Juried Exhibition reaches out to people who are visually impaired, September 3rd through October 30th, 2010

Juried Exhibit – Art with Feeling: Touch, Look, Listen –
Opens September 3rd at Sharon Arts Downtown Galleries in Peterborough
in partnership with the New Hampshire Association for the Blind
and New Hampshire Art Association

Peterborough, NH: What does a painting feel like? What sound does a landscape make? These are the kinds of questions being posed by Art with Feeling: Touch, Look, Listen, a groundbreaking exhibition opening September 3rd at Sharon Arts Downtown Galleries and continuing through October 30, 2010. The opening reception will be held on Friday, September 3rd, at 5pm.

Designed to remove barriers to experiencing art, especially for people who are blind or visually impaired and to raise awareness of the need for heightened accessibility to fine art in different locales statewide, Art with Feeling: Touch. Look. Listen. builds on the ground breaking exhibit, Art Beyond Sight© presented in April of 2009 by the New Hampshire Association for the Blind and New Hampshire Art Association. “This juried exhibition invites artists working in various mediums to create pieces of art with which viewers can interact in multi-sensory ways” says Sharon Arts Exhibition Gallery Manager, Camellia Sousa, “the exhibition allows enhanced accessibility and encourages new audiences to appreciate works of art in a way that has been largely unavailable to them.”

A series of public programs, which are free and open to the public, begin with Educator’s Night on Thursday, September 16th, at 6pm. Storytime for Families will be held on Monday, October 4th, at 10:30am. Join Peterborough Librarian Lisa Bearce for an interactive storytime. Concluding the series of public programs is Music as Muse, which will be held on Saturday, October 16th.  .Visitors are invited to create art while listening to live music.

Jurors for Art with Feeling: Touch, Look, Listen are Valerie Burrows, Accessibility Coordinator, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Deb DeCicco, Healing Arts Coordinator, Crotched Mountain Foundation, Greenfield.

Additional information on Art with Feeling: Touch, Look, Listen is available by calling Sharon Arts  at 603-924-7676 and on the Center’s website at www.sharonarts.org.

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About Sharon Arts

The mission of Sharon Arts Center, a non-profit organization, is to support and serve artists and craftspeople, to engage the community in the artistic process, and to foster the relationship between artists and the community through education, exhibitions, the promotion and sale of art and craft, as well as through special programs and events.

The Downtown Galleries in Depot Square (Fine Craft Gallery & Store, Juried Artist Gallery and Exhibition Gallery) are open Sunday, 12-5 pm; Monday –Wednesday, 10am-6pm; Thursday – Friday, 10am-7pm; Saturday 10am-6pm (The Exhibition Gallery is open year round). The Sharon Arts School of Art & Craft in Sharon, NH, offers a wide variety of art classes and programs. The School offices are open Monday – Friday, 8:30am – 4:30pm.

Sharon Arts Center is sponsored in part by the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, The Bean Foundation, The Max & Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, The Grimshaw-Gudewicz Charitable Foundation, and art lovers like you!
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About New Hampshire Association for the Blind

The New Hampshire Association for the Blind is the statewide leader in providing vision rehabilitation services for New Hampshire people of all ages who are blind and visually impaired. Founded in 1912, it provides services in virtually every community statewide and at the McGreal Sight Center in Concord.

Many people are unaware how common severe vision impairment is, particularly among older people. Most do not know that nearly all people who are blind or visually impaired can greatly benefit from rehabilitation services to regain independence after loss of sight.

About New Hampshire Art Association

The New Hampshire Art Association is a non-profit professional art association founded in 1940. It is one of the oldest statewide art associations in the country.  It consists of over 450 members of painters, photographers, watercolorists, printmakers, sculptors and other fine artists living and working primarily in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont.