Festival of art by people with sensory impairments

Published: 16 March 2018
Reporter: Steve Orme

Pat Monroe, one of the contributors to the Sensibility festival

National disability charity Sense and Birmingham venue Midlands Arts Centre (mac) have revealed plans for a new arts festival.

Sensibility Festival is a “celebration of the senses” which invites the public to explore, play and experiment. The festival will host a mixture of sensorial experiences, artist performances, workshops and art installations.

Visitors will be invited to “explore the sensory labyrinth, a large-scale interactive arts installation designed to be touched, eaten, smelt, moved and felt”.

The festival “challenges conventions of established art-making methods and provides experimental art opportunities that nurture and inspire creative practices of any ability”.

The programme is co-directed by Graeae Theatre Company and Stephanie Singer of BitterSuite. Justin Wiggan, Saranjit Birdi, Lyn Cox and Becca Thomas of InterAction have led the creation of new work with 60 creative collaborators with sensory impairments.

Stephanie Tyrrell, Sense’s national art manger, said, “this will be a festival of art created by people with sensory impairments: art you can smell, touch, taste, feel and hear.

“It’ll explore how deaf-blind artists use their senses to create art. It’ll show how we can explore art and creativity through the senses, how we can feel sounds, touch colours, smell memories and taste sounds.”

The Sensibility Festival will take place from Friday 18 May until Sunday 20 May at mac and Touchbase Pears, a multi-purpose centre in Selly Oak.

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