4 Senses Installation Project, 7 March 2005

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Proposed Itinerary for the 4 Senses Project and Exhibition

Orchard House School (OHS)/Royal London School for the Blind (RLSB)/Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A)

Monday 7th February 2005: Visit to the V&A by Orchard House UVI and RLSB
OHS UVI (+SJH, MW, RR) / RLSB Students (+JW) leave their schools at 9.30am for the V&A.
Meet at the V&A main entrance on Cromwell Road at 10.30am, and enter the museum via the side entrance.
At 10.30am students are briefed by their teachers as to the nature of their exploration of pieces, issued museum maps and discuss what they are looking for.
Between 11am-12pm students explore the exhibits in groups of 4 UVI, 1/2 RLSB students and a teacher, and choose a piece.
Between 12-1pm all meet in the lunch room for lunch.
Between 1-1.30pm Review of the items we have found.
Between 1.30-2.30pm Re-look at the items discussed in groups with teachers around the university.
2.30pm all students and teachers to return to their respective schools.

Thursday 24th February & Monday 28th February 2005: Making project at RLSB by Orchard House School UVI and RLSB
8.30-10am (approx) OHS UVI travel to RLSB.
10-11am OHS UVI and RLSB students discuss and begin making project.
11-11.20am Break time.
11.20am-12.45pm Making session continues.
12.45-1.30pm Lunch break.
1.30-2.45pm Continue final making session.
2.45-3.15 (approx) OHS UVI travel back to school.

OHS UVI (+SJH, MW, RR) / RLSB Students (+JW) leave their schools between 8.30/9am for the Royal College of Art, Henry Moore Gallery.

10am All meet at the gallery entrance with finished pieces and the small plinths, food, A/V material (documentary film making of the project), pamphlets and making description displays.
10-11am begin installing the pieces on their plinths in the gallery. The teachers also begin setting out the AV making videos, the making displays and pamphlets.
11-11.15am Break and snack.
11.15am-12pm Continue installing the pieces.
11.30am Gary Sargant and BlindArt arrive and are given a tour and description of the exhibition.
12pm "Ribbon cutting" official opening to the public by Gary Sergant, and students and teachers meet the public, describing the projects.
12.30-1pm Lunch in the lunchroom
1-1.30 Students and teachers tour the remainder of the exhibition.
1.30pm Students, MW and RR leave for home – TBC that RLSB students may leave with their parents for the weekend from the exhibition. SJH, JW and BlindArt security staff to remain.
4pm Exhibition closes and pieces are dismantled by SJH, JW and BlindArt.

Proposal for the The 4 Senses Art Teaching Exhibition
Prepared by Simon Hayhoe, Orchard House Preparatory School, London
The proposed exhibition is to be co-ordinated by Orchard House Preparatory School/Dorton House School for the Blind/Victoria & Albert Museum

Background
Since Sunderland Art Gallery’s project for the blind in 1913, there have been many art education exhibitions and shows in schools, colleges and museums, which have included students who are blind/visually impaired in viewings of artefacts. However, all of these projects have educated students who are blind/visually impaired separately from their sighted peers. Or they have promoted art purely for people who are blind, usually reproduced from pieces meant primarily for vision.

The proposed project takes a different approach. Rather than producing/commissioning/choosing pieces of art purely for the use of people who are blind/visually impaired, the purpose of this project is to gather two groups of students who are sighted and blind/visually impaired to work together to produce artefacts that can be appreciated by all students. These artefacts will then be displayed in exhibitions at both schools and the V&A.

This project is conducted in close co-operation with BlindArt (London) and Art Education for the Blind (New York), two charities with established competitions and expertise in this field. It will also be advertised as part of Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week (2004) and BlindArt’s Prize Awards in March 2005, presented by Estelle Morris, Minister for Culture & Sport.

Aims & Objectives
The aim of this exhibition is to exhibit and publicise the work of the 4 Senses Art project, and to introduce a new form of teaching and showing art.
The objective of this project is to produce and exhibit artefacts that are appreciable by people who are sighted and those who are blind/visually impaired/hearing impaired/have other forms of sensory disability.

Proposed Timetable
The proposed exhibition will have been part of a course, which began in December 2004 and will have ended in March 2005. The project will involve Year 5 & 6 girls with sight from Orchard House Preparatory School, mature students from Dorton House School and volunteers who are blind/visually impaired. The timetable is as follows:

In December, students from Orchard House Preparatory School will have been given exercises in representing works of art non-visually. Barry Ginley of the V&A and other volunteers with visual impairments will have given presentations during these exercises, describing how they appreciate art.
In January, students from Dorton House School and other volunteers who are blind/visually impaired will have meet students from Orchard House Preparatory School initially at Orchard House Preparatory School, and then in a studio and seminar room at the V&A. Initially, they will make 4 Sense portraits of themselves. Then they will examine pieces at the V&A, and discuss how these pieces can be adapted to the 4 non-visual senses alone.
In February, both groups of students will have again met at the V&A and create 4 sense representations of pieces from the museum.
In March, it is proposed that the pieces will be exhibited at the V&A and at the prize giving of BlindArt in the Henry Moore Gallery, Royal College of Art.

Audience for the exhibition
Students, teachers and staff from Orchard House Preparatory School and Dorton House School.
Invited inclusion officers from national and local organisations.
Invited teachers from other schools for the blind and the sighted.
Invited academics and researchers in the field of art education, and special educational needs.
Members of the sensorially impaired community, through advertising in the national media and through local and national organisations.

Resources Need by the RCA
The Henry Moore Gallery.
Access to catering facilities where appropriate.
Access in and out of the gallery for visitors, teachers, parents, pupils – some of which will have disabilities.

Friday 4th March 2005: 4 Senses Exhibition in the Henry Moore Gallery, Royal College of Art, in conjunction with BlindArt.

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