Sight. Sound. Touch.
Website: http://go.uncg.edu/publicart
Role: Project Lead
Collaborators: Mariam Stephan, Nicole Scalissi, Dane Winkler, Mark Engebretson, Maggie Murphy, Derek Toomes, UNCG undergraduate students, UNCG Green Fund, UNCG Institute for Community and Economic Engagement, Richard Oliver, Joshua Gould, Industries of the Blind Staff
When: September 2018 - Present
UNCG’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) collaborated with Industries of the Blind (IOB) on the installation of a public art piece which tells the stories of the blind and low-visioned using sight, sound, and touch. We are currently in the third year of this four year project. Each year, a new iteration of the project is installed on the Industries of the Blind building.
Each year of the project, students in Professor Mariam Stephens’ Painting III class are paired with IOB employees for a series of conversations focused on ideas of independence, empowerment, and access. Based on those conversations, the students create paintings, which are then printed on 8’x10’ banners hung on the side of the IOB building. To experience the artworks through sound, underneath each banner are audio boxes created by Interior Architecture students with verbal descriptions of the pieces by Art History students, musical compositions created by School of Music students and creative writing pieces created by Creative Writing MFA students. To the right of the audio boxes are either bronze or ceramic relief sculptures created by Sculpture and Ceramic students so each piece can be experienced through touch.
