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| Photo By Tom Uhlman |
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Joyce Rogers (left), with the aid of a CAM docent, explores an ancient stone carving. Rogers is a member of the American Council of the Blind, which took advantage of the museum's offer of a tour based on touch.
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My skin is fair, but I have an inkling of what it must have felt like to be black in the segregated South. Nowhere has that awareness been as keen for me as in museums of art. "Seeing" is as much a matter of the brain as of the eyes, and if you have low vision or no vision, the only way to get pictures to the visual cortex is through your hands.
If a blind person with the skills to translate tactile input into visual understanding lays hands on a chair, a quick exploration zooms the visual image of that chair into the brain. It's not a skill that clicks into place immediately with the decline of eyesight. It takes practice. But the results can be both gratifying and equalizing.
Art museums, however, are historically places where no one touches anything. If touching is your only path to seeing, that "do not touch" policy bears a similar sting to the despicable "Whites Only" signs of 1950s Georgia.
To hear references to beautiful sculptures, intricate carvings, various executions of bas relief and be told, in effect, "These are for others, not for you," can torture the soul. The Cincin-nati Art Museum (CAM) in Eden Park is working to lift that exclusionary ban.
In mid-December, a group of 10 blind or visually impaired individuals, along with some sighted friends and relatives, toured a brief sampling of the museum's "Touch Tour." Only five pieces were selected for the tour, although approximately 15 are on the evolving list CAM has currently approved for touching.
"The conservator determines which pieces can safely be touched," explained Julia Vienhage, CAM's manager of docent programs. Because the natural oils transmitted by the hands could deteriorate valuable and sometimes centuries-old pieces, visually impaired visitors are asked to remove all jewelry and don thin nylon gloves. The gloves are thick enough to protect objects touched, but do not interfere with tactile appreciation of shape and texture.
The touchable pieces are a miniscule number among CAM's 70,000 objects, but they represent a broad spectrum of cultures and eras.
As docent Elmer Thomas points out, the adventure of absorbing the elements of "Pegasus," a sculpture created by cubist Jacque Lipchitz, as a whole and then as its parts sparks the same imaginative energy in the visitor seeing with hands as one seeing with eyes. The ancient Assyrian stone carving offers pictures and rich textures depicting hair and beard and eagle and bull.
The best news is that CAM's Touch Tour is not a one-time special event. The tour is evolving, presumably adding more pieces in time, but it is available on request for blind or visually impaired visitors. Descriptive materials are available that list the pieces designated for touching. Eventually, CAM plans to provide information in Braille as well as large print, and to include more detailed descriptions of each piece for those visitors who choose to take the tour independently.
"The best way to do it," advises Julia Vienhage, "is to call 24 hours ahead. That way, we can provide a staff member or docent to conduct the tour."
In December, a notice went out to all docents interested in learning to give group tours for blind and visually impaired visitors. The response, Vienhage said, was tremendous.
It's a beginning, but only a beginning. Museums around the country have been gradually developing programs that reach out to visitors long disenfranchised. Now that the door is open at CAM, more visually impaired visitors need to push it for a wider entrance.
TOUCH TOURS at the Cincinnati Art Museum can be scheduled by calling 513-639-2975 at least 24 hours in advance. For groups, a four-week advance request is required.
