For a decade, Please Touch has been exhibited in different forms at various Seattle venues. For this episode of The Newsfeed, Cascade PBS arts and culture editor Brangien Davis toured the latest installment of this immersive show.
In Please Touch, visitors are encouraged to explore a wide range of 2D and 3D work — from wooden masks to ceramic sculptures to elaborate theatrical costumes — with their hands. Also included with each pieces are lively recorded audio descriptions.
The goal is to raise awareness about art accessibility for blind and low-vision individuals, and encourage more galleries to include hands-on features in each show. Sighted visitors are also given a new way to experience art, especially if they choose to put on one of the available sleep shades to obscure their vision before touching the art.
Barbara Oswald, a multidisciplinary artist and disability rights advocate, is a founder of Revision Arts and the longtime curator of the show.
“The reality of it is trying to figure out, how do we make a show that is accessible in all ways,” she said.
