Art Beyond Sight Awareness Alert 2: Artists with Visual Impairments SPREAD THE WORD and BRING ART TO EVERYONE IN YOUR COMMUNITY! 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 Or go to our website: www.artbeyondsight.org for more information Art Education for the Blind’s Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week is Here! Celebrate October 11-25! NEW YORK CITY: Art Education for the Blind’s second annual Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week was officially kicked off at a a.m., Monday, October 11, press conference on the steps of City Hall Photos (J Pursley, AEB,Inc.): LEFT: Elisabeth Salzhauer Axel, founder of Art Education, with a group of blind and sighted advisors, launches Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week on the steps of City Hall RIGHT: Visually impaired artist, Leon McCutcheon, describes his work at the Awareness Week Press Conference 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 Among the speakers at the press conference were Art Education for the Blind’s founder and executive director, Elisabeth Salzhauer Axel; the National Federation of the Blind’s Mindy Fliegelman; Ken Struve, of the South Street Seaport Museum; Rebecca Hinde, Lower East Side Tenement Museum and Dennis Sparacino, AEB’s consultant and long-time volunteer Carl Jacobsen, President of the National Federation of the Blind of New York, when asked about the relevance of Art Beyond Sight events to sighted people, spoke about our society as a whole being poorer if people who are blind are not allowed to contribute and unfold their creative potential Carol Gothelf of the Shield Institute added: “We all are temporarily abled and people with disabilities is a group which anyone of us can join at anytime.” Art Beyond Sight Awareness: YOU CAN DO YOUR PART! • Send this email to everyone on your list • • • • DON’T MISS ART EDUCATION FOR THE BLIND’S TELEPHONE CRASH COURSE! October 18, 9AM-9PM EST 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 here for schedule and instructions about dialing in Join us for one or all of these sessions This is a FREE telephone conference call 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! Art Education for the Blind and the American Foundation for the Blind's ementoring program, AFB CareerConnect, are joining forces to promote careers in the arts If you are a museum or arts professional and would like to participate in an e-mentoring program to assist someone who is blind or visually impaired to start in your field , please email your contact information to artbeyondsight@aol.com Someone will get back to you to explain how the program works The investment is small; the rewards are great! 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 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 Well Known Artists who had Visual Impairments Claude Monet (1840-1926) became legally blind due to cataracts, and had surgery on his right eye in 1922 An increasing fuzziness and muddy colors are evident in his paintings up to the time of his surgery Postoperatively, his vision improved to 20/30 After surgery, he found tinted lenses gave him a more pleasant color balance than did clear lenses Edgar Degas (1834-1917) began to lose vision in his thirties He said that he was totally blind in one eye and had a central scotoma in the other eye Treatment was ineffective The diagnosis for his blindness in unknown, but may have been a familial macular degeneration Degas created some of his best-known works while legally blind James Thurber (1894-1961) was shot in the right eye by a brother when he was seven years old He also underwent many operations for cataract and glaucoma, only to become legally blind He continued to cartoon with magnifying glasses Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) became blind due to cataracts Despite four operations, her vision never improved and she was forced to cease work Cassatt was also diabetic and her medical treatment, which included radium inhalation, did not help her health (Compiled by James G Ravin, M.D., and Jack Becker ) Contemporary Artists Focus George Mendoza Even though he lost his sight at the age of 15, George Mendoza has become a world class runner, Olympic contender, a prolific painter and writer, and a motivational speaker for the youth and disabled in America Mr Mendoza has written a novel, Cup of All Good Things, the first in his "The Spirit Man Trilogy” and an autobiographical screenplay, "The George Mendoza Story," a one hour docudrama which was aired on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and was hosted and narrated by Academy Award winner, Robert Duvall (for more, see www.georgemendoza.com) “This painting is sort of my inspirational image "What color is the Wind?" I was fifteen, and a little girl named Debbie who was born blind, who had never seen the color green or the shape of a tree, asked me a question after the wind blew through her long brown hair "Can you tell me, what color is the wind?" That question just blew my mind because I was just losing my sight then She woke up my creative sense by asking me that question.” Image left: “What Color is the Wind,” a foot by foot acrylic, is an abstract landscape painting The work is loosely divided into horizontal bands The lower band depicts red triangular shapes seemingly inspired by the rock formations of the New Mexico desert where the artist lives The middle band has blue and white swirls below a row of rainbow colored squares Above this row of rainbow colored squares, an area of yellow swirls make the transition to the top section, which has a yellow circle surrounded by red, orange and black on the left side, and an area of blue, gray, white and black cloud-like shapes on the right Museum Focus: The Minneapolis Institute of Arts 2400 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55404 (612) 870-3131, TDD (612) 870-3132 or (888) MIAARTS (642-2787) www.artsmia.org The Minneapolis Institute of Arts offers tours designed to meet the needs of people with disabilities Visitors who are blind or have low vision may request an individualized, docent-guided tour During a “white glove” touch tour, the docent and visitor each wear cotton gloves so they can touch and explore select works of art together The docent provides guidance and a detailed verbal description of the object A newly-introduced option is a tour using tactile diagrams During the tactile diagram tour, the docent and visitor stand in front of the work of art and the visitor follows the docent's detailed verbal description while touching the tactile diagram In this way, paintings and works on paper can be made available Verbal description and tactile diagrams work together to create another experience in which visitors who are blind or have low vision can engage with works of art Pablo Picasso, “Baboon and Young”, 1951,Bronze, Acc.No.55.45 “…In “Baboon and Young”, [Picasso] used toy automobiles, a storage jar, and a car spring to create a playful image of motherhood The two metal cars, undersides together, are the baboon's head; the round earthenware pot, with its high handles, makes up her torso and shoulders; and the curving steel spring forms her backbone and long tail The rest of her body and the figure of her child were modeled from clay, and the whole piece was cast in bronze.” (From MIA website: www.artsmia.org) The Art Institute of Chicago 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60603 (312) 443-3600 www.artic.edu/aic/ Escorts For The Blind People with visual impairments may arrange for free guided tours of the museum by calling the Department of Museum Education from 9:00 to 5:00 weekdays at (312) 443-3680 The museum has a corps of volunteer escorts for visitors who are blind or visually impaired Please arrange for a tour two weeks in advance Free, but registration is required Please call (312) 443-3929 The Touch Gallery Visitors to The Art Institute of Chicago now have the opportunity to experience how the sense of touch can enrich their appreciate of art Funded by The Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust , the new Touch Gallery is located in Gallery 10, at the lower level of the Allerton Building Specifically designed for visually impaired visitors to the museum but available to all, the Touch Gallery exhibits five sculptures accompanied by text panels and labels presented in both large type and Braille Labels were written with the assistance of a consultant, who is blind, from the Catholic Guild for the Blind (www.guildfortheblind.org) who explored the works of art while staff recorded his observations Labels provide historical information and focus on a detailed description of the work of art to guide the visitor in touching Made of bronze and marble, and representing different periods, the sculptures in the gallery all represent the human face Through touch visitors can discover the facial expression, accessories, and style of dress, as well as discern an artwork's form, scale, temperature, and texture in ways that sight cannot provide Art by blind people is available through many venues We’re highlighting some of the groups that exhibit the work of artists who are blind and visually impaired BlindArt BlindArt is a UK charity established recently to promote Art by, and for, the visually impaired BlindArt’s ultimate aim is to find and to fund a permanent collection of artwork accessible to everyone, both physically and emotionally.The Collection will be housed in England and in time travel internationally to touch as many people as possible Their inaugural project is a nationwide open-juried competition inviting artists, in any/all media, to create work specifically for the visually impaired audience The competition will culminate in an exhibition at the Henry Moore Gallery, Royal College of Art, in March 2005 This competition/exhibition will be an annual event at the RCA “BlindArt's parallel aim is to take a fresh naive young hip and optimistic approach to Art by, and for, the visually impaired We not aim to change the world but only to have fun and to play and to include the sighted in our blurry game.” Sheri Khayami, founder National Exhibits by Blind Artists: NEBA; www.nebaart.org National Exhibits by Blind Artists, was founded in Philadelphia in the belief that talented blind artists deserve the same recognition as writers, musicians and other sighted artists The primary objectives are to educate the public about the quality of work by blind artists, and to create demand in the professional field of art, furthering the careers of blind artists and making them part of the mainstream of life Several blind artists enlisted the help of Michael Coyle, library director, who organized a successful pilot show in the summer of 1975, and many works of art were sold With its 25-year history of major shows, National Exhibits of Blind Artists has blazed the trail, winning wide recognition in the art-world carrying its message of bright, new prospects for the blind artist NEBA solicits artworks from professional artists who are legally blind in America and abroad, and puts together shows that last between one year and eighteen months Volunteers the administrative work, and the proceeds from the sale of artworks go to the artists Art of the Eye The Art of the Eye exhibit was founded by Scott Nelson At birth, Nelson was diagnosed with Usher’s Syndrome, a form of retinitis pigmentosa that initially affects hearing and vision only later on He worked for several years in welding when he one day thought to create a sculpture with the metal he worked with This was the year his vision became drastically worse, and it was at this time that he turned back to the arts Art of the Eye is a traveling exhibit about the nature of perception in artists with visual disabilities It includes forty-two works by twenty-four artists in all mediums including bronze, sculpture, cabinetry, painting, photography, watercolor, porcelain, ceramic, and more Nelson is currently putting together Art of the Eye II, which will include five works each by ten artists, portraying the perception of sight loss over a ten-year period InSights Juried Art Competition and Exhibition at the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) Each year, APH invites visually impaired and blind artists of all ages to submit one artwork each to APH InSights This unique art competition and exhibition is exclusively for legally blind artists and draws entries from across the U.S and around the world The APH InSights Exhibition is shown in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as on APH's web site Award winners are selected from the juried exhibition Passionate Focus 2004 Passionate Focus is the Catholic Guild for the Blind’s annual exhibit of works by blind or visually impaired artists The Guild held the first Passionate Focus in May of 2002 at the Union League Club of Chicago and the Guild offices From 69 pieces submitted, 34 works were selected by a jury comprised of professional artists For this year's Passionate Focus, 40 artists from 10 states submitted 163 pieces of art from which the jury selected 34 pieces The exhibit was on display in the Zolla/Lieberman Gallery (205 West Huron, Chicago) from July - August 18 as part of the Chicago Art Dealers Association Vision Art Exhibition This year's jury was comprised of Staci Boris, Associate Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art; Jeanne Dunning, Associate Professor, Department of Art Theory and Practice, Northwestern University and Hamza Walker, Director of Education, The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago For more information on Passionate Focus 2005 or to request a submission package, please contact Cheryl Megurdichian at 312/236-8569 or cherylm@guildfortheblind.org Selected Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week Events October 13 The Jewish Museum, NYC, is offering a verbal-imaging tour of its special exhibition, titled "Innovator, Activist, Healer: The Art of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis." The tour begins at 1:15 p.m Call (212) 423-3289 for details; reservations are not necessary National Exhibits by Blind Artists, Inc., Philadelphia , is opening its 30 th anniversary juried art exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art The show runs through November 21 October 14 Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children, Pittsburgh, PA , is being visited by celebrated Pittsburgh artist Robert Qualters, who has an established relationship with the school Qualters will talk to the students about his inspirations when he developed the "food arch" that graces the school's Children's Garden The students will then work with Qualters to feel and recognize some of the very foods that he used in this arch, and they will then sculpt the items themselves ... and Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week 20 04 Well Known Artists who had Visual Impairments Claude Monet (1840-1 926 ) became legally blind due to cataracts, and had surgery on his right eye in 1 922 An... Minneapolis Institute of Arts 24 00 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55404 (6 12) 870-3131, TDD (6 12) 870-31 32 or (888) MIAARTS (6 42- 2787) www.artsmia.org The Minneapolis Institute of Arts offers tours... parents; artists; and art lovers to create vehicles for lasting change in their communities READ ON FOR MORE on the artists, museums and exciting projects and events of the Art Beyond Sight Collaborative