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Opening at The Parthenon: New Programs for the Blind and Sight Impaired

Presented by The Parthenon at The Parthenon

April 30, 2010

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How do people who are blind find enjoyment and satisfaction in an art museum where the art is silent and visitors are not allowed to touch? Parthenon Education Director, DeeGee Lester, spends a great deal of time and thought addressing the question. She works closely with the Tennessee School for the Blind to create programs that include and engage people with impaired vision and help them understand both the building and the art it contains.

Thanks to a grant from the Ida F. Cooney Fund for the Arts through the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, the Parthenon has recently completed two new program features that allow visitors to “see”, through touch, the wonders of the Parthenon and selected paintings from the museum’s permanent Cowan Collection:

• a permanent tactile model of the Parthenon’s entablature (the exterior upper portion of the classical order, including the architrave, frieze, and cornice, as well as details of the roof), created by local wood craftsman Richard Waters and Athena sculptor Alan LeQuire.
• special tours of the James M. Cowan Collection of American Art using various sensory tools (audio effects, representative fabrics and objects from the paintings) to explore ten works of art within the collection. Lester designed the tours with the collaboration of Susan Gwinn, a graduate of Tennessee School for the Blind.

The public is invited to an opening highlighting the new programs on Friday, April 30, from 5:30pm-7:30pm. Admission is free, but reservations are required (615) 862-8431.