Striving to remove barriers that prevent us from building Vibrant, Diverse, Inclusive, Accessible Communities!
Arapahoe Community College’s Shared Visions Exhibition, in partnership with the Colorado Center for the Blind (CCB), is the 11th annual multi-sensory show inviting visitors to engage through touch, sound, taste, and smell. Running until Dec. 3, with the gallery closed Nov. 24–30, it features a brightly knitted wall piece, bumpy, half-baked clay cups, music, jelly bean tasting, and a walk-in simulation of a night in the mountains in New York; this year’s gallery includes works from about 30 ACC art students and about 10 CCB artists.
Ann Cunningham’s long arc is central to why this exists: in the late 1990s, CCB launched its art program when executive director Julie Deden collaborated with Cunningham to explore art instruction for blind people. Cunningham said, “We kept testing, trying to find the boundary of what blind people could do with art, and we haven’t found it yet.” That history grounds Shared Visions in teaching and practice rather than novelty.
Dan Burke, who has come to each Shared Visions Exhibition for the past decade, spells out the stakes: “It’s just a matter of creating that opportunity for them, because many feel that blindness prevents them from creating art,” he said. The effect is community-wide: “It is a highlight of our year to see this exhibit, to go to the reception, and to talk with ACC students, and for our student work to be seen as well,” he said.
The article shows what this means for Blind People and art: blind people feel the need to express themselves just as sighted people do; when the gallery invites multiple senses and welcomes touch, people can both make and enjoy the work. Student projects underscore this shift—“Taste is very meaningful to me,” said Patty Palko, who created seasonal, edible pieces—and coordinator Nathan Abels captures the takeaway: “I hope that they have this feeling that art is accessible and that anyone can make it and anyone can experience that.”
Read the Full Article: Appreciating art beyond sight at the Shared Visions Exhibition.
By: Isabel Guzman
