Creating With Blind Abandon Art Program Celebrates its Second Year

Authors: Katherine Trimm, Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments, Humble, TX

Keywords: Creating with Blind Abandon, art, tactile art, accessible art, Houston, community

The Creating With Blind Abandon art program met for the first time on January 13th, 2018. We began the program to offer students who are blind or have low vision the opportunity to create accessible art. Art is often considered a visual experience and is not often presented in an accessible format for those with visual impairment. Works of art, whether in museums or on public display, are usually strictly “hands-off.” In addition, many classroom art teachers are unaware of ways to make art class adequately accessible to students who are visually impaired, which has left these kids without exposure to many artistic experiences. It became our mission to raise public awareness of the need for inclusion of this population within the art community and to provide an avenue through which our students can explore the world of art, as well as their own creativity!

Creating with Blind Abandon organizer Kathy Trimm discusses a piece with two participants

In the past year and a half, we have had a whirlwind of activity for our group! We participated in the 2018 Houston Art Car Parade (see our article in last summer’s issue:  Creating with Blind Abandon Goes to the Houston Art Car Parade) and were spotlighted on ABC TV Channel 13 for our program. We participated in Houston’s White Cane Safety Day and the Houston Area Visual Impairment Network (HAVIN) Expo, and we were contacted by the assistant to Christine Ha, the blind chef who won the MasterChef competition regarding our art. We are looking forward to taking advantage of every opportunity to spread the word that we are here for the kids!

Creating with Blind Abandon’s art on display at Houston’s White Cane Safety Day

Through May 2019, we have met in the R. B. Tullis Library in New Caney, TX. We have been approached by people from various surrounding communities such as Katy, Sugarland, Pasadena, and Spring, stating that the distance to New Caney may be a deterrent for some families. We determined that having a more central location would benefit many more students; therefore, we made arrangements to begin meeting at the Metropolitan Multi-Services Center at 1475 W Gray St, Houston, TX 77019. Beginning on June 15, 2019, we will meet at this location on the third Saturday of each month from 2:00-4:00 PM.

We would love to welcome guest artists to participate in our program!  For our first meeting at the central Houston location, we will have Rudy Anderson, an artist from Austin, who will work with our group to create a stained glass art piece! We are hoping to have more “professional” participation in our program.

Ultimately, our program is for the kids with visual impairments! It is our understanding that the Houston area has the highest concentration of students with visual impairment in Texas. We would love nothing more than to reach the kids in the Houston area to let them know that we are here and that our program is free to the participants!

Creating with Blind Abandon participant Annelise works on her fleur-de-lis with the help of her bioptic low vision device

You can find additional information about our program and see the kids in action by visiting our website: https://creatingwithblindabandon.com. We can also be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Creating-With-Blind-Abandon-1633269796721749/. If you have any questions, please email us at emailProtector.addCloakedMailto(“ep_5aacbe0f”, 1);.