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Art for visually impaired affects entire community
By Katherine Liebers
Doing something different is nothing new for art galleries. But last week, the university's Urban Arts Space embarked on a project that changes a long-forbidden practice. Now, patrons will be allowed to touch the art.
(Or at least a representation of it.)
The Urban Arts Space gallery, which is housed in the Lazarus building downtown, now features tactile tours specifically designed for the visually impaired. According to the gallery's accessibility coordinator Eva Ball, the tours are designed to objectively describe the visual components of a piece.
"We just want to build the image in [the vistors'] minds so they can make their own impression of the art," Ball said.
Additionally, participating artists provide touchable remnants, physical-likenesses of the actual displays, to allow patrons a tactual experience of the visual art.
According to Ball, this "benefits all demographics" - sighted and non-sighted visitors alike.
Renowned disability studies scholar, Georgina Kleege, agreed. During the Access Arts Community event last week, which celebrated the onset of the gallery's tactile tours, Kleege explained how accessibility efforts meant to benefit the disabled often improve the community at large.
Kleege used the example of curb cuts, pointing out that while the dips at the end of a sidewalk were designed for people in wheelchairs, other people (such as parents with strollers) also benefit.
In relation to art, Kleege referenced an audio tour track specifically designed for the visually impaired and its surprising popularity among sighted people. "That description that's meant to create a mental picture for someone who can't see [the art] is also useful for somebody who can," she said.
Kleege, who is legally blind, emphasized that accessibility efforts should be thought of as not as charitable, but as inclusive.
"The point is that you include those people so that they are not just consumers of the culture, but contributors, creators of the culture." Kleege said.
Which is particularly relevant to museums, Kleege explained, since they not only preserve and display art, but also serve as a source of artists' inspiration.
"So if the mission is to make [art] more accessible to more people, some of those people will want to become artists," Kleege predicted.
While Kleege envisioned an artistic development within the visually impaired community, university's Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator L. Scott Lissner predicted that the tactile tours would influence the way the artists think about their own art.
"I think that it is often helpful for the artist and often helpful for the viewer to see how the artwork is described," Lissner said.
"I do believe that everyone who goes to a gallery looks at the art through their own lens, through their own experience," he continued. "[The tactile tour] is a different way of doing that."
The theme of different experiences blends with the gallery's current exhibit, "Begged, Borrowed, and Stolen," in which Master of Fine Arts students give new meaning - a new artistic experience - to household materials. Electrically-powered Styrofoam structures spin from the ceiling, for example, while a duct-tape shell mocks the shape of a loveseat.
Yet, while samples of Styrofoam chunks or duct-tape sculptures are fondled by visitors, the actual displays remain off limits - no matter how tempting it is to touch that weaving of glass test tubes.
"There are times when direct experience of the art will kill the art," said Lissner.
However, as Lissner said, "done well, the tactile elements and a visual description of the art can be a good representation of the artwork."
Lissner and Ball plan for the tactile tours to become a consistent element of the gallery's future exhibits as well. Ball said that if artists wish to submit a proposal to the Urban Arts Space, they would have to address accessibility.
Before implementing the tactile tours, Ball said the gallery followed a guide to accessibility provided by the National Endowments for the Arts. Some adjustments included lowering displays so as to not put those in wheelchairs at a visual disadvantage, and addressing concerns of those with cognitive disabilities.
As Lissner said, "The goal is to welcome the community as a whole."
Originally Published: May 6, 2009
