at 280 State Street
in downtown Rochester. The service is broadcast on a
subcarrier frequency of 91.5 FM
in Rochester, and 90.3 FM in Houghton. Its broadcast reaches
listeners in Monroe,
Orleans, Wayne, Genesee, Ontario, Wyoming, Livingston,
Yates, Seneca and portions of
Allegany and Steuben counties. WXXI Reachout Radio is one of
more than 120 radio
reading services available through the United States that
are members of the
International Association of Audio Information Services
(IAAIS).
In recent years, our service has broadened our mission
beyond making the printed word
accessible to Rochester's visually impaired community, and
we've moved into making
community arts programs/exhibits accessible as well.
For our first project, “Horses on Parade,” we described
nearly 100 painted/decorated
horses that had been created and exhibited around our
community. This 4-part program
was broadcast on our radio reading service.
The next year we took on an exhibit at the International
Museum of Photography at the
George Eastman House, entitled "Picturing What Matters."
This was an exhibit of photographs from the 9-11 tragedy, as
well as photographs
submitted by citizens from this community and around the
world of "what is important
in life" since 9-11.
This exhibit was extraordinarily moving to describe.
Currently, we are working on another exhibit from the
International Museum of
Photography at the George Eastman House, entitled "The
Remarkable George Eastman:
Vision and Obsession," an exhibit celebrating the 150th
anniversary of George
Eastman's birth. This program is scheduled to air in early
November.
For more information, please contact:
Ruth C. Phinney,
WXXI-FM and Reachout Radio Program Director, P.O. Box 30021,
Rochester, NY 14603,
[log in to unmask] (585) 258-0333
Selected Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week Events
October 15
Arts and Health Outreach Initiative, Pennsylvania State
University, State College, PA
, kicks off a three-day "Audio Description Training
Institute" that includes an
audio-described performance of "Mamma Mia!" at Penn State 's
Center for the Performing
Arts. On or before October 1, the conference registration
fee is $145 ($95 for
full-time students). To register, call 800-778-8632 or visit
www.outreach.psu.edu/pst/ADTI
The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL , is
hosting a community art and
literary workshop, modeled on the Women of Vision program.
Participants will create a
work of original poetry and a painting. In addition,
participants will be led on a
touch tour of the galleries, gardens, and educational
center.
MAC Museum Access Consortium, NYC , is hosting a 10 a.m. to
noon professional training
session, titled "Assistive Technology for Computers and
Navigation for People with
Visual Impairments," at the Computer Center for Visually
Impaired People, Baruch
College (151 E. 25th St., Room 648). The session is free,
but reservations are
required. To RSVP, call Fran Prezant at (516) 465-1601, or
e-mail [log in to unmask]
(include your name, institution, phone number, date of event
and any access
accommodations needed).
October 16
Colorado Ballet, Denver , is sponsoring a Backstage Sensory
Tour for the Visually
Impaired re its production of "Dracula," $20, at 11 a.m.
This program has been
developed in collaboration with tactile artist Ann
Cunningham. followed by a 1 p.m.
performance of "Dracula" with audio description. Call (303)
837-8888, ext. 19, for
information and reservations.
October 16 &
17
Lower East Side Tenement Museum, NYC , is doing fully
hands-on tours of the Confino
Family Apartment at 12 noon, and 1, 2 and 3 p.m. In
addition, it is offering public
programs accessible to people who are blind or visually
impaired.
October 18
Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, England , offers a tour,
touch session and
plaster-casting workshop for visually impaired visitors,
based on Helen Chadwick's
work on exhibition display. These events begin at 1 p.m.
Polk County Memorial Museum, Livingston, TX, opens a showing
of Iron Thunderhorse's
paintings, all of which he created after losing his vision.
For information on Mr.
Thunderhorse and his art, visit www.acqtc.com ; for
information on the exhibition,
call (936) 327-8192. Museum hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Mondays through Fridays.
October 19:
Metropolitan Museum of Art , NYC , is offering a course
titled "Tools & Techniques:
Developing Programs for Visitors with Visual Impairments,"
from 3 to 5 p.m. ; for
details, call (212) 879-5500, ext. 3561.
The New Jersey Historical Society, Newark , NJ , is making
its audio-described Tour of
Exhibition "Resource-Full New Jersey" available at no charge
throughout Awareness
Week, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The tour and tactile maps of
the Historical Society are
available at the front desk. For more information, call
(973) 596-8500, ext. 237.
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