GAINESVILLE, FL.- The Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida recently offered visitors of all ages, with and without visual impairments, the opportunity to experience art through one-on-one conversation and senses other than sight. This two-part program, offered on March 12, included a nature-inspired touchable art installation provided and presented by local artists, as well as verbally descriptive guided tours of art in the exhibition Framing Nature: The Living World in Art with touchable art based on the original objects.

The community installation included 49 works, primarily three-dimensional, including ceramics, wood sculptures, paper origami, printed plastic lithopanes and mixed-media. Twenty local and UF student artists presented and described their art, encouraging a dialogue, as participants explored the objects through touch.

The verbally descriptive tours of art in the Framing Nature exhibition focused on contemporary photographs Flamingos Visit Yosemite by Jerry Uelsmann and Rosignano Solvay by Massimo Vitali, a Japanese wood block print titled Wisteria at Kameido by Kobayashi Kiyochika and a contemporary painting titled Moonlight Sonata by Ethiopian artist Bisrat Shibabaw. Then visitors had the opportunity to touch art based on the original objects described in the exhibition.

“Offering a program for visually-impaired citizens to be able to understand and enjoy art supports our mission of being accessible for all,” said Harn Museum Director Rebecca Nagy. “For those participating who have sight it provides additional ways to approach the art prompting longer looking and possibly discovering elements of the work that may otherwise have been missed.”

Partners for this program include the Division of Blind Services, National Federation for the Blind Gainesville Chapter, Gainesville Lion’s Club, Dr. Mary Ann Nelson and students from her course EEX3093: Exceptional People: School & Society, UF Disability Resource Center and the UF Museum Studies Graduate Program, in particular Harn student intern Kimberly Crowell whose work on the development and improvements of “Access Art: Touch Tours” is part of her thesis work in museum studies.