Blind people soon will have two more reasons to visit KIA

Kathy Jennings | Thursday, November 20, 2014

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Courtesy of Kalamazoo Institute of Arts

Two sculptures designed for blind and visually impaired patrons of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts will soon be unveiled.

The works by two Michigan artists were to be presented Tuesday, Nov. 18 but Mother Nature intervened. The unveiling is to be rescheduled. The new pieces will be part of the KIA's Touch Art Tour.

Since 2011 The KIA Education Department has offered a Touch Art Tour for the blind and visually impaired, developed with members of the Kalamazoo visually impaired community and experts in the field of education for the visually impaired. More than 150 visitors have participated in this program in the last three years.

After two years, the KIA Touch Art committee decided that it was time to expand the program and sought funding to add new pieces to the museum's collection that could be part of the tour.

A $3,800 grant was awarded in 2013, and the artists were commissioned shortly thereafter.

The artists, Paul Ponchillia and Steve Curl, will present the artwork to KIA Executive Director Belinda Tate, Director of Museum Education Susan Eckhardt, and Curator of Education Michelle Stempien.

Representatives from the Michigan Braille Transcribing Fund, which funded the sculptures and members of the KIA Touch Art committee also will be on hand.

Paul Ponchillia, who is visually impaired, lives in Three Rivers. He works primarily with stone, bone, and other natural materials to create carvings with an Inuit influence. He also is Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Department of Blindness and Low Vision Studies at Western Michgan University.

Steve Curl creates fantastical, whimsical creatures -- dragons and robots -- from found metal objects with touchable textures.

The KIA's Touch Tours differs from those offered by other museums in that visitors engage directly with the works of art through touch and discussion with KIA docents, or tour guides, rather than simply listening to recordings or verbal descriptions.

"This grant has allowed us to increase our sculptural offerings and develop new ways for blind and low vision visitors to interact with art objects," says Michelle Stempien, Curator of Education.

Source: Katie Houston, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts