Following the success of the audio-described Tactile Tour program in 2010, Sculpture by the Sea are partnering with Accessible Arts to offer people with vision impairment and people with intellectual disability the opportunity to engage with art in a hands-on guided experience.
Accessible Arts hosted the Festivals Forum in July 2011, to review access for people with disability at festival events throughout NSW. Representatives from fifteen festivals large and small, and supporting arts organisations, gathered at the Utzon Room at Sydney Opera House to attend the three hour forum.
As part of an agreement to support festivals to develop accessibility, Accessible Arts has provided training to Sculpture by the Sea staff for the third consecutive year. Twelve staff from all sections of the organisation attended three hours of Disability Awareness and Access training to further embed accessibility practices throughout their organisation.
Festivals are increasing in popularity and continue to give expression and exposure to innovative creative arts and culture, which in turn adds greater vibrancy to communities who share in these occasions. Accessible Arts will present a forum in July, to bring festival producers together to discuss the unique challenges they face when improving access to festival events.News
Sculptures take a tactile turn
Nastasia Campanella is a Sydney based freelance print, radio and online journalist who also happens to be blind. She recently attended one of the audio described tactile tours presented by Sculpture by the Sea in partnership with Accessible Arts and reported on the experience.
The American artist Chuck Close once said, “It’s always a pleasure to talk about someone else’s work.” Talking was key for several tours at this year’s Sculpture by the Sea exhibition in Sydney. The annual event, stretching along the seaside walk from Tamarama to Bondi Beach, is now in its 14th year. For the past two years, tactile tours have enabled arty types with visual impairments, like me, to get up close and personal with the sculptures.
In 2009, Sculpture by the Sea partnered with Accessible Arts to provide the festival’s first touch tours. For me and others with visual impairments, this meant a hands-on experience with a selection of the 109 works. This year the partnership as introduced an audio-description element to the tours to make the experience even more accessible. Groups of 10 were guided around the exhibition by Wendy Payne and Carolyn Bethwaite, who both have years of experience presenting audio-described tours at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The guides took us around the exhibition, encouraging us to touch several pieces and describing the colours, materials and themes displayed.
Initially I thought the term “audio-described” referred to a pre-recorded description of an artwork played over and over again. Instead, I found that having an experienced guide describe the works heightened the experience. It was helpful to have a person to whom I could pose questions. If I wanted to know more about a piece, I’d ask. Having someone read statements from the various artists was ideal to get a sense of their intentions. Not everyone opted to have the statements read to them. I chose to touch the art and make up my own mind about what I thought the meanings were, before hearing what the artist was trying to convey. This way, I was able to form an independent opinion about the art without having a sighted person impose their visual interpretations.
Sculptures really are one of the most interactive art forms. The tactile experience gave me a sense of whether a piece was made out of stainless steel or cast iron. Bronze featured prominently in the winning piece by Danish artist Keld Moseholm, which showed two fat men in a tug-of-war. A personal highlight was Edward Horne’s sculpture of a large war tank made out of recycled stage lights, saucepans and filing cabinets. I loved that I was able to recognise by touch the different every-day objects used to make up the piece.
Sculpture by the Sea Education Manager, Olivia Kloosterman said the tours provide an experience of increased social and cultural participation for all of the community. “A greater understanding and enjoyment of a work can be achieved by stimulating all the senses; exploring the texture, scale, movement, sound, smell and even temperature”, she said. “There was a wonderful sense of interaction with the art and with each other.”