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Visual Art: Seen – Unseen tour for blind or visually impaired people, The Douglas Hyde Gallery

24 May 2017 (Past)

The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin


Seen – Unseen is an art project by artist Clare McLaughlin. It deals with the non–visual exploration of art and allows blind or visually impaired people to experience art through touch.

Clare’s thesis, for her BA (Hons) in Visual Art, explored the haptic, or sensory experience of art. In a predominately visual world, she began investigating how people with a visual impairment could access art and what could be done to highlight and improve their access.

“I enlisted the help and cooperation of NCBI. They were very helpful and gave me access to a lot of research material on organizing an event for people with sight loss”.

The first Seen – Unseen gallery visit was in May 2014, in the West Cork Arts Centre’s Bealtaine exhibition. This was a community art exhibition, with various exhibits including painting, sound, installation, found objects, printing, and text.

Since then there have been 14 VIP gallery visits including The National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, The Crawford Gallery in Cork, The Butler Gallery in Kilkenny, The Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, The Glucksman Gallery in Cork and most recently, The Douglas Hyde Gallery in Trinity College Dublin.

The next Seen – Unseen visit is to The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin on May 24th at 11.00 and will take in the Dennis Dinneen portrait photography exhibition in Gallery 1 and the Niamh O’Malley exhibition in Gallery 2.

This visit will be a combination of verbal description along with some tactile elements, and will last approximately 90 minutes. Wayfinding information is available by contacting Clare as below.

Email: claremclaughlin@eircom.net
Telephone 086 309 1653

Watch: Seen – Unseen VIP visit at Crawford Art Gallery, Cork

Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid by Vermeer, National Gallery of Ireland, Seen - Unseen Tour, March 2016

Clare has done so much to encourage blind and visually people to consider Visual Art, to revisit an interest in art, to get involved in art and much more.

Brenda Behan, NCBI

Madonna and Child, Seamus Murphy, VIP visit to The Crawford Gallery, Cork, October 2015


Categories:
Audiences

Tags:
Clare McLaughlin
Douglas Hyde Gallery
Seen - Unseen
VIP tours
visually impaired tours