Judges Winning Prize

The exhibition "Sense & Sensuality" 2005 comprised 62 finalists chosen from the competition, some 20% of which were visually-impaired artists.

The winning entry was "Head", a photographic digital print with applied screen-printed flock texture by artists Liz Munro and Nuala Watt.

The prize £5,000 was presented by Estelle Morris MP on the opening night of "Sense & Sensuality" on 2 March 2005. 

The image shows a girl's head and upper body, wearing a black shirt and a red hat.  The head is blurred and the red from the hat has bled, covering her eyes.  In contrast, the silk-screen flock pattern on the shirt is in sharp detail and is discernible to the touch.

Head is part of a continuing dialog between Liz Munro and her daughter Nuala Wattt. Nuala finds that sighted people assume that she can see very little.  But she feels she has a complex sensory perception of the world; that making art accessible to visually impaired people too often involves appreciation of the sighted world's idea of art.  This ignores the vision of an artists like Nuala  one that she wishes to share with everyone.

The BlindArt  Purchase Prizes

Two works,"Chalk & Cheese" by Michael Cahillane and "Tactile Textures" by Ruth Spaak were purchased by BlindArt, initiating the charity's long term aim to build the world's first permanent collection of visual art that does not rely merely on sight to be appreciated.

 The BlindArt Permanent Collection

A number of works were also donated by their creators to the BlindArt Permanent Collection, to whom the charity is deeply indebted for their generosity.  These artists included Gary Sargeant, Frances Aviva Blane, Keath Salmon, and the winning work by Liz Munro and Nuala Watt.