Visual Arts Should Be Felt, Not Just Seen

The Pound Arts Centre, Corsham’s community hub for arts and creativity, is committing itself to breaking down the barriers between the visual arts and the visually impaired; and this journey begins, fittingly, with their latest exhibition Touch.

Touch brings together sculptural work by twenty different artists, all belonging to the Cotswolds Sculptors Association. Most of the sculptures are created to be touched, others may be discovered through audio guides. Touch is our most primal language, bridging the gap between sight and physical understanding. By engaging with these forms through your hands, boundaries dissolve. The cold surface of stone, the smooth density of bronze, intricate knots of woven waste and the raw texture of ceramic become channels for profound connection. In a digital world, feeling these sensations through our skin centres us in the present moment. It reminds us that we are not separate observers but deeply interwoven with nature and the material world.

Beyond the work itself, Pound Arts has taken additional steps to ensure that Touch is an exhibition that is just as accessible and welcoming to visitors with visual impairments as it is any other visitor, all of which is part of the organisations ongoing commitment to make The Pound Arts Centre accessible to all,.

Braille text introducing visitors to the exhibition can be found at The Box Office as well as at the entrance to the gallery itself. Additionally, high-visibility tape is being used as a visual refence to guide partially sighted visitors towards each artwork so they can explore it through touch. The majority of works are accompanied by audio description guides, recorded by the artists themselves, which can be accessed by QR codes adjacent to each work.

Pound Arts is thankful to Dr. Tanvir Bush, a writer, disabled activist and research fellow for Bath Spa University, for consulting with them on this project. Her lived experience and constructive feedback has helped to shape the exhibitions and allowed the space to work for all who visit it.

In the coming weeks, Pound Arts will welcome groups from Wiltshire Sight, The Mill Race Centre (Calne) and Crowdys Hill School (Swindon) into the gallery to explore the exhibition, connect with the work, and offer their perspective on how visual arts spaces can better serve members of the community with visual impairments.

Touch serves as the first step in what Pound Arts hopes to be a long and fruitful journey towards creating a space in which the arts is not just seen but felt and lived.

Touch opened at The Pound Arts Centre on Thursday the 10th of September and will run until Saturday the 10th of October.

Pound Arts would like to extend its heartfelt thanks to the Costwolds Sculptors Association and to the following artists for exhibiting their work …

J. Bahar, L. Baxter, R. Demuth, D. Dixon, M. Elphick, L. Hill, J. Haslam, T. Holbrook, S. King, H. Knill, D. Mejia, A. Ng, N. Parkes, J. Regan, J. Seegobin, J. Yarnall, J. Waller, N. Whitting, Z. Woolley, J. Sheard.