Visually impaired participants in an art workshop at the National Gallery of Canada work with blocks of clay.
Christine Duport began participating in visual art workshops only after losing something often considered crucial to the medium: her sight.
Before a tumour caused her to lose her eyesight three years ago, 46-year-old Duport frequented museums and occasionally did arts and crafts at home, but her art practice changed significantly after going blind.
“I did do a little bit of art before, but nothing major,” she says. “Now I enjoy the process as much as I enjoy the finished result, whereas before I was geared toward the end product.”
As she speaks, she runs her muddied hands across a clay sculpture she has been moulding. Duport is part of a small group of people with visual impairments who make regular trips to the National Gallery of Canada to experience and create art using senses other than sight.
From Feb. 1-7, the gallery partnered with the Canadian Council of the Blind to celebrate White Cane Week, a national awareness week aimed at emphasizing the talents of Canadians who are blind or visually impaired.
Elizabeth Sweeney, accessibility educator at the national gallery, says although programming for people with visual impairments is available throughout the year, the awareness week highlights the power of art to a group that is often forgotten in the field.
“Especially within the blind community, these are people who were discouraged for the most part to think or talk or learn about art,” Sweeney says.
The gallery hosted a series of hands-on workshops throughout the week, focused on making art. Participants created hanging mobiles and clay and plaster sculptures, artworks based on form and shape, rather than on visual aesthetics like colour.
The week also included guided tactile tours, where participants explored less-fragile pieces in the gallery’s collection through touch, in consultation with curators and conservators and using special gloves so as not to damage the works.
Celebrations wrapped up on Feb. 7, with a lecture by Amadeo D’Angiulli, a professor at Carleton University, who spoke about his studies with the drawings of children with congenital blindness.
Theresa Dupuis, president of the Canadian Council of the Blind’s Ottawa chapter, says the accessibility options available at the national gallery and awareness weeks like this one help open up the world of art to people with visual impairments. Since she went blind three years ago due to acute glaucoma, the number of her visits to the gallery has increased significantly.
“Before I lost my sight, I wouldn’t come to the gallery that often because I was working and I was too busy. But one door closes, and 10 more open,” she says, adding that, in addition to taking part in White Cane Week, she now comes to the gallery at least once a month to attend a regular tour called Stimulating the Senses.
This in-depth tour takes participants through the gallery to examine artwork through senses other than sight, pairing various activities with meticulous oral descriptions of the works.
Activities may include, for example, touching rich velvets similar to those depicted in Baroque paintings, listening to music of a certain era or imagining the smells and tastes contained in a still life painting.
“Art isn’t just what we see, art is a feeling; it’s a memory and it’s a thought,” says Sweeney, who organizes the tours.
“Art pushes your imagination in different ways, so we try to tap into that.”
Sweeney adds that Stimulating the Senses, which takes place on the last Thursday of every month, can be appreciated by a wide audience, including those without visual impairments. It’s just about experiencing art in a deeper way, she says.
With her guide dog Erie lying comfortably at her feet, Duport puts the finishing touches on her sculpture. She says that since losing her sight she has been able to appreciate art in a completely new way.
“Becoming blind is actually a very freeing experience,” she says. “I don’t see what other people are doing, so there’s no comparison. There’s no pressure to achieve the perfect piece. First and foremost, it’s about free expression.”