Unique Clonmel expo makes art more accessible to all
Art exhibitions are usually feasts for the eyes but South Tipperary County Museum is now hosting a show that invites visitors to also experience art with their other senses.
The Altered Images exhibition, which runs at the Clonmel based museum until August 5, is first of its kind in the country.
Its aim is to make art more accessible to people with disabilities but also offers a different way of enjoying art for people who haven't any disability.
The show features works from the collections of South Tipperary Arts Service, the Irish Museum of Modern Art and Mayo Co. Council Arts Office as well as two works specially commissioned for the show.
Each art work on display is accompanied by an audio description on an MP3 player as well as braille descriptions, three-dimensional tactile models of the art pieces and a filmed sign language interpretation of the exhibition by artist Amanda Coogan.
The art work models, audio and braille descriptions and sign language film are all positioned at heights that wheelchair users can easily reach. The exhibition catalogue has been produced in large print and is also available in audio CD and Braille versions on request.
Abigail O'Brien's contemporary depictions of the seven sacrements through photography and a recreation of the Last Supper table; Caroline McCarthy's large still life photograph, The Luncheon, and Daphne Wright's film work, Plura, are among the intriguing art pieces in the show.
Also in the exhibition are photographic art by David Creedon, oil paintings by Thomas Brezing, prints by Alice Maher and Amanda Coogan's sign language interpretation of the exhibition.
South Tipperary Co. Council Arts Officer Sally O'Leary said an education programme has been developed as part of the exhibition and the Arts Service has organised a number of guided tours, workshops and artist talks.
""I think the main thing about this show is that it raises awareness of access to the arts for people with disabilities.
We have got quite a few groups already booked for tours from the National Council for the Blind of Ireland, the Clonmel Sheltered Workshop, Rehab Care, the National Learning Network and Journeyman Project," she said at the opening night of the exhibition.
"We have got good feedback already. We had quite a few people who have sight impairments around the exhibition and they were delighted because they really got a sense of the works. The combination of the audio descriptions and the tactile models really built up a picture for them."
Arts Council Director Mary Cloake, who officially opened Altered Image, said it was one of the best exhibitions she had seen in a long time with a real ‘wow’ factor and the venue was akin to the exhibition spaces of London, Paris or Tokyo.
She said making art more accessible to people with disabilities was a priority area in the Arts Council's arts participation programme and it was exciting to see an exhibition where accessibility, inclusion and engagement are at its very heart rather than on the periphery.
"It's hoped that innovative initiatives of this kind will inspire others to develop new ways to see and experience art that will facilitiate disabled and non-disabled artists and audiences alike, “she said.
The exhibition has come to fruition thanks to a partnership between South Tipperary and Mayo Co. Councils and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Ms Cloake said it was an exemplary model of practice for other local authority art services and arts organisiations to follow.
Also at the exhibition's opening night with his guide dog was Castlebar based Damien O'Connor, who is Mayo Co. Council's Disability Arts Coordinator,
He first mooted the idea for the project while on work placement at Mayo Co. Council a few years ago as he worked on an similar exhibition in Manchester in the mid-1990s..
He has worked on the show for the past 18 months and was overwhelmed with the finished result when he visited it for the first time on the day of the official launch.
"I was completely and utterly blown away by it, especially with the relief models of the art pieces created by Loz Simpson. If it does that to me then other people will really get a lot out of it.”
He stresses that this isn't a special exhibition just for disabled people.
"I just want as many people to see it as possible and interact with it and get something out of it. There has never been an exhibition like this in Ireland. This is the first of its kind and I hope it will be a bit like a rolling stone and gather momentum."
Altered Images will move to the Ballina Arts Centre in Co. Mayo after its run in Clonmel and will also be staged at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin next year.
For further information on the show log onto the website: www.alteredimages.ie.
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