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title art education for the blind
An art therapist prepares materials for an art workshop. When beginning an art
project with students
teachers are encouraged to offer of a variety of materials
beads,
feathers, wood,
old scarves,
even tape could make this creative experience a fun one. There's sound,
it's tactile and the color will elicit allot of imagination so there's a
lot of people with vision impairment do have color concepts even if they're completely blind.
Students sit around a table working on our projects.
Then art therapist Jennifer Drower speaks. Many students choose the
materials they want to use. It's an important part of art making
especially for students who are blind or have low vision.
With these kids
so many decisions are made for them
it's so important for them to be able to choose
want they want to do,
they're able to make choices
and authentic choices that will help them to best express whatever it is that they want to express.
It's important to have items in separate containers
so they can then discern
what's what, it gives it a boundary.
So they have a focus point for what they want and they know where to go.
Now a series of shots
a student manipulates clay, another places colored shapes on a white sheet
of paper, another student in a wheelchair applies paint with a brush to a canvas
on an easel.
ms dreylinger students can choose to make a heart that relates to their
museum experience
Then Ms. Drower. Students can choose to make art that relates to their museum experience, a life experience,or one that comes from their imaginations.
Talking or writing about their artworks is another way to spark creativity.
Freedom of expression is the most important element in this exercise and
one that helps foster self esteem especially for those who have been blind
since birth. It is a vehicle in which one sees oneself reflected back.
It builds a sense of self
that is evidence of who they are
and that is so important
in anybody's development
and often with
people with vision impairments
it's difficult to get that feedback. Next, raised line drawing boards are
distributed to students seated around a table.
First the narrator speaks then museum instructor Leah Fox. Artmaking need
not be complicated.
Raised line drawing boards are a good way to begin.
A raised line drawing board is constructed of a clipboard with a rubber surface
covered by a plastic sheet.
When writing on the plastic with a pen the friction of the rubber against the
plastic creates a raised surface,
this way the artist can feel what they have drawn. A boy holds up his drawing and beams.
Then a raised line drawing of two pattern dresses and a pair of high-heeled shoes.
Next, Doctor John Kennedy of the university of toronto speaks while
holding a drawing of a woman in a chair her feet on a stepstool.
Children who make art for the
first-time often show a great interest in this form of self-expression and if
encourage can learn to draw at a very early age.
This is a drawing by a blind girl
aged eight.
How come she draw so well?
Well from the age of two or three
she was encouraged to draw
by her mother.
Now a series of shots. A brown clay sculpture of two figures embracing,
a white clay dinosaur, a wall display of line drawings in broad brush strokes,a
collage of red blue and purple strings whirled on a bright pink background,
a green reptilian monster bears it's fangs while winking.
Then Ms. Drower speaks. Teachers are encouraged to display the students' art
but it is important to first ask permission.
A lot of what comes out of here may be very personal
as it is with any artist.
If i don't get
their permission
then i wouldn't be a respecting them as people. The most important aspect of any
art making class
is very simple
anything goes. In our sessions where they just focus on making art
it is all about them
and they can do
nothing wrong
and that's a therapeutic part.
There can't be rules in artmaking. It is something that comes from the soul.