You'd think it were a given that a visual artist need the sense of sight. An exhibit of artworks by 12 visually impaired women proves otherwise.
Women of Vision: An Experience in Seeing opens at Tampa Museum of Art with a reception and gallery talk at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 11.
The artists participated in an innovative program, Women of Vision, implemented by Hope McMath, director of education at the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville. The program allowed them to explore their creative abilities through lessons in art history, memoir writing and creating different types of art.
For some of the women, the program was their first artistic venture; for others it was not a foray but part of their lifelong creative pursuits.
The works include a collaborative clay installation, paintings inspired by landscape, still lifes, charcoal drawings, baskets and relief prints. The majority of the works are two-dimensional, bucking the traditional attitude that the visually impaired can only find satisfaction in three-dimensional media.
At the opening, McMath discusses the results and introduces several of the women who participated.
The show, which runs through Sept. 15, is sure to change some people's thinking on vision's role in visual arts versus the importance of the mind.
A Women of Vision art education workshop for the blind is also taking place, from 2 to 5 p.m. Aug. 12, in the Tampa Museum of Art's classroom. McMath and Dr. Gay Drennon, Executive Director of VSA Arts of Florida, present the hands-on painting workshop, exploring the painting needs of the visually impaired. For more info or to register, call 813-274-7328.
The opening reception and the workshop are both free and open to the public. Tampa Museum of Art, 600 N. Ashley Drive, Tampa. 813-274-8130.
This article appears in Aug 7-13, 2002.