[Art_beyond_sight_educators] Art Beyond Sight Email Alert 3 forwarding

[Lisa Yayla]

Hi,

Forwarding from Marie Clapot, Project Coordinator.

Cheers,

Lisa

October 2012 Email Alert Three
1
Website Yields Performance
by Devorah Greenspan
Thanks to the AEB artist website, I was able to collaborate with international artist Ahmet Ögüt in Perfoma '09. Performa is a biennial event, lasting for several weeks with many sponsors and venues. Ahmet Ögüt was born in Diyarbakir, Turkey, in 1981. He is a conceptual artist living and working in Amsterdam and Istanbul. The performance was a homage to Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor and writer Hrant Dink, 1954-2007. The Performance took place on November 15, 2009, in New York City. While I painted, Ahmet and I engaged in conversation about our lives and a variety of other topics. Although Hrant Dink aroused political debate on both sides, our homage touched history, while avoiding conflict.
Painting an entire piece in two and a half hours challenged creative perfec-tionism. I wear glasses for general dis-tance. I work without them. Up close, I can move my head to adjust my eyes as needed for details. The idea of painting in the dark did not rattle me one bit. Symbolically it meant the darkness of strife. It also showed my capability. Painting in the dark, I use the compensa-tion techniques I developed as a young child. I'd write a reminder note, some-
Devorah Greenspan shares her experience of painting with artist, Ahmet Ögüt, whom she discovered through ABS’s e-gallery...
A moment of the performance captured. Photo © Paula Court.
Courtesy of Performa.
2
Mark Your Calendars!
October 26th-28th– Multimodal Approaches to Learning International Conference
The Conference co-organized with The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the corner-stone of Art Beyond Sight's Awareness Month. It addresses inclusive and multisen-sory learning environments and strategies, particularly in relation to the arts and museums. Our discussions will focus on experiences that involve sound, touch, movement, drama, olfactory and modes of proprioceptive learning. This year, in addition to an impressive roster of speakers and artists who will be joining us we are also very excited to announce that Peter Sellars, the renowned theater, opera and festival Director will be our keynote speaker. The event will take place at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
http://artbeyondsightconference.blogspot.com/
October 29th- Telephone Conference Crash Course
This year’s Crash Course offers two new features: “Museum Clinics,” which ad-dress critical issues and day-to-day concerns of technology, development, and ad-ministrative staff, and a “Docent Roundtable” at which docents from around the world share their ideas, tips, and stories.
http://www.artbeyondsight.org/change/aw-crashcourse.shtml
Times, using only shaded street lights entering through the windows. I could feel approxi-mately where I was on the page. Painting is a more complex endeavor. I selected my acrylic paints in advance, memorizing each colors' location on the small work table next to the
easel. The audience randomly shone flashlights, varying any light, while they watched the work in progress. Painting and drawing contend with putting the three dimensional onto a two dimensional surface. My spatial conception results from a lifetime of individualized "reverse engineering," which in the artistic application, allows me to paint. 
3
New York City and London Online … Who’s Next?
Some five years ago, Art Beyond Sight/Art Education for the Blind (ABS) launched New York Beyond Sight – an online program featuring recorded verbal descriptions of New York City landmark buildings and public (outdoor) artworks. This program makes NYC’s cultural riches accessible to blind New Yorkers, gives sighted people a new per-spective on the city’s artworks and landmarks, and sends a message of equal ac-cess, inclusion and tolerance. By using the voices of New Yorkers – writers, ac-tors, dancers, clergy, politicians, business and community leaders who are promi-nent in their professions and passionate about the landmarks they describe – the program also highlights the diversity of the city and encourages all New York-ers and the city’s many visitors to visit these cultural treasures. Here’s a link to the Website: www.nybeyondsight.org.
One of ABS’s long-term goals for this project was that it would inspire other groups in other cities to replicate it. Thus the staff was delighted when VocalEyes, a nonprofit in the UK, asked about doing a similar program on London. ABS shared its experience, tips, and procedures with VocalEyes, which introduced London Beyond Sight earlier this year. “They have a marvelous group of artists lending their voices to this project,” says ABS’s Joan M. Pursley, “and we hope that they will continue to add new de-scriptions to their site, as we do each year to ours.” Here’s a link to London Beyond Sight: http://www.vocaleyes.co.uk/feedpage.asp?section=213&sectionTitle=London+Beyond+Sight
Recently, ABS had a query from a Canadian nonprofit wanting advice about starting a Vancouver Beyond Sight program. We hope many of you will want to begin a similar pro-gram to make your city’s landmark buildings, historic sites, and outdoor artworks acces-sible to people who cannot see. If so, contact Joan M. Pursley at editor-at-large at artbeyondsight.org. “The costs involved are minimal,” says Pursley, “and doing the project is great fun. Lou Giansante, who writes and records our verbal descriptions, and I have learned a lot about our city’s history, seen some great buildings, and met doz-ens of really interesting New Yorkers who volunteered to be recording artists.”
4
Accessibility in South Africa
MAP: Meaningful Access Programme
Despite cutbacks in funding and a forced down-scaling of activities, MAP (Meaningful Access Programme) has continued to stay alive and well through the contribu-tions of volunteers who work to facilitate art. Corpo-rate funder Truworths Social Involvement Trust, which sponsors MAP’s children and adult group, has taken upon itself the task of finding more funders. Together, the volunteers and Truworths Social Involvement Trust are helping to expand MAP, which now also includes the Museum Access Projects. MAP’s success is evident in the nine workshops scheduled between August and December in cultural centers such as the South African Jewish Museum, the South African National Gallery, and the Alpha School for Autistic Children. Program creator Sandra Eastwood explains that the art work cre-ated by the attendees of each of these programs “will be returned to the relevant schools in time for their end-of-year exhibitions before being given to the learn-ers to take home.”
In her own words, Eastwood relates the current state of MAP and her hopes for the future of accessibility:
“The broader MAP is working really well and I feel that both the Irma Stern Museum and the South African Jewish Museum provide especially ripe ground for aug-menting access facilities. I am interested, too, to see what the Jewish Museum has done in NYC in this re-spect and obtain some tactile information they have prepared, which I can give to the SAJM.”
“All remains on a small scale and is dependent upon a handful of us. This is why I feel it important to spread our wings and also to give priority to the documenta-tion of what we have done. I have been involved since
1967 and was totally daunted by this self-set task at the beginning. I have now come to the conclusion that I need not write a detailed history or present an over-view of literature or the present state of access throughout the world. Our emphasis will be on what has worked for us, not a manual on 'how to' because each workshop presents fresh opportunities, but a sharing of what we have found to be good. At best, it could provide inspiration for others who want to ex-plore this exciting field.”
Dominican School for Deaf Children responding to an exhibition of drawings by Barbara Tyrell of traditional dress at Iziko South African National Gallery by collaged dress and Mary Harding School for the Intellectually Impaired drumming a necklace then collaging necklaces in response to the same exhibition.
Email Alert written and designed by Laurie Horesta, Summer Intern


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