Vision by Touch: Art Exhibit by Blind High School Students

It has been 11 years since I've had my last solo art exhibition, which also happened to be my first semester teaching at the Academy for the Blind. All of my creative energy has been dedicated to my students, but it's been interesting to realize that I'm every bit as excited about the current exhibit I curated for my students as I was, in the past, for my solo shows. Helping others realize their potential is essential to me realizing my potential. I love to see those kids shine!

I teach Kindergarten through 12th grade, and over half of my students have disabilities beyond blindness. This requires small class sizes, which means we produce much less work then schools with hundreds of art students. The limitations of my ten high school art students haven't kept us from having two exhibits and an art sale within three months, and this show is one I'm especially proud of.

The show consisted of the Braille book sculptures, wooden sculptures, small clay heads, quilled magazine pieces, a couple of caulk paintings on canvas ,and oil pastel drawings. Six assignments in six weeks, for all to see. 

My husband spent a Saturday morning helping me hang the show.  How I adore him!

The pedestal pieces in the middle of the room stole the show, but white shelves also provided a nice space to cluster work. I love the white on white aesthetic, it feels like the look of serious art.

I managed to snap a few pictures of my students taking in the show before the opening reception began.

Friends, family, colleagues, professors, and college students all turned out for the reception! I gave a slide lecture; we had live music performed by a middle school teacher (Chance Mormon), and we snacked on refreshments. They got a taste of success a long with their treats, which will motivate them in the future to take assignments seriously and make art worth sharing. When they succeed, I succeed.

The show runs through January.

 

Fall Student Art Show

 This year, we started school in August and had our first student Art Exhibition in September. Most of my students only come twice a week, but this year but I only have 10 high school students and 5 middle school students, who I teach daily. This means there wasn't a ton of work to choose from, but luckily every student, whether they were low-vision or totally blind, were each able to produce a couple worthy pieces.

The fact that we've been studying repetition, pattern, and unity made for a coherent and colorful body of work. We used some of our zentangle portraits for show posters and invitations, made commercials for the morning news, and cookies for the opening reception. Turn out was better than we'd seen in years and the students felt great about being able to put together a body of work in a short period of time.

Goodwill Student Exhibition

Friday, March 1, 2019

Student Show at Goodwill

 My students are currently showing their work at Goodwill on Forsyth Road in Macon, GA. The opening reception was last night (Feb 28th), and the exhibit will be up until the 4th Wednesday in March. It is a busy store, and four pieces sold within an hour of the show's opening. The students were excited to see their work out in the community.

My husband, Dennis helped me hang this show, within a week of taking down his own solo exhibition across the street at Wesleyan College. It feels less sad seeing one show go down, knowing that another one is about to open. And what is even more wonderful is that multiple pieces sold at the openings of both shows. Below are some images from Permutations: Recent Work by Dennis Applebee.