[Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] links art, theater, map, exhibitions

[Lisa Yayla]

Hi,
Some links. Text of articles follows link list.
Regards,
Lisa



http://www.tsetsegallery.org/calendarDetail.cfm?eventid=20


http://www.lakelandradio.co.uk/cms/content/view/4589/1/


http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=148258


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050913/FACTS13/TPComment/Features 



http://wellington.govt.nz/news/display-item.php?id=2374


http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-13-2005/0004106310&EDATE=

http://www.guildfortheblind.org/GFTB/guildfortheblind.org/focus.htm

http://www.guildfortheblind.org/GFTB/guildfortheblind.org/FocusMay2003/p_focus_main.htm

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNjcmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY3NjY3MTMmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3


http://www.redandblack.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/09/16/432a4499a3f54

http://www.vicnews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=36&cat=23&id=490688&more=


Sence and Sensibilites iv


09/15/2005

 From 05:30P until 09:00P


An Art Exhibition for and by the Blind & Visually Impaired. The mission 
of "Sense & Sensibilities IV" is to build through art, community 
awareness regarding the needs of the blind and visually impaired, while 
affording them opportunities to gain cultural and educational awareness, 
along with community unity.


“Hospital Art”

Westmorland General Hospital will is hosting the latest creative artwork 
forming part of Kendal Windows on Art exhibitions from today.

The array of textile work on display is the culmination of many months 
of work by staff and help from a number of local organisations.

The artworks have been designed and planned by the South Lakes Society 
for the Blind and interpreted and produced by Kendal artist Nicki Smith.


Here, they aim to nurture interest in nature

Soumik Dey


Vadodara, September 12: A few city-based botanists, artists and nature 
conservationists recently got together to form ‘Art and Nature Trust 
(ANT) for Conservation’. As part of the initiative, the art and nature 
enthusiasts have started an in-house museum, herbarium and a library in 
Dandia Bazar area. The promoters aim to develop an interest for art and 
nature among people through observation and conservation of nature.


The official symbol of the trust —a line of hand painted ants— is 
featured on the walls of its ground floor office at Dandia Bazar’s 
Guruji House. Started two months back with the aid of private 
collections, the ANT office soon became an attraction for schoolchildren 
returning home in the evenings. “With so many schools around, this place 
gets many school students as frequent visitors. They stop by, watch our 
collections and enquire about them. We explain them things in detail and 
even let them take the exhibit in their hands. Most leave wide-eyed and 
thrilled,” said ANT president Chandrasekhar Patil.


An artist and a conservationsist himself, Patil has donated his 
collection of insects and books on art, and other subjects. Another PhD 
scholar in Botany donated her samples of flora collected from all over 
Gujarat for a herbarium at the trust. Yet another private collector has 
donated his collection of 700 various types of shells, animal and bird 
foot prints in plaster cast, stuffed animals, skeletons and some wet 
conservations of fishes and aquatic animals.

“In museums, we are not allowed to touch the exhibits. This is one rule 
that we encourage our visitors to break here. Especially, the blind 
children, who get a first hand experience of how big a vulture is or 
feel the shape of a crab. The ‘touch and feel’ activity helps in 
developing concepts about shapes in nature which gets reflected in art 
as well,” said Patil adding, “there is art in nature that helps inspire 
forms in art.’’


Exhibits here also feature local art, tribal art and examples of how 
nature is represented in these art forms.


Activities here include organising frequent visits for mentally 
handicapped and blind children, organising art workshops for school and 
college students. Nature trails and heritage walks organised in and 
around the city for members include activities like tracking crocodile 
nests in the Vishwamitri ravines near Kamatibaug, bird watching at Harni 
or feather collecting at Pavagadh.


Look & Listen at the Deaf Art exhibition 12.09.05

Pictures are painting a thousand words for those presenting their work 
in the Deaf Art exhibition, Hear My Hands.


Eighteen entries from artists of all ages, including entries from 
schools, will celebrate Deaf life through a spectacular range of styles 
and media.

The exhibition, in the Mezzo Gallery at the Wellington Central Library 
from 13-19 September, is designed to draw attention to Deaf Awareness 
Week, starting 19 September.

Works include graphic designs, cartoons, paintings, Maori art, miniature 
book covers, woodwork, photography, as well as some amazing sculptures 
from an artist who is both deaf and blind.


Many of the artists are not professionally trained in their crafts, but 
have developed their skills over years. Students exhibiting work are 
from Te Aro and Newlands schools, in Wellington, and the Kelston Deaf 
Education Centre in Auckland.


Exhibition organiser Vivien Oakshott, of the Deaf Association of New 
Zealand, says Hear My Hands Art is an opportunity for Deaf people to 
express themselves with creativity and skill through different media.


"Deaf Awareness is seen as a step in creating equality of opportunity 
for Deaf through greater understanding, more positive attitudes and more 
effective communication skills," she says.


Hear my Hands is open from 13-17 September, 9.30am - 5.00pm and 19 
September 9.30am - 3.00pm.


CHICAGO, Sept. 13 /PRNewswire/ --


WHAT: Passionate Focus 2005 -- Juried exhibition of artwork of blind and

visually impaired artists from around the country. Sponsored by

Chicago's Guild for the Blind.


WHEN: Artists Reception and Silent Auction Thursday, September 15, 2005,

5 - 9 pm. The exhibition continues through November 13, 2005.


WHO: If people who are blind can be artists, what else can they do if

given the opportunity and support?


Passionate Focus is a reflection of the spirit embodied in all the

programs offered at the Guild for the Blind, including:


-- Career training to stem the 70% unemployment rate among the blind and

visually impaired, and

-- "New Visions," a program to help the one in six people over age 65 who

develop vision loss due to macular degeneration.


Representatives from the Guild for the Blind will be present, as well as

several local featured artists.


WHERE: The Gallery of the Fourth Presbyterian Church, Michigan Avenue at

Delaware Place and Chestnut Avenue, Chicago.


COST: $100 per person. Tickets are available at the door.


Visit http://www.GuildfortheBlind.org for more information.


Tuesday, September 13, 2005


By JOHN PETRICK

STAFF WRITER


Sharing the 'Light'


The Nalaga'at Theater Troupe of Israel, a company of 12 deaf-blind 
actors, performs its original play, "Light Is Heard in Zig Zag," at 8 
p.m. Thursday.


Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall, Time Warner Center, Broadway at 
60th Street, fifth floor, Manhattan. (212) 608-0555; lincolncenter.org.


Tickets: $48 and $150.


When it came to the deaf and blind, Adina Tal was, well, a bit deaf and 
blind.


"I thought Helen Keller was the only deaf and blind person in the 
world," says Tal, a most unlikely person to end up becoming the director 
of 12 deaf-blind actors who comprise the Israel-based Nalaga'at Theater 
Troupe.


If you're wondering how a group of deaf-blind people could put on a show 
- no less a show you'd want to sit through - don't feel bad. Tal doesn't 
blame you. She felt exactly the same way just a few years ago.


"I had a little bit of a problem with handicapped theater. Very often, 
it's very good and very nice for the people who are doing it, but it's 
kind of a punishment for the people watching it," she says, quite bluntly.


Reluctantly, the Switzerland-born actress and director agreed to teach a 
drama class for a group of people suffering from Usher syndrome. The 
condition begins with congenital deafness and tunnel vision that 
develops over years, progressively leading to blindness. Many in the 
group - who range from teenagers to those in their 50s - literally had 
never learned how to laugh, no less act.


"We started to work - and I fell in love with the group," she says.


The workshop not only changed both Tal's and the students' lives, it 
resulted in Nalaga'at (Hebrew for "Do Touch"), which tours the world 
with its unique form of theater. The troupe will perform its 
self-developed original play "Light Is Heard in Zig Zag" at Lincoln 
Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall Thursday as part of the 2005 New York 
Jewish Music and Heritage Festival.


"Their whole perception of life is so completely different. There's 
actually no present. The present creates itself at the moment I hear you 
or I see you or you see me and hear me. But this does not exist for a 
deaf and blind person. The present is created by touch - which, I think, 
by the way, is part of the magic of the show," she says by phone from 
Israel.


Because they know sign language but cannot see it, the actors and 
interpreters use "touch sign language," signing on the actors' hands to 
communicate Tal's direction. "Theater is the art of communication. And 
here were people whose biggest problem was communication. This was the 
biggest challenge in the whole thing," she says. Tal ultimately created 
the production through a long process working on motion skills and 
improvisation.


"When we started to work, I asked them what their dreams were. Some of 
them are very similar to our dreams. One person wanted to be rich, so he 
could invite a beautiful woman to the most expensive restaurant in the 
world. Another one wanted to be a singer. One said she dreams that 
she'll get up in the morning, go to the supermarket, buy cheese and be 
able to see the 'sell by' date," she says.


The piece evolved into a series of vignettes based on their dreams. Each 
actor is accompanied by an onstage interpreter, who helps with timing 
and costume changes and taps the actor's knee to communicate applause. 
"They will tell me afterward whether they thought the audience was good 
that night, or whether they were a little off. And they're right," she says.


"Sometimes when I tell people that I work with deaf-blind people, I see 
their faces - it's like you are a saint for working with them, or what a 
tragedy, or how lucky I am that I am not deaf-blind. But the fact is, 
the show is a beautiful show. You'll cry, but you'll laugh also. It's 
about life, and it has a very big message of hope," she says.


The show has toured Israel, Switzerland and the United States to packed 
houses and critical acclaim since its launch in 2003. "At some point, 
you ask yourself, 'Why is this so successful?' ... I think there's 
something magical about being so completely isolated, and getting out of 
that isolation," she says of the actors. "And every person in the 
audience has the experience of seeing a beautiful show, but also it's 
about meeting yourself at a very basic place where there is no language 
or sound."


It's no coincidence, she says, that such a theater troupe would emerge 
out of Israel. "I believe that, basically, every place has an impact on 
what you're doing in the creative world. ... It [Israel] can be a hard 
place to live and, sometimes, you feel like you're coming to a dead end. 
And when you do, you feel like you have to open a door," she says, 
noting the parallel between that feeling and the spirit of the theater 
troupe.


Tal, along with Nalaga'at production manager Eran Gur, is working to 
establish a new experimental entertainment center in Israel in which 
deaf-blind people will be employed full time in a theater and a 
restaurant. "The whole idea of the center is to focus on the abilities 
of these people, and not their disabilities," she says. "You will come 
to the center not because you feel sorry for them, but because you want 
to have a good time." Meanwhile, she is rehearsing a new theater piece 
with the actors and planning on establishing a new ensemble that will 
feature a mix of deaf-blind Arabs and Jews.


After working with these performers, Tal says, she doubts she will ever 
direct hearing-seeing actors in the mainstream theater again.


"It would seem very boring," she says.


excerpt from article Volunteers help blind, dyslexic

Certain subjects such as math, science and foreign languages require 
“specialized” readers, who are proficient in the area and can smoothly 
translate parts of the text — such as an algebraic equation or 
descriptions of works of art, Smith said.


New map helps blind enjoy park

Sharon Tiffin/Victoria News

Lois Lawrie demonstrates the use of a tactile map of Beacon Hill Park 
Saturday while Miriam Youssefi and map designer Raya Jane Peters explain 
how the map can help the blind explore the park.

By Brennan Clarke

Victoria News

Sep 14 2005


A new map designed for the visually impaired is helping blind people get 
a feel for the natural beauty of Beacon Hill Park.

Designed by the Tactile Colour Communication Society, the map uses a 
combination of Braille print and textures that suggest certain colours 
to help blind park users enjoy their surroundings.

"It really helps to orientate your direction, but you have to use it a 
little bit before the design of the map works to the reality of the 
individual," said the society's founder, Lois Lawrie.

With funding from the City of Victoria and the United Way, Lawrie was 
able to design and print 3,000 of the maps, which will be distributed 
free of charge to visually impaired people upon request.

A handful of visually impaired people attended the map's official launch 
in Beacon Hill Park on Saturday.

Lawrie said the society is also working on a similar map of the City of 
Victoria, which is due to be completed in October.

A printer and graphic artist by trade, Lawrie lost her sight in 1991 and 
began using tactile colour as a medium to help visually impaired artists 
continue working. The tactile colour system is used in many other 
Canadian cities as well as internationally, she said

"I hope to see tactile maps in every city, school, park and mall 
someday," she said.

One in nine Canadians will have a permanent visual impairment by age 65. 
That number rises to one in four by age 75.

Lawrie said many of those people become "shut-ins" due to a lack of 
services and tools to assist them.