“Seeing with the Senses,” iPad drawing © 2013 Fotis FlevotomosThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney and the Guggenheim present "Seeing with the Senses"—an afternoon of art-making workshops, verbal description and touch tours for those with low vision or blindness.

Anyone thinking about the relationship between visual art and blindness faces the following question: How can we perceive visual signs and symbols, colors and lines, two-dimensional compositions, distorted perspectives, gesture and movement, if we lose vision from disease or if our ability to see is limited because of a genetic disorder?

Over the last several years museum educators in NYC have developed a number of access programs the purpose of which is to address just this kind of needs. Through touch, verbal description and drawing classes, educators help blind and partially sighted visitors to see with the senses and picture in their mind's eye works from the city's permanent collections and temporary exhibits.

Mark Rothko once stated: “I think of my pictures as dramas; the shapes in the pictures are the performers. They have been created from the need for a group of actors who are able to move dramatically without embarrassment and execute gestures without shame.” I believe Rothko's words somehow describe the spirit of the presentations of this program.

"Seeing with the Senses" will take place at the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library on June 1st 2013, from 1 to 4 pm. View the exact hours and descriptions of the sessions (PDF).