Tactile Art

Our long-time art instructor and national leader in tactile access to art and science Ann Cunningham was in the artists’ make-a-space at the Denver Art Museum (DAM) in February. A group from the Colorado Center for the Blind visited DAM and Ann’s exhibit and art-making on February 9. The collaboration between DAM and Ann caught the attention of others, resulting in this episode of the popular podcast, “Eyes on Success” – an interview by podcasters Peter Torpey and Nancy Goodman Torpey of Ann and folks at DAM.

Listen to the episode here: www.EyesOnSuccess.net

Access to concepts and information presented in graphical form has long been a challenge for blind college students. In the past couple of decades the surge in digitally-displayed content has, well, gone supernova. Thus, blind college students need to develop basic tactile literacy with two- and three-dimensional representations that their sighted peers may have learned much more informally through media such as picture books, television, film, or YouTube. Blind people learn how things look best by touch.

Descriptions are a stop-gap, but only that. Thus, one aspect of our College Prep class’s goal of preparing our students to be savvy and nimble in gaining access to their studies involves taking a look at the kinds of things colleges may throw in front of them and expect them to be able to interpret.

Tuesday is art day anyway, but this week it was art day all day long. Every student and staff member worked in the art room with Ann Cunningham and Jenny Callahan making ornaments, holiday cards or whatever else suited their fancy. Without a doubt, everyone enjoyed the break from regular classes and the chance to get into the holiday spirit!

With many students and the results of their projects, supplies ranging from clay to wax to stone and of course the tools to work with each, an art room can quickly succumb to forces best summed up in the statement:

“All things tend toward disorder.”

This may be a paraphrase and we certainly don’t recall who might have made it, unless it was Spock or Data on their respective iterations of Star Trek. But that statement sums up the state of things when Alex laBarre, a candidate for Eagle Scout and a member of Troop 457, asked if we had a project he could do as part of his final requirements.

Here are a few photos from the Shared Visions reception at the Colorado Gallery of the Arts at Arapahoe Community College on Thursday night. Everyone got hands on with pieces from Nathan Abels’ painting and drawing classes. CCB students also had laser-cuts of drawings they made in Ann Cunningham’s art class with accompanying Haiku, and CCB alum Jenny Callahan had a number of stone carvings and a bronze in the show.

The Seniors art class had bowls thrown on the wheel in Katie Caron’s ceramics studio. Katie brought her daughter, who insisted on wearing sleepshades so she could try to identify the art tactilely.

Editor’s Note: Here’s the announcement from ACC for this year’s “Shared Visions” tactile art exhibit. It’s the fourth year we collaborated on this event, and a highlight of the fall for our students and staff. The show will include work by CCB students and perhaps from one or two staff members as well. Worth checking out! (Photos by Mike Thompson.)

Arapahoe Community College to host Shared Visions tactile art exhibit

LITTLETON, Colo. (Oct. 24, 2017) – Students from Arapahoe Community College and the Colorado Center for the Blind will present a collaborative and fully-accessible exhibit of multi-sensory and tactile art entitled “Shared Visions” from Nov. 9–22 at the Colorado Gallery of the Arts at ACC. Festivities include an opening reception on Thursday, Nov. 9, from 5 pm–8 pm.

Ashley took the practical desire to know how to sew on a button several steps further after signing up for the after-school sewing class, and turned her new sewing skills into tactile art!

We were delighted to have a visit from 2016 alum Peter Slatin, who is also now on our Board of Directors. Peter was in Colorado for Ski for Light and spent a few days in Denver afterward. He dropped in on art class and took up the Sensational Blackboard to do some experimenting with paper textures. That was Tuesday afternoon, and on Wednesday he returned to the Center to conduct Philosophy Class.

The first-ever meeting of a new Tactile Art Club will meet at CCB from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, January 17. It will be held monthly on the third Tuesday of each month.

Our long-time collaborator and art instructor, Ann Cunningham, CCB alum Jenny Callahan and CCB Tech Instructor Yolanda Thompson hatched the idea, inspired in part by the first-ever NFB Tactile Art and Tactile Graphics Symposium held at the National Center for the Blind in Baltimore last December.

“The idea is to grow a community around the idea of access to tactile art and tactile graphics,” Says Ann.