SHAPE 2017 TateExchange Book FINAL Draft - Flipbook - Page 24
to interact with art forms from a purely subjective and open ended multisensory creative response.
We are, indeed, all different and that’s where it becomes incredibly exciting.
Whether we are sighted, blind or partially sighted, D/deaf, disabled or nondisabled; whatever our gender, age, cultural background, faith or sexual
orientation, our life experience defines our identity and presents us with
infinite opportunities to creatively play and engage with art, exploring each
‘story’ from our own perspective. I say ‘story’ because I think each piece
of art, object, sculpture or building has its own story. We enable those
stories to be unlocked through our creativity. Our life experience influences
this process.
Nothing I’ve said here is new. None of us needs to reinvent the wheel. Over
the years there have been many excellent leading practitioners within our
sector developing quality projects and learning resources, such as, “Every
object tells a story” 1 or “Every picture tells a story” 2 .
Books like James Mayhew’s “Katie and the Impressionists” (part of the
author’s ‘Katie’ series), in which a little girl jumps inside a Claude Monet
painting, allow the reader’s imagination to run wild.
There are many leading visually impaired practitioners instigating adaptive
descriptive techniques; for example, Rebecca McGuinness, whose work
developing verbal imaging tours with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York opened up a whole plethora of wonderful initiatives after her
presentation at the ‘In Touch with Art’ conference, and Marcus Weisen, a
respected, passionate advocate who has contributed so much to museum
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