[KeyStoneChapter] Art gallery created by the blind and for the blind in Kansas

Sat Jul 29 14:59:30 UTC 2023

https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/envision-arts-gallery-wichita-kansas

Artists and Audiences

Feel free to touch the art at Envision Arts Gallery in Wichita, Kansas.

By  <https://www.thrillist.com/authors/jennifer-billock> Jennifer Billock

Published on 6/23/2023 at 10:13 AM

<https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=270403392171750&set=pcb.27040737550468
5> Envision Arts Gallery

A few years back, I was at an art gallery in Sweden and leaned a little too
close to check out the paint job on a particular piece. Suddenly all sorts
of alarms were chirping around me, alerting everyone in the gallery to the
fact that I was too close to the art! They didn't kick me out or anything,
but it was a bit embarrassing, to say the least. Because as we all know, art
in galleries is meant to be observed, and not touched.

That creates a big problem, though, for visually impaired people who can't
actually see the art. How can they tell what a piece looks like if they
can't feel the hard ridge of paint left after a swipe of the brush, or the
delicate stubble of a pointillism portrait?

<https://www.envisionus.com/envision-art-gallery-and-community-engagement-ce
nter/> Envision Arts Gallery in
<https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/things-to-do-in-wichita-ks>
Wichita, Kansas, is solving that problem. It's the first art gallery in the
United States created by and for the visually impaired community. All of the
art exhibited here is meant to be touched - something the staff had to push
me to do when I visited, because I was so conscious of the rules at other
galleries.

The floor at Envision is covered with white ridged lines-cord covered over
with tape-so people using a sight cane are able to walk to each art piece. |
Photo courtesy of Envision Arts Gallery and Community Engagement Center

Envision Arts' program manager Sarah Kephart notes that through the
gallery's mission of providing opportunities for artists and audiences with
visual disabilities, there's an opportunity not just to build and strengthen
the community and improve quality of life, but also to close a gap in the
art world. Envision's programming "enhances creative diversity and gives
agency to individuals who have long been marginalized in the field of
expressive arts," she said.

That inclusivity and agency begins from the literal ground up. The floor at
Envision is covered with white ridged lines-cord covered over with tape-so
people using sight canes are able to walk to each art piece. On the walls,
each piece of art has a QR code for a spoken description of the artwork, and
braille displays for each artist's name and title of the piece. And, of
course, all the artwork is meant to be touched.

When I visited, I ran my fingers along the textured interiors of large
kintsugi bowls in the 'Golden Repair' exhibit.
<https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=228038853074871&set=pb.100076062737444
.-2207520000.>  | Envision Arts Gallery

When I visited, I ran my fingers along the textured interiors of large
kintsugi bowls in the Golden Repair exhibit, featuring work by Black and
disabled artists Ciara McCaughy, Larrida Murphy, and Brandon Murphy. As part
of the Wrap, Cross, Repeat exhibit, I squished around sculptures wrapped in
rubber by blind artist Monte Arst, who has always loved the smell of fresh
rubber, and felt the ripples of repeating patterns in paint by artist Jenny
Knapp-patterns that represent the repeated daily behaviors of visually
impaired people that allow them to have control over their lives.

 <https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/best-things-to-do-wamego-kansas> 

 <https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/best-things-to-do-wamego-kansas> 

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Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Wamego, Kansas

 <https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/best-things-to-do-wamego-kansas>
The small railroad town goes big on 'The Wizard of Oz.'

Sculptor Tomas Bustos recreates famous artwork into tactile pieces for the
blind and visually impaired to experience. | Photo courtesy of Envision Arts
Gallery and Community Engagement Center

Exhibits at the gallery change every three months. The current one on
display (through July 28), Masterpiece Relief for the Blind, actually shows
artwork from a sighted artist, Tomas Bustos, from Dallas, Texas. It's the
first time the gallery has shown work from an artist with full sight. Bustos
is a sculptor, and his work recreates
<https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/picasso-art-trail-spain-france>
famous artwork into tactile pieces for the blind and visually impaired to
experience. His tactile versions of Starry Night and the Mona Lisa are on
display, as well as a brand-new piece-a bronze-cast recreation of American
Gothic by Grant Wood. It was a long process to make the latter. Bustos
sought out permission from Nan Wood Graham, the painter's sister who modeled
for the woman in the portrait, to create his project, noting that this would
finally allow people with sight impairments to enjoy the painting as well.
At first, Graham (who died in 1990, if that gives you an idea of how long
this took) denied Bustos. Eventually, though, he convinced her and she
acquiesced in writing. And now, Bustos says, everyone can "see" it.

"As an artist, I can create and make anything I want to," Bustos, said in a
<https://www.envisionus.com/news/tactile-recreations-of-famous-masterpieces-
for-people-who-are-blind-or-visually-impaired> press release. "But I'm not
doing this for myself. I'm doing this for a whole community [of people who
are blind or visually impaired] who have never been able to see original
works."

"I'm doing this for a whole community [of people who are blind or visually
impaired] who have never been able to see original works," says Tomas
Bustos. | Photo courtesy of Envision Arts Gallery and Community Engagement
Center

Envision Arts has only been open since January 2022, but the reception has
been stellar, Kephart says. They've already held 16 exhibitions in the space
with work from about 250 artists, and more than 5,000 people have come to
visit. The artists are making money from the gallery as well; of the $25,000
in sales over the last year, $15,000 of it went directly to the artists.

Each exhibition has a community art aspect to it as well. With Bustos's
exhibit, Envision hosted a sculpture workshop for the blind and visually
impaired where participants created their own small-scale clay projects.
During my visit, the exhibits were paired with an art project of creating
found poetry-verses made from random words cut out of magazines, newspapers,
or other materials.

With Bustos's exhibit, Envision hosted a sculpture workshop for the blind
and visually impaired where participants molded clay. | Photo courtesy of
Envision Arts Gallery and Community Engagement Center

It's free to visit the art gallery, located at 801 East Douglas, Suite 106,
in Wichita. They're open Monday through Friday from 10 am to 5 pm. All
proceeds from merchandise or art purchased go directly to the artists.

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