A gallery enabling people to experience art using senses other than sight has been welcomed by blind and partially sighted people in Wolverhampton.
The Sensing Sculpture Gallery is the culmination of eight years of work by The Wolverhampton Art Gallery (part of the Arts and Museum Service), who in 2001 set out to discover how to make their collection more accessible to people with sight loss.
Following extensive consultations with the Visual Impairment Service and the Royal National Institute for the Blind, curators decided to create a space that would help them gain an understanding of how blind and partially sighted people perceive the world. They then applied their findings to teaching art.
Experienced through touch
Consequently the Sensing Sculpture Gallery features a range of bronze, wooden and marble sculptures with different textures which are designed to be experienced through touch. The pieces also demonstrate different aspects of artistic practice - in one notable example, theories of abstraction were explained with figurative sculptures and a guided discussion.
Francis Neilson who has been involved with the gallery’s development said, “It’s important to realise that there are other aspects to art, especially within contemporary arts practice, that do not rely solely on visual cues. So we have been including a variety of media, especially audio media, in our exhibitions.”
One visitor was moved to say, “I visited along with a friend who is blind. Straight away, may I say, it's a triumph.” Keen to keep up the momentum, the gallery have continued to consult blind and partially sighted people to improve the service. As a result the gallery, with the charity Artsense, has planned Vocalise - a programme intended to bring collections into audio. It will allow visitors with sight difficulties to move around and experience the gallery more freely, and gallery interpreters are currently being trained in audio description techniques.
New initiatives planned
The Sensory Gallery’s work has also led to an array of initiatives with other partners in the Black Country that seek to improve community health. The Black Country Arts Partnership started an off shoot, Black Country Arts and Health, a panel of healthcare and arts professionals who commissioned work around arts and health issues.
The first project was 'Chewing it Over' in 2007. This pilot initiative used creative writing and storytelling to explore children and young people’s relationship with food and to promote healthy eating. The second was 'Move It' in 2008. Galleries and arts centres across the region worked with a multi-media company to encourage young people to change their attitudes towards exercise through dance. This year’s theme is 'Happiness'. The panel have now been formalised into a community interest company known as Creative Health CIC.
For more detailed information on Sensing Sculpture please visit the case study section on the MLA research website