[accessibleimage] Art Institute of Chicago


http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-art20.html#


   Art Institute gives blind a chance to 'see' art

/April 20, 2006/

*BY *ANDREW HERRMANN <mailto:aherrmann@xxxxxxxxxxxx>*_ _Staff Reporter *

Do Not Touch is the general rule of thumb in art museums. Which, for the blind, pretty much leaves them out of the art museum experience.

But beginning today, the Art Institute of Chicago is offering the sightless and vision-impaired the opportunity to "see," through touching, replicas of a few of its most popular works.

The Michigan Avenue museum has re-created a handful of its art on portable, machine-etched plastic, which will help the blind to imagine what they cannot view.

Called TacTiles, the 8-inch-by-10-inch boards replicate in relief the brush strokes of such masters as Renoir and Miro. Developed by Helen Maria Nugent of the School of the Art Institute, the idea came from a focus group of vision-challenged people interested in art.


*A copy of a print of Pierre Auguste Renoir's "Two Sisters (On a Terrace)" sits next to a TacTile copy for the blind and vision-impaired at the Art Institute. *(TOM CRUZE/SUN-TIMES)

"We want to touch things," they said, according to Mickie Silverstein of the museum's department of education.

*'Virtuoso display'*

For years the Art Institute has had a Touch Gallery of sculptures for the blind but was looking to expand the audience, said Silverstein. While the museum had been using Styrofoam to help explain tactile differences in paintings, the plastic boards are believed to be a one-of-a-kind approach unique to the Art Institute, officials said.

Pierre Auguste Renoir's "Two Sisters (On a Terrace)" was an easy pick. "Everybody wants to know about Renoir,'' Silverstein said.

The actual painting, completed in 1881, depicts a pair of French women on a restaurant terrace. The Art Institute's own description calls the painting a "virtuoso display of vibrant color and variegated brushwork." It notes that the younger girl's eyes are "startlingly clear, translucent blue."

For the blind, there are no distinctive colors on the TacTiles, of course, though an accompanying braille text describes the hues.

The etchings are remarkably precise. Even the untrained fingertips can make out Renoir's flowers that ring the girls' hats, a smudgy distant bridge and a tiny canoe plying the Seine River.

*Duplicates of iconic images*

On the TacTile replica of a Japanese screen by Tosa Mitsuoki, "Flowering Cherry with Poem Slips," the bumps of the tree blossoms can be sensed. The relief of fine vines can be felt on the TacTile "Trompe-L'Oeil Still Life with a Flower Garland and a Curtain."

The first production of TacTiles also includes Joan Miro's "Personages with Star'' and the "Stone of the Five Sons" Aztec tablet.

A dozen sets of TacTiles have been created, and the museum hopes to make duplicates of some of the Art Institute's other iconic images, said Silverstein.

The tiles, which have been pre-tested and approved by blind and vision-impaired volunteers, are available only through museum tours prearranged by calling (312) 443-3929.

The launch of the tile project coincides with "Bodies of Work: The Chicago Festival of Disability Arts and Culture," which begins today and runs through April 30 at a variety of cultural institutions around town. More information is available at /www.bodiesofwork.org./




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