Access to Art

A groundbreaking exhibition in Scotland is to highlight what it’s like to approach art as a blind or visually-impaired person.

Curated in collaboration with a group of blind and visually-impaired people, ‘See with Me’ will open on April 8 at Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Warehouse.

The group has previously developed detailed descriptive tours of Fruitmarket exhibitions and at monthly creative workshops, led by visually-impaired artists working with sighted artists, participants experiment with art materials, equipment and techniques to test out what is accessible and enjoyable.  

The ‘See with Me’ exhibition will include an installation that shows what it is like to approach art as a visually-impaired gallery visitor. The hands-on exhibition includes examples of the ‘touch boxes’ now produced for every exhibition, deconstructed maps with personal stories hang on a scaffold and tactile tabard artworks sit on hangers.

Fruitmarket Information Assistants will be on hand to provide visual descriptions of the work and guide sighted and visually-impaired visitors through the art on display. 

On April 10 (6pm-8pm) there will be a discussion with ‘See with Me’ lead artists Kirin Saeed and Louise Fraser. They will share their experiences and insights into how blind and visually-impaired communities are changing contemporary art galleries and access to participatory art.

The talk will be live captioned, a real-time process where spoken audio is converted into text captions, making content more accessible and understandable, especially for those who are deaf or hard of hearing. 

‘See with Me’ follows the social model of disability, which is a way of viewing disability that focuses on removing barriers in society. It is hoped that both visually-impaired and sighted audiences will enjoy the exhibition, and it is on during the Easter holidays so children can also go along to experience the interactive installations. 

‘See with Me’ runs from April 8 to 13. For further information visit https://www.fruitmarket.co.uk/