Art Beyond Sight Awareness Alert 4:
Last Days of Art Education for the Blind’s Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week. Celebrate
October 11-25!
Congratulations, Art Beyond Sight Collaborative partners.
Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week has begun to make waves!
Let’s keep the momentum going!
We wanted you to know…
On Friday, October 15, 2004, Johnna A. Pro, of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, reported on Art Beyond Sight
Awareness Week celebration at the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children in Oakland, with awardwinning local sculptor Robert Qualters. Qualters spoke to the students about his inspirations when he developed the
"food arch" in the school's Children's Garden. The students then worked with Qualters to sculpt different types of
food.
On the roads of northeast Florida, Hope McMath of the Cummer Museum, has create an Art Beyond Sight
Awareness Week billboard campaign. This is one project of a year-long partnership with a local advertising agency.
CBS Channel 2 news picked up the Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week story and interviewed Elisabeth Axel,
founder and Executive Director of Art Education for the Blind, Mindy Fliegelman, Second Vice President of
National Federation of the Blind of New York, Dr. Carole R. Gothelf, Assistant Executive Director of Programs and
Services, The Shield Institute; and Janet Lo, American Museum of Folk Art. This will air on the early morning
news show, on Wednesday, October 20, 5:30-6:45 am.
If your program has been publicized, share the news with us. Send details, copies or links about coverage to
artbeyondsight@aol.com. Or mail to: Art Education for the Blind, 589 Broadway, Fourth Floor, New York, N 10012.
Help us spread the word. If your Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week program was a success, email details to
us, so we can share your experiences and ideas with others planning new programs or 2005 Awareness Week
celebrations. Also, join your local Art Beyond Sight listserv and post your ideas there; read about other art programs
in your neighborhood
Inspire and be inspired.
Art Beyond Sight Awareness: You Can Do Your Part!
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Send this email to everyone on your list
JOIN ART BEYOND SIGHT ONLINE COMMUNITY: in your Field or in your Neighborhood
Discussion Groups -- share your experiences and talk to experts. We have five different discipline-based
groups: Museums, Educators, Learning Tools, Community and Advocacy, and Theory and Research.
Listservs. State-by-state or Around the World
PARTICIPATE in our eBay Benefit Auction. There are three easy ways you can help: Sell an item on eBay
on behalf of Art Education for the Blind (you choose the percentage of your proceeds that go to AEB); buy an
item being sold to benefit AEB or make an in-kind donation!
Register your accessible art program or museum on Vision Connection’s Help Near You searchable
database at www.visionconnection.org. This will increase participation in your programs and attract local
patrons and tourists who are blind or have low vision.
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BECOME A MENTOR ! If you are a museum or an arts professional and would like to participate in an ementoring program for someone who is blind or visually impaired, please email your contact information to
Artbeyondsight@aol.com ; subject line: Mentor program
What is Art Beyond Sight?
Art Beyond Sight is an international collaborative of community-based groups and local affiliates of national agencies;
museums and other arts-related organizations; elementary and high schools; colleges and universities; national and
international advocacy groups; and blind, visually impaired, and sighted art enthusiasts. Art Beyond Sight provides a
forum for ongoing interdisciplinary dialogues among researchers and practitioners, who share expertise and
materials. On the local level, the collaborative assists museum professionals and other educators; parents; artists;
and art lovers to create vehicles for lasting change in their communities.
Art Beyond Sight: A Resource Guide to Art, Creativity, and Visual Impairment
Edited by Elisabeth Salzhauer Axel, Nina Sobol Levent, Ph.D.
In 2003, AFB and Art Education for the Blind joined together to co-publish a one-of-a-kind
resource that provides vital information on all aspects of exploring art and creativity by people
who are blind or visually impaired. Developed by Art Education for the Blind, this beautiful, fully
illustrated manual is the result of a decade-long international collaboration among researchers,
art educators, teachers of visually impaired students, psychologists, museum professionals, and
blind and sighted art enthusiasts. Includes a section of reproducible pages for classroom or
workshop activities. $69.95. Paperback (also available in: ASCII Disk), 504 pp., ISBN: 089128-850-3 To purchase Art Beyond Sight, click here., or go to www.afb.org/store/
Art Education for the Blind Event
New York City on November 4, 2004
Join Art Education for the Blind in Celebrating Access And Diversity In
NYC! After-The-Show Reception
with members of the cast of “The Gospel at Colonus,”
including The Blind Boys of Alabama.
Apollo Theatre, 253 West 125th Street, NYC
Starring Charles S. Dutton (Roc, The Piano Lesson) and gospel greats The
Blind Boys of Alabama, “The Gospel at Colonus” is a foot-stomping musical
that recreates the Greek tragedy of the blind King Oedipus in the context of a
Black Pentecostal church service. The reception honors the show’s creators and cast, and the docents and staff of
NYC arts institutions who made AEB’s Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week celebration in NYC a great success.
Tickets to the 8 p.m. November 4th performance are available from Art Education for the Blind (AEB) for box office
price of $70, $50, and $30 each. For more information or to request tickets, contact Artbeyondsight@aol.com
READ ON FOR MORE on the artists, museums and exciting projects and events of
the Art Beyond Sight Collaborative and Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week 2004.
Contemporary Artist Focus
Robert Steinem
When Robert Steinem, a visually impaired artist, visited museums as a child, he always left thinking, “I could do that.”
Such feelings led him to begin drawing and painting. He stopped, however, at the age of 19. “In 1960, while I was in
the service, I lost clear vision. I cannot focus centrally, so I have peripheral vision only. By the time I got out of the
service, my eyes were so bad that I quit drawing. I didn’t even want to think about it,” he says.
After his stint in the Armed Forces, he worked first in the music business, then as a
writer and poet. In his free time, he and his wife often visited museums, and—although
he’d abandoned his own art—when they’d leave a museum he’d always murmur, “I
could do that.” His wife finally challenged him to prove it by buying an easel, paints and
canvas and giving them to him for his birthday. He stashed them in a corner of his home
office, where they remained until then one cold winter day in the mid 1990s, when he
“picked up a brush and rediscovered the joy of painting.”
Since then, the self-taught artist says, “I have learned to work with the limitations that I
have, rather than not do what I want to do.” He has built his own easel—one he can
stand on so he can get close enough to the canvas to see it and his brush—and
developed a method of working. “Although I cannot see details in life, I have a selffocusing camera that I use to shoot scenes I want to paint. I then enlarge these photos,
and study the wonderful details they reveal. A friend who’s a doctor made glasses for me, and I use a magnifying
glass on top of that.” Generally, he sketches his subject first, and then paints it.
Mr. Steinem does a lot of what he calls “reflection pieces”--buildings reflected in the windows of other buildings,
plants and leaves reflected in water. “I’ve been playing with abstract and figured I could find it in nature, and I did, in
water, in water reflections.” His photographic studies for his water reflections were taken at a canal near his
Massachusetts home. [The image above, “If Not for the Tension”, a 16 x 12 inch oil on canvas, depicts a red, yellow
and brown autumn maple leaf floating in water which reflects blue, green and black colors; 6 small air bubbles have
formed at the leaf’s edge.]
Since 1998, Mr. Steinem has had a number of one-man shows in Vermont, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington,
DC. Two of his paintings are being issued as prints by National Cathedral, and one of his snow landscapes was
selected by the Christopher Reeve Foundation for it’s 2005 calendar. The artist still continues to write, but it is now
his hobby, and painting, his vocation.
Program Focus:
Colorado Ballet
1278 Lincoln St. Denver, CO 80203. (303) 837-8888. (303) 861-7174 fax
This year, Colorado Ballet celebrates its 44th season of bringing world-class quality dance to Denver and to the state.
One of Colorado's oldest and most successful arts institutions, Colorado Ballet is the only organization of its size and
stature to produce classical ballet in Colorado. The Colorado Ballet has two innovative programs for visitors with
visual impairments: Backstage Sensory Tours and Ballet-to-Go. A Hands-On Ballet Trunk.
This year, Colorado Ballet celebrates its 44th season of bringing world-class quality dance to Denver and to
the state. One of Colorado's oldest and most successful arts institutions, Colorado Ballet is the only
organization of its size and stature to produce classical ballet in Colorado. The Colorado Ballet has two
innovative programs for visitors with visual impairments: Backstage Sensory Tours and Ballet-to-Go. A
Hands-On Ballet Trunk.
Backstage Sensory Tours for the Visually Impaired
The Backstage Sensory Tours are hands-on, tactile tours of each production for the visually impaired and their
guests. Patrons who are visually impaired are invited to the theater two hours before a performance (once a
production) to learn more about the ballet by experiencing it through touch. Alyson Vivar, Director of Education and
Outreach, joined this past Monday’s Art Beyond Sight Telephone Conference Crash Course to describe the Ballet’s
Accessible programming. The Ballet has had as many as 42 people attend one of the backstage tours, which are
followed by lunch and then an audio-described performance of the ballet. During the backstage tour, visitors learn
about the history and music, and they touch props and costumes, so when they are described later, they know
exactly what they are. "We've even taught guests some movement from the ballets," Vivar stated. "Also, we've had
dancers participate in the tours, sometimes letting the guests actually feel the position of their feet and legs."
After the tour and lunch, guests attend the performance and listen to a live audio description. Trained describers go
through the details of the plot, movement, scenery, costumes and lighting so that guests really “see” what happens
on stage! This backstage program has been going on for five years, and the Ballet uses invaluable feedback from
participants to make the tour and performance as meaningful as possible.
Ballet-to-Go. A Hands-On Ballet Trunk
“Dear Colorado Ballet – your show was awesome! It was like from another universe.”
– Student
The hands-on ballet trunk, Ballet To-Go, is full of real ballet artifacts that people can touch and look at up-close. In a
tailor-made discussion, educators introduce ballet and answer questions about the art form, the life of a dancer and
the behind-the-scenes facts about the Ballet’s productions. Originally created for students, Ballet To-Go works for
any age group from little ones to adults.
For more information, contact: Director of Education and Outreach – Alyson Vivar, (303) 837.8888 ext. 19.
alyson@coloradoballet.org
The School For The Visually Impaired In Jyväskylä, Finland
PL 319 Kukkumäentie 27, 40101 Jyväskylä, Finland. Tel. + 358 14 3343 161.
www.jynok.fi
Resource center for learning and development
The school is state-subsidized and offers children education and rehabilitation from pre-school to the end of
secondary education. The school also provides supportive consultation for pupils in local comprehensive schools and
senior schools, offering regional tutoring and special courses for pupils, teachers and key workers. The learning
material department of the school designs, tests and sells learning materials to blind and partially sighted pupils from
pre-school to tenth grade in every school subject. The department produces Braille texts, embossed pictures,
simplified pictures and enlarged texts for pupils with low vision. Guidebooks and videos are also produced for teacher
training courses and pupil’s parents. Students live in a residence where the pupils can attend various leisure time
activities arranged by a free time instructor. Social skills, the practice of independent living and daily living skills are
also included in everyday life.
The Art Programme
The main purpose of art education is to provide aesthetic experiences, develop creative thinking, improve problemsolving and critical thinking skills, develop self-esteem and self-awarehess, and to express one’s own thoughts
through the creative processes. The program also strives to integrate art into other school subjects, bringing a new
perspective to other learning situations and teaching various art techniques specific to visual impairment.
In this program, students explore themes, based on works from museums and galleries collection, including
abstraction, landscapes and the environment, portraits, still lives, art from recycled materials, symbols and self-
identity. Cognitive approaches, draw on art history and other curricular subjects, such as history, math, science and
nature, language arts and literature. Emotional approaches include the use of kinaesthetic perception to understand
abstract art, exploration of religion and ethics, the integration of music, and the exploration of symbols and selfidentity. Art techniques have included drawing, design and composition choices, abstraction, printmaking, exhibition ,
sculpture, collage, writing, ceramics, and poetry.
For example, in one project, based on Hugo Simberg's oil painting " A wounded angel,” the students discussed the
painter’s life and the cultural context in which he worked and lived. They then listened to a tape describing the
painting in more details: i.e. there are two sad young boys carrying a shot, wounded angel, whose eyes are covered
with a white scarf. They discussed how the figure’s body language, lines, color and composition conveyed
information. They then created a detail of angel's wing by gluing reeds, flower and thread on the white cardboard.
For more information, contact: Marketta Perttunen, Art instructor, Learning Material Designer,
marketta.perttunen@jynok.fi
Braille Institute of America
741 North Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90029, 323-663-1111
Braille Institute of America is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to eliminate blindness and severe
sight loss as a barrier to a fulfilling life. The organization was founded in 1919 by John Robert Atkinson, a Montana
cowboy who was blinded by a gunshot wound. Now known as Braille Institute of America, Inc., the organization has
grown to include not only the production of braille reading materials, but also integrated educational, social and
recreational programs and services. The Institute offers all of its services, including its extensive art program, free of
charge and is operated and funded almost entirely through private individual and foundation sources.
After almost fifty years, the Braille Institute's art program is still thriving. Students range from partially sighted to
totally blind. It offers more than 20 art classes a week through its enrichment program, including art history,
ceramics, sculpture, mosaic tile, knitting, basketry, quilt-making, fiber arts and other classes, all designed to introduce
art concepts to students with visual impairments. The Institute’s students have exhibited their work at art galleries
across the city, and most recently they participated in the Art Beyond Sight exhibit this past July at the Conejo Valley
Center for the Arts. Several classes are taught by generous volunteer teachers who have years of experience in their
field, and who dedicate their time and energy to the enrichment of its students. Additional, the Braille Institute offers
an undergraduate art history course with the California State University Northridge, and Los Angeles City College.
More information can be found at www.brailleinstitute.org.
Selected Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week Events
October 21:
The Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM , is offering a special docent-guided tour of its Sculpture Garden at
10 a.m. This tour initiates an ongoing program that welcomes blind and visually impaired participants to join the
Museum's Sculpture Garden tours given at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays through Saturdays from April through October. For
information on the museum and its Sculpture Garden , visit www.cabq.gov/museum.
Kerr Arts & Cultural Center, Kerrville, TX , is offering verbal tours of the Kerrville Art Club Show & Sale; call (830)
895-2911 to arrange for a guide.
Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL , has touch tours 10 and 11 a.m. and noon ; call (305) 375-4073 to arrange.
October 22:
South Street Seaport Museum, New York, NY, is offering descriptive and hands-on tours of its exhibition,
"Soundings," at 2 p.m. The tour is being led by Caissa Douwes, Director of the Inclusive Arts Project. Call (212) 7488568 to confirm participation.
October 23:
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL , is hosting a special touch tour at 10 a.m.
Metropolitan Museum of Art , NYC, has a Picture This! workshop for adults with visual impairments, on 19thcentury French painting, at 11 a.m. This program is free, but space is limited, so reservations are required; call (212)
879-5500, ext. 3561.