Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 9 : Construction of the cultural centre, 1977-1981

ABOVE: Mrs. Bettina MacAulay wi1h !he brailled ca1alogue. BLIND CHILDREN CAN NOW 'SEE' ART NUMEROUS Australian children live in darkness and will never see a blue sky, a rainbow or the pale yellow moon . 68 NEW IDEA, 31/12/77 Parents can try to tell them about the man In the moon, "visible" to most of us through our imagination, but no parents, no matter how rich or lmaginatl\'e. can bring a blind child closer to actually seeing a bright blue sky. Many people who view the visual world with particular delight ure grieved that the blind must be cut off forever not only from the world of natural color but from the man-made world of art. However. this year in Brisbane. blind children - and many other blind people - attended an art exhibition by an internationally famous artist . Queensland Art Gallery, which staged the showing. is interested in sharing with other Australian State galleries the experience it gained in holding an art show for the blind. Education officer for the Queensland Art Gallery Mrs. Bettina MacAulay said the idea of holding art exhibitions for blind children was first Im· plemented when the Gallery staged a Sense of Touch ex– hibition in 1976. " Fifty works from our own collection - bronzes , ceramics, terracotta pieces, sculpture, tapestry and weav– ing - were arranged as a special exhl~itlon. " Braille labels were placed on exhibits. and sculptures were waxed before the exhibi– tion was opened so that they could be handled. • "The exhibits were care– fully explained and the children held up by the staff to touch them , " Mrs. MacAulay said. Mrs. MacAulay said that not only blind children but children with other disabilities and learning difficulties ap– preciated art objects much more when they were en– couraged to see them through touch . This year when Madeleine Chalette Lejwa of New York organised the 1977 -78 Australian tour of the sculpture of famous French sculptor Jean Arp (1876- 1966), she was interested to hear about the Queensland Art Gallery's Sense of Touch exhibition, and also of the Gallery director's plan to In– clude a tactile gallery for the blind in the new Queensland Art Gallery, scheduled to be built in 1980. Madeleine Lejwa had made special arrangements for a small group of blind children to attend the Arp exhibition in Melbourne so she was par– ticularly receptive when she was told that the Queensland Art Gallery wanted to have a special Arp exhibition for the blind as part of the total Arp show there. "Miss Lejwa selected eight sculptures from the 80-piece exhibition, which could form a special section for the blind, " Mrs. lllacAulay said Mrs. MacAulay said that the Queensland Braille Writing Association had assisted with the mammoth task of art in· formation transcriptions, and the Queensland State Library had helped with recorded tapes. The result of the co-opera– tion was the provision of a large catalogue In braille with a raised cover picture, braille labels on the exhibits, lint-free cotton gloves (" feel-through " gloves) , and a tape-recorded catalogue for those unable to cope with braille.