Art Beyond Sight: Multi-modal Approaches to Learning

Organized by Art Education for the Blind, The Metropolitan Museum of Art,and the Museum Access Consortium

Friday, October 14, and Saturday, October 15, 2005
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the American Folk Art Museum

In a culture in which vision is by far the dominant sense, and life revolves around the visual, the potential for learning through other sensory modalities is too often ignored. This innovative international conference will address the challenge faced by educators, artists and museum professionals, to create multimodal learning opportunities that better serve all audiences. Psychologists and educators will explore ideas and recent research findings relating to other learning modalities, including touch, sound, language, kinesthetics, and even smell. The conference will also examine the relationships between vision, non-vision, and the other senses, through discussions focusing on blindness and learning. Issues raised include the communication of ideas about visual culture through non-visual means, cross-modal interaction and multi-sensory integration, and the implications of Universal Design for learning.

Friday, October 14, will be spent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with presentations and panel discussions focusing on perspectives on multi-modal learning in practice (morning sessions) and new fMRI studies, cross-modal interaction and understanding learning (afternoon session). Among the presenters: Rebecca McGinnis and Deborah Jaffe (the Metropolitan Museum of Art), Hannah Goodwin (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), Georgina Kleege (University of California at Berkeley and author of Sight Unseen.), Dr. Alvaro Pascuale-Leone (Harvard Medical Center), and David Rose (Harvard Medical School of Education and CAST).

The Saturday, October 15, morning session will take place at the Museum of Modern Art, and will comprise two panel discussions: “Multi-Modal Approaches to Accessibility: Best Practices,” chaired by Paula Terry (Director, Office of AccessAbility, National Endowment for the Arts), and “Teaching Through Touch: Touch and Interactive Exhibits and Tools,” chaired by Francesca Rosenberg (Museum of Modern Art).

The Saturday afternoon session will be held at the American Folk Art Museum. Panel discussions on “Language and Communicating about Visual Art” and “Artists Response to Multi-sensory Challenges,” chaired by Pam Rogers (Pure Visions Art Studio/The Shield Institute), will further explore the conference theme.

In addition, there will be evening “Dining and Discussion” events and Saturday breakfast meetings. To receive complete conference details and an invitation (registration is $50), send your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address to editor-at-large@artbeyondsight.org. Please put “October conference” in the subject line.