Art for the blind | Fusion - WeRIndia

Visually-impaired people are at a disadvantage in life, especially concerning what they are not able to experience due to their lack of eyesight. Art and culture is foreign to blind people, since they lack the ability to see the paintings and pictures that are so celebrated.

However, twenty-seven-year-old Siddhant Shah, a Heritage Architect and Access Consultant, has been working to create an artistic experience that anyone can enjoy, with or without the ability to see the artwork.

The DAG (Delhi Art Gallery) Modern now has a program that provides tactile replications of paintings, allowing those who cannot see the paintings to still experience them through touch.

When he was studying MA Heritage Management in the Athens Campus of the University of Kent in Greece, Siddhant noticed the inclusive attitude that institutions had to visually-impaired people.

In India, even the discussion of such disabilities can be a challenging and touchy subject, and inclusive facilities such as the ones that Siddhant saw in Greece are much rarer in India.

Many museums that Siddhant contacted were not interested in appealing to blind people, since they did not have many blind customers. However, Siddhant began his venture into tactile art when the City Palace Jaipur was the first museum to finally say yes.

Today, Siddhant’s organization, “Access for All”, has spread to many other places, such as the Jawahar Kala Kendra, also in Jaipur, the National Museum in Delhi, and the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa. He has also designed the first museum braille book in Pakistan for the State Bank Museum, located in Karachi.

Siddhant in his organization.

These access-providing initiatives can change the lives of many blind people, now that they are able to “see” paintings through their sense of touch.

Siddhant is touched and amazed by the impact that his work can have on visually-impaired people, now that they can access this artistic world that was previously unknowable to them.

Image Reference: TheBetterIndia