INSITE FUND GRANT
I’m thrilled to receive this prestigious INSITE Fund grant administered by RedLine Contemporary Art Center and made possible by the The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Regional Regranting program.
RedLine Contemporary Art Center is a nonprofit that fosters education and engagement between artists and communities to create positive social change.
Project Title: “Canes Chiming In”
This interactive multisensory art installation aims to highlight the artistic voices of blind students and broaden public sensitivity to this community and understanding of the visual arts. Each blind student will create a cane with mixed media and braille. These individual canes will then be suspended together to create an interactive tactile art experience with lights and sounds triggered by participants' interaction with the sculpture. Future students would be able to add to the wind chime sculpture to keep the exhibit growing, uplifting, and dynamic.
Partnering Organizations
The project will be executed in collaboration with the following organizations:
Full Project Description
“Canes Chiming In” occurs in three phases. The goal of this project is to increase representation of blindness via tactile media, thereby expanding public understanding of accessibility and visual arts. It is an avenue for blind students to express their voices and spread positive narratives about their community.
Phase 1: Starting in December 2021, we will introduce an art activity to students at Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind (CSDB) and Colorado Center for the Blind (CCB) as part of their art class to create and decorate their own personalized canes. A white cane is a symbol of independence and strength within the blind community; thus, the art making process empowers students and changes cultural attitudes around disability. Students will have a ‘hands on’ experience working with wood, aluminum tubing and PVC pipes. Incorporating braille into the decoration process will reinforce literacy skills for students as they learn visual art vocabulary and spatial concepts.
Phase 2: These personalized cane creations will then be suspended together to create two interactive tactile art sculptures (one created by CSDB students and another created by CCB students) that respond to touch. The interactive art installation will encourage the public to touch and interact with the cane chimes. It will feature lights and sound activated by the chimes movements and participants' interaction with the sculpture. Here are a few sketches of the proposed installation.
A braille translation chart available at the exhibited locations along with sleep shades will give sighted people the chance to experience art in a novel way. There will also be a place for visitors to express support for the artwork. Using #CanesChimingIn on social media sites like Instagram and Twitter, we will collect user responses about how the experience changed their perspective. This supports the blind community, tracks how many viewed the installation accurately, and promotes changing of attitudes on a larger scale.
Phase 3: We will return the respective Cane Chime sculptures to the CSDB and CCB campuses. We plan to have an evening event with students and their families to celebrate their work and reflect on their creations. Future students would be able to add to the wind chime sculpture to keep the exhibit growing, uplifting, and dynamic.
The impact of our project will be documented through blogs, videography, photography, and quantitative data. We define success of the project by the positive experience of students who participated in the creation of the art installation, increased awareness of accessible tactile art amongst sighted people, and the number of people in the general public that are able to experience the art installation through all other senses. Finally, we aim to succeed in bridging the gap between sighted and blind communities by maintaining an online presence and tracking engagement through social media.
Tags:
#tactilceart, #Artfortheblind, #touchart, #visuallyimpaired, #blindartist,, #accessibleart, #artforall, #sensoryart, #BlindandVI, #accessibility, #inclusion, #artmuseums, #artforeveryone, #accessiblemuseum
Art for the visually impaired, Art for the Blind
