[accessibleimage] Article Work of Blind Students at Philadelphia Museum of Art

Hi,Article from Artdaily.com
http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=10430
Regards,
Lisa

Work of Blind Students at Philadelphia Museum of Art

PHILADELPHIA, PA.- While taking visually impaired, adult
students on a three-year creative journey, the Philadelphia
Museum of Art is showcasing the works of the fifty students
enrolled in the Museum?s Form in Art program in a touchable
exhibit, on view at the Museum through June 20. 
  Works made during the course of this award-winning
program, which  combines studio art classes with the study
of art history for people  who are legally blind (many have
some residual vision), will be on  display in the Museum?s
Education Corridor before moving to Wills  Eye Hospital,
where it will be exhibited from June 23 to August 8,  2004,
and the Pennsylvania College of Optometry from August 11 to
September 6, 2004. The show is a celebration of the
achievements of  the students enrolled in the program and
serves as an inspiration to
blind, visually impaired, and sighted Museum visitors. 
  Form in Art is a three-year, six-semester program offered
by the Office  of Accessible Programs in the Division of
Education at the Museum. Reversing the nearly universal ?do
not touch? policy of museums,  Form in Art facilitates
artistic development through Touch Tours of selected objects
in the permanent collections, Verbally Described 
Tours by Museum Guides, and lectures by museum staff members
 on the curatorial and conservation responsibilities of the
Museum. 
?The creative talent of all Form in Art students is fueled
by their teachers, who are professional artists, and the
many
volunteers who  lend their time to the program,? says Marla
Shoemaker, Senior  Curator of Education at the Museum. ?It
is their dedication that makes Form in Art possible.?  

Students entering the program come from a wide variety of 
backgrounds, vary from having recent to congenital sight
loss, and  from being lifelong artists to having little or
no art training. They are recommended for Form in Art by
area agencies for the blind, or apply  on the
recommendation of other students. After a small $10 to $40
per semester registration fee, the Museum pays for all
materials
and arranges and pays for one half of the transportation for
the
students.
Four classes, two advanced and two beginner, meet once a
week for two 13-week semesters each year, with an exhibit of
their work in the Museum at the end of each year. In
addition to the Museum, works by Form in Art
students have been seen in galleries all over
Philadelphia, and even as far away as Japan, when an
exhibition of works was sent to the Museum of Contemporary
Art in Kobe and Gallery Tom in Tokyo in 1989.

In keeping with the mission of Form in Art, the Office of
Accessible constantly experimenting and developing new
methods
 of interpreting the Museum?s collections for blind and
partially sighted  visitors by
implementing large-print labels, Braille information,
tactile drawings, touchable constructions of paintings,
black-and-white,high-contrast photographs, audio or verbal
descriptions, and educationalexhibits. Form in Art is
generously supported by The Women?s
Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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