[Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] exhibition Cummer Museum of Art-African-American art

[Lisa Yayla]

There is also a video of the news article

Unique "Touch Tour" Brings Art To Blind Students

First Coast News

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- If you've ever been to an art museum, you know the 
number one rule: do not touch! That is, unless you had a chance to be on 
a unique tour at the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens on Monday morning.

With every fingertip, gliding over ridges and curls, the image grew 
clearer. The first visitors to see the Cummer Museum's new exhibit -- 
didn't use their eyes at all.

"It's like being able to get to know the art and see what it really 
looks like," said Maggie Meade, who had just finished running her gloved 
hand over the bends of a bold wooden woman, a forlorn bronze bust, and 
other works of art.

On this special "touch tour" were students from the

 Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine. Their 
vision is very low or nonexistent. But their interest in the Cummer's 
new display of African-American art is extraordinary.

It's more than only "touching." This is about feeling -- in every sense 
of that word.

"Sitting there, looking at something, and you can't really see it that 
well -- you're not going to make as good of a connection as you would if 
you were to feel it," explained Chelsea Stillman, one of about two dozen 
students who took the tour.

Walter and Linda Evans, the artwork's owners, couldn't take their eyes 
away. "They can tell things about this art that that I've never known 
before," Walter Evans said after marveling at the students' ability to 
understand the expressions on the sculptures' faces and the emotions 
they conveyed.

These sculptures had traveled to fifty museums. This was the first time 
their owners had ever let a visitor touch them. "Discover -- by using 
their hands instead of their eyes. It's very moving," collection owner 
Linda Evans said.

Monday marked the launch of the Cummer's exhibition of the
 Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art.

Eighty pieces, including sculptures, paintings, and more will be on 
display through Black History Month and on until April 17th.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/news-article.aspx?storyid=75290