Thomas College Students Make Tactile Art for the Blind

Richard and I with his class weavings

Richard Curtis, a very nice art professor from Thomas College, created an assignment, for his very nice students, to create enough tactile art for every child at Georgia Academy for the Blind. Today he came to drop it off and ended up having a wonderful visit with my 3rd period class.

Most of the images included craft foam, wall paper, or upholstery samples. Puffy paint was often used to trace edges. Colored sand was glued for lines and large shapes.

bits of cork and fuzz balls add to the texture of this piece

There were large stretcher bars that had a plastic grid from Lowe's stretched across them. This allowed his students to weave fabric, and plastic bags, add zip ties and nylon.  Some hosiery hung from a large woven piece and was filled with things like shredded paper and bubble wrap. This allowed my students to explore and guess what was inside.

My students were eager to share their work too. One put on an impromptu puppet show, while others showed off their pen and ink figurative and graphite perspective drawings.

foam zebra shapes create an organic pattern

 I sent out an email inviting classes to come and "shop" for free art. It was so fun, watching kids get excited, combing through stacks of art and choosing something to keep. All or zero dollars!  Thank you Thomas art students!

Over 90 pieces of art were spread over 3 tables for students to browse