[Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] opera and India, photo exhibit tactile

[Lisa Yayla]

http://www.jccmi.edu/News/PressReleases/pr083106.htm

Hands-on art: JCC to present ‘Facial Vision’ art show

A photography exhibit for the blind and visually impaired as well as 
sighted, featuring a tactile approach, is coming to Jackson Community 
College.

JCC will present “Facial Vision,” a Hands-on Art Show of people who are 
blind, visually impaired or sighted, from Sept. 5-26, 2006, in the 
Potter Center Art Gallery. Photographer and artist Suellen Hozman will 
exhibit 27 black and white photographic portraits that have been 
reproduced as tactile graphics in three dimensions, using adaptive and 
non-adaptive technologies. The exhibit will include contributions from 
Craig Mitchell Smith, who explores the tactile nature of glass.

Hozman hopes the show will provide a good time for everyone, regardless 
of vision problems. She hopes it may educate people that there is talent 
and technology available today that is underutilized, and to stimulate 
conversation with people in the two-dimension to three-dimension 
engineering, material science and forensic world to offer their talents 
to people who are blind to improve academic and life choices.

An opening reception will be held from 5-7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 11. 
Visitors may see and feel the exhibit from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday 
through Friday, and during Potter Center performances.



article

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/may282006/finearts122752006527.asp

Presenting the blind and the beautiful

Visually impaired women in India are using theatre to connect with the 
world around them. Ranjita Biswas finds out more.



On the upper floor of a library in north Kolkata a motley group of women 
are singing– clear, lilting: and the hustle-bustle of a play rehearsal 
is in progress. A space is clearly marked off with coir ropes and 
sometimes the director leads an actor by the arm.

That is when it dawns on you that these women, rehearsing for 
Rabindranath Tagore's Chandalika, are visually impaired. The story about 
an untouchable girl who realises her worth as a human being when a 
Buddhist monk asks her for water, seems to strike a chord. "The religion 
that neglects and insults me, I don't recognise," is what the chorus 
sings in the background.

Most of these women are members of the Blind Opera, the only performing 
art ensemble of its kind in India. The Opera, explains founder-member 
Subhashis Gangopadhyay, has both male and female members. But this 
particular production is their first all-woman affair. Gangopadhyay 
explains that the idea was to encourage greater involvement of women, 
including women who are not members of the Blind Opera and to involve 
visually-impaired women from the fringes of Kolkata as well.


The women in this play are of different ages and from different 
backgrounds; some can see partially, some not at all. Their common bond 
is a love for theatre and a disability they want to surmount using 
theatre as a medium. This also gives them an opportunity to express the 
creativity hidden behind layers of denial and discrimination. Says 
Alpana Dutta, "I find an outlet here for my pent-up emotions. I was at 
home after my school finals, doing nothing and feeling hopeless as 
blindness slowly crept up. Then my mother heard about this group and 
encouraged me to join. It has been a great boost to my self-confidence."

For director Dola Chakraborty, the experience has been a novel and 
challenging one. "I hope I have been able to bring these women to a 
common platform through theatre, where they can voice their inner 
thoughts, pain and desires, and share their experiences," she says.

The women in the group are mostly from lower-middle class or rural 
backgrounds, which means they have even lesser access to other outlets 
of expression. The Opera arranges workshops in rural schools and in the 
fringes of Kolkata. A movement for empowerment has to come from the 
grassroots, they believe.

Some of the women in the 'Chandalika' troupe, for example, come from 
afar– travelling by local trains and buses and returning home late in 
the evening.

While planning the play, Chakraborty first organised a workshop with 
about 45 women; those who were not in the main roles were accommodated 
in the chorus.

Choreographer Poulami Basu says working with visually impaired women for 
the first time was a great learning experience. "I found it tough to 
decide how to direct their movements because they have no visual 
reference. I had to change the whole choreographic design." For example, 
these women have no reference for mudras (postures) or for taking cues 
from other dancers. So, the instructor guides dancers with her fingers 
and then assigns a word for it.

For Gangopadhyay, theatre is a tool of empowerment through drama 
therapy. "Theatre helps build confidence and the ability to communicate 
with the sighted world. It also helps blind people feel they belong to 
the mainstream, a fact that shows in their body language," he says. The 
Opera regularly gets rave reviews.

Gangopadhyay himself is sighted and was part of a well-known theatre 
group in Kolkata. He thought of setting up the Blind Opera when he and a 
few like-minded colleagues conducted a workshop at the Calcutta Blind 
School. After the event was over, the participants wanted to continue 
their training in the performing arts.

Gangopadhyay and his friends saw this as an opportunity for social 
change, and broke away from their regular group to develop the Blind 
Opera. Launched in 1996, the Opera is a registered theatre group and is 
paid for its performances. It also receives funding from the Government 
of India's Education Fund for workshops in blind schools across West 
Bengal.

Theatre also helps the sighted world connect with the visually impaired; 
in the process of watching a play, the audience learns to look at the 
blind with new eyes. This is an important catalyst for social change, 
Gangopadhyay feels.

Women's Feature Service

On the upper floor of a library in north Kolkata a motley group of women 
are singing— clear, lilting: and the hustle-bustle of a play rehearsal 
is in progress. A space is clearly marked off with coir ropes and 
sometimes the director leads an actor by the arm.

That is when it dawns on you that these women, rehearsing for 
Rabindranath Tagore's Chandalika, are visually impaired. The story about 
an untouchable girl who realises her worth as a human being when a 
Buddhist monk asks her for water, seems to strike a chord. "The religion 
that neglects and insults me, I don't recognise," is what the chorus 
sings in the background.

Most of these women are members of the Blind Opera, the only performing 
art ensemble of its kind in India. The Opera, explains founder-member 
Subhashis Gangopadhyay, has both male and female members. But this 
particular production is their first all-woman affair. Gangopadhyay 
explains that the idea was to encourage greater involvement of women, 
including women who are not members of the Blind Opera and to involve 
visually-impaired women from the fringes of Kolkata as well.

The women in this play are of different ages and from different 
backgrounds; some can see partially, some not at all. Their common bond 
is a love for theatre and a disability they want to surmount using 
theatre as a medium. This also gives them an opportunity to express the 
creativity hidden behind layers of denial and discrimination. Says 
Alpana Dutta, "I find an outlet here for my pent-up emotions. I was at 
home after my school finals, doing nothing and feeling hopeless as 
blindness slowly crept up. Then my mother heard about this group and 
encouraged me to join. It has been a great boost to my self-confidence."

For director Dola Chakraborty, the experience has been a novel and 
challenging one. "I hope I have been able to bring these women to a 
common platform through theatre, where they can voice their inner 
thoughts, pain and desires, and share their experiences," she says.

The women in the group are mostly from lower-middle class or rural 
backgrounds, which means they have even lesser access to other outlets 
of expression. The Opera arranges workshops in rural schools and in the 
fringes of Kolkata. A movement for empowerment has to come from the 
grassroots, they believe.

Some of the women in the 'Chandalika' troupe, for example, come from 
afar— travelling by local trains and buses and returning home late in 
the evening.

While planning the play, Chakraborty first organised a workshop with 
about 45 women; those who were not in the main roles were accommodated 
in the chorus.

Choreographer Poulami Basu says working with visually impaired women for 
the first time was a great learning experience. "I found it tough to 
decide how to direct their movements because they have no visual 
reference. I had to change the whole choreographic design." For example, 
these women have no reference for mudras (postures) or for taking cues 
from other dancers. So, the instructor guides dancers with her fingers 
and then assigns a word for it.

For Gangopadhyay, theatre is a tool of empowerment through drama 
therapy. "Theatre helps build confidence and the ability to communicate 
with the sighted world. It also helps blind people feel they belong to 
the mainstream, a fact that shows in their body language," he says. The 
Opera regularly gets rave reviews.

Gangopadhyay himself is sighted and was part of a well-known theatre 
group in Kolkata. He thought of setting up the Blind Opera when he and a 
few like-minded colleagues conducted a workshop at the Calcutta Blind 
School. After the event was over, the participants wanted to continue 
their training in the performing arts.

Gangopadhyay and his friends saw this as an opportunity for social 
change, and broke away from their regular group to develop the Blind 
Opera. Launched in 1996, the Opera is a registered theatre group and is 
paid for its performances. It also receives funding from the Government 
of India's Education Fund for workshops in blind schools across West 
Bengal.

Theatre also helps the sighted world connect with the visually impaired; 
in the process of watching a play, the audience learns to look at the 
blind with new eyes. This is an important catalyst for social change, 
Gangopadhyay feels.

Women's Feature Service