Art is for Everyone: Verbal Description and Touch Tours at the Whitney
Jul 20, 2011
Each month, the Whitney offers Verbal Description and Touch tours to people who are blind or partially sighted. These tours take place when the Museum is closed to the public, allowing each tour group to move at its own pace through the galleries as they listen to a verbal description of selected works in the exhibition. The tours are provided by trained docents who give in-depth descriptions of selected works. They focus on visual details that are sometimes taken for granted, such as color, scale, and texture.
Tour participants run their hands over the surface of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s self-portrait, Chinoise, (1914), June 2011. Photograph by Katherine Stewart
Recent tours took place in Breaking Ground: The Whitney’s Founding Collection, an exhibition of works from the original collection of the Museum’s founder, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, combined with new works purchased around the time of the Whitney Museum’s opening in 1931. Mrs. Whitney began to assemble a rich and highly diverse collection of modern American art at the turn of the twentieth century when few art patrons were prepared to support emerging artists. She often purchased pieces so that an artist could pay his or her bills and continue working, even if they couldn’t earn a living by selling their art.
Visitors reach their hands inside Gaston Lachaise’s sculpture, Dolphin Fountain, (1924) to experience the relationship between positive and negative space, 2011. Photograph by Katherine Stewart
The exhibition comprises a diverse range of artists and lends itself particularly well to Verbal Description and Touch Tours because of the variety of mediums presented. During the tours, the participants wore protective gloves and were guided to sculptures that they could actually touch. One man remarked that although some of the sculptures were made of the same material (bronze), each one had a specific shape, and he could really experience the distinct style of each artist by touching their work.
Participants were allowed to get up close to the works while they were being described. This proximity prompted a visitor to point out that there was a face hidden in the brushwork of one of the paintings that had previously gone unnoticed. Such intimate, direct interactions with the art on view are unique to this program, creating a multi-sensory experience that makes the work available in ways that would be impossible in an everyday museum environment.
If you are blind or partially sighted and interested in a Verbal Description and Touch Tour, check the Whitney’s Access Calendar for upcoming opportunities and more information.
By Katherine Stewart, Access and Community Programs Intern