Von Liebig to host art exhibit for visually impaired

Kevin Gallardo-Rodriguez is supposed to wear glasses but the fit sometimes bothers him. Instead, the 7-year-old relies on his peripheral vision to take in much of the world around him.

"What color is that?" Kevin asked one Thursday during a July summer camp for children with visual impairments.

Aids helped Kevin mix red, blue, orange and green paint trying to make black.

"It's getting pretty brown," said Jenna Simpson, 17, a volunteer aid for the program.

Frustrated, Kevin asked for more colors to mix together, then used his fingers to feel the sponge roller, trying to see if he needed more paint or if enough had soaked in.

"Most kids learn through seeing," said Robin Goldstone Garcia, executive director of Lighthouse of Collier. "The process is much more detailed if they have visual impairments. They have to touch, feel, listen."

Twenty-five kids took part in the weekly art lesson during a month-long summer camp through Lighthouse of Collier, a nonprofit that helps those with vision loss and blindness. A few of the children's artworks will go on display at The von Liebig Art Center in October, when museum leaders and local advocates for the blind and visually impaired come unveil months of work on an exhibit that will not only feature the work of visually impaired artists but also interpret existing art for those who can't use their eyes to see it. The monthlong exhibit will begin in September and culminate on White Cane Day, Oct. 15, when dozens march through downtown Naples with red-tipped canes to raise awareness for the annual event.

"I want green," 5-year-old Andrew Muller said, painting over top masking tape art teacher Bill Saladino had the kids lay down on paper.

Andrew wears glasses to improve his view of far-away objects. He could see most of what he was doing up close during the summer camp class.

Saladino has been teaching art in the Collier School District for nearly 30 years and has come up with ways for kids with visual impairments to participate simply through trial and error. He had kids at the summer camp use tape because of its sound and feel. The idea was to paint over it, let it dry, then remove the tape to see the effects. In the past, he's covered wet paint with sand to add texture, too.

"It's all about the sensory experience," he said.

The exhibits this fall will be much the same. There will be some tactile exhibits that anyone can touch and feel to understand. Some exhibits will have information translated into braille. Blind artists will make art and teach classes and people with good vision will be encouraged to experience art as if they have poor vision, using blindfolds, etc.

Helping with the plans for the exhibit is Denise Lasprogata, director of Feel The Arts, a program that interprets art for the visually impaired.

Lasprogata had a high school friend who lost her vision at a young age and had trouble picking out clothing to wear. Lasprogata developed clothing tags that were machine washable and identified the colors using braille. While living in New York, Lasprogata helped those with visual impairments shop for clothing, then label it. At one point, she even worked for Stevie Wonder.

And during that time, Lasprogata worked at a museum. Combining her job with her passion for the blind community, she helped to introduce a technology that interprets visual arts in a more tactile way by deconstructing images.

Lasprogata draws the most basic lines of famous paintings, uploads the drawings into a computer program and then prints it out using special ink and paper. That paper is then fed through another machine that reads the blank ink, heats it and raises it so the picture can be felt.

To achieve the finished image, Lasprogata adds a few more lines to her original free-hand drawing, repeating the process for a series of plates that offers museum visitors a series of increasingly complicated pictures they can feel. Introducing the picture in piecemeal helps them recreate it in their minds.

Lasprogata runs her interpretations past a group of visually impaired consultants who tell her whether the series of images works.

"It's really them teaching you," she said. "The dots can't be too close and spacing elements are really critical."

Lasprogata plans to introduce the concept to both The von Liebig and The Baker Museum this fall.

In the meantime, she's also helping Goldstone Garcia and Aimee Schlehr, executive director at The von Liebig, address other considerations for the exhibit. Lasprogata will train docents to give tours with the exhibits, make sure art that is hung on the walls has tape in front of the exhibits on the floor so people know where to stop and stand to view it without running into walls. There will be braille interpretations and sculptures people can touch while wearing special gloves. She even talks to docents about what kinds of language to use to make those with visual impairments feel at ease while interacting with the exhibits.

"Some people have partial sight so we make the fonts on exhibits bigger," Lasprogata said. "Others have low vision but can't get close to the wall so we make a color copy for someone to hold to their face."

Other exhibits Lasprogata has worked on included the use of QR codes so visitors to the museum could scan exhibits and have descriptions read aloud to them through their smart phones.

Over many years of mounting these exhibits at the Barnes Foundation, the Wildenstein Gallery, the China Institute, the Musee de L'Eysee and the St. Petersburg Museum, among others, Lasprogata said she has seen many grateful clients learn how to appreciate the arts for themselves. At one point, a regular visitor to a museum in New York told Lasprogata that a painting she had learned about recently reminded her of another similar work by a different painter.

"At that point, when you've given them enough visual material that they can reference something else, it's a sign that the person is assimilated into the visual world," Lasprogata said.

The collaboration marks the first time The von Liebig has offered art exhibits on this scale for those who can't see or who have limited sight. But the museum regularly holds art classes for those with visual impairments as well and works closely with Lighthouse of Collier

"When we say we're an art community for everyone, we really do have art for everyone," Schlehr said.