VAS is Back (sort of)! Tactile Art Club 2.0
/3 years after founding the Vision of the Artist’s Soul Project, I reflect on tactile art, sustainability, and community.
Hands touching a beige sculpture of a face, with bulging eyes, thick eyebrows, a round nose, and pursed lips
The Past:
In February of 2019, a friend of mine at the Colorado Center for the Blind invited me to Ann Cunningham’s tactile art club. I had no idea what this would entail… I didn’t even know what “tactile art” meant, exactly. I was vaguely confused and significantly intimidated. Naturally, I said yes.
A few hours later, I finished the class and sat down to collect my thoughts: my preconceptions about creativity and blindness upended. My hands were sticky with a mysterious paste, and my brain became nebulous clay matter, kneaded and stretched in many directions. I kept coming back.
In the following weeks, my enthusiasm grew, matched and amplified by vivacious club members. As it turned out, the name, “Tactile Art Club (TAC),” had misled me. This wasn’t a club of serious artists, but serious creatives. Moms. Children. Lawyers. Engineers. Realtors. Cane travel instructors. Grandfathers. That one sighted friend of a friend that came out of curiosity like I did. Every type of person united in a desire to make: to view things not as they are, but as they could be. Thanks to the mentorship and guidance of Ann Cunningham and staff at the Colorado Center for the Blind, I became president of the club. As support for tactile art grew, our small group expanded into Vision of the Artist’s Soul (VAS), a grant-funded tactile arts initiative with nationwide involvement.
In August of 2022, VAS was at its peak: virtual workshops, in-person studios, guest lectures, museum events, and then, VAS was put on hold. Immersed in a community where I felt belonging— personal, educational, and creative fulfillment—I packed up my bags and moved to Providence, Rhode Island: a city where I knew nothing and no one. A period marked by transitions shaped a new future for VAS, and now, VAS is back (sort of).
The Present (Reflections):
When thinking about how to restructure VAS meaningfully, I interviewed past participants about why they joined and why they continued to come. 2 salient themes occurred: community and collaboration:
Community:
In one of her blogs, Victoria Ren introduced me to Casper Ter Kuile, a scholar who wrote about the importance of rituals. To Casper, “Habits are routine for functional purpose. Rituals are routine with a layer of purpose (intention, attention, repetition).” I agree with Victoria’s takeaway: rituals are important because they make time and space for intentional love and mindfulness; they provide a unifying thread to connect diverse people and facilitate storytelling. In the midst of a global pandemic, Tactile Art Club became one of my most important “rituals”. As a sighted person, the artistic aspect of TAC heightened my awareness of other senses and drew my attention to the otherwise unnoticed. I became a more attentive student, a more grateful person, a better listener, and a more present friend. Yet I realized that for me (and for many of those I interviewed), the mere act of convening was as important as the act of creating. The beauty of TAC was less about what we learned, but who we learned from. Exploring new artistic techniques was a catalyst for socialization and conversation. It introduced me to people and ideas that irrevocably shaped how I think, and therefore, who I am. What I discovered:
dismantling functional fixedness -> open mindedness -> meaningful relationships
a) functional fixedness: “a cognitive bias that [impairs] creativity. commonly used to describe why an individual develops an inability to use an object in more ways than it is traditionally intended to be used” (The Decision Lab)
By rejecting the idea that art can only be produced and experienced visually, TAC members taught me to dismantle a form of “functional fixedness.” And yet, in the attempts to dismantle one form of functional fixedness, I found myself caught in another one: attempting to keep the mission of TAC stagnant. Creating new lesson plans from scratch, shipping materials to my dorm, and teaching workshops while managing classes, volunteering, doing research, and working part-time soon proved to be unsustainable. Once I dismantled functional fixedness, what was once a challenge I lamented became a valuable opportunity to pivot: to shift TAC from a class into a forum of tactile art enthusiasts, like a book club for art and design.
b) Open-mindedness:
Under this new structure, there will be less formal instruction and more “free-create” and discussion time centered around a piece of news, an artist, a theme, a medium, or a prompt. This promotes a more organic form of learning where participants are simultaneously students and instructors: sharing what they know and asking questions about what they don’t. TAC 2.0 centers open-mindedness. It creates more individualized art. It increases awareness about current developments/issues in tactile design. And it includes all: passionate creators, members who want to socialize and discuss without making, and new participants, who simply want to learn more.
c) Meaningful relationships:
The Harvard Study of Adult Development conducted the longest in-depth longitudinal study on human life ever done and came to a simple yet profound conclusion: “Good relationships are the key to health and happiness.”
Blind/visually impaired participants recalled that TAC made them feel less alone.. many hadn’t met any other visually impaired people interested in art prior to the club. Many sighted allies also expressed joy in forming new friends, getting to know loved ones more deeply, and feeling more socially supported. The focus of TAC 2.0 is social: a network to connect people across common interests and maintain relationships.
Collaboration:
Collaboration was of paramount importance to me from the beginning of my involvement. As a sighted person, I felt it essential to involve the blind community in the development of every project and class. The club could not exist without these perspectives, and as a sighted person, I’m always aware of my positionality and how to use my leadership to amplify other voices. Under TAC 2.0, my goal is to make the club even more collaborative by providing an avenue for everyone to share, teach, and lead. Instead of learning from one person, people can now find new techniques, opportunities, and ideas from many people within the community. The agenda of each meeting will now be driven by the attendees, ensuring that the club directly reflects the needs and interests of its participants. TAC will be a way to put your work out there, find professional/personal collaborations, and more broadly pose and answer questions about art and access.
The Future (practical next steps):
In lieu of these reflections, I’ve outlined the restructured goals of TAC below (note that, as always, this is subject to change based on community feedback).
Every month:
Meet over zoom to catch up, chat, free-create, and socialize
Discuss a given prompt/theme/idea (decided upon by me + club members)
Share what you’ve created recently or what you’re curious about with the group
Learn about new artists, art experiences, opportunities, and developments in tactile art and design… potentially through podcasts, websites, articles, videos, and more
Participate in fun bonding activities that get creative juices flowing!
Make friends and HAVE FUN!
Infrequently/ if members are interested:
Invite a participant or a “guest artist” to lead a more technique-oriented class
If you are interested in joining, please email me at rishikakartik@gmail.com so I can put you on our mailing list! Excited for what the future holds :).
