Montgomery County Community College will host an exhibition, workshop, panel discussion,
and musical performance celebrating the artwork of photographers who are blind or
visually impaired and their sighted collaborators.
The “Blind Visionaries” series of events kicks off Thursday, Nov. 2 from 1-3 p.m.
with “Blind Visionaries – Workshop: Painting with Light” in the gallery at the Blue
Bell theater of the Montco Cultural Center, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. Instructors
from the Seeing with Photography Collective—a New York-based group that pairs visually impaired and sighted photographers—will walk participants through some of their “light painting” techniques that combine movement, staging, and photographic processes to create unique images. The event is free, but registration is required, and capacity is limited to 15 participants.
Seeing registration
Next the College will host “Seen & Unseen: A Discussion with the Seeing with Photography
Collective” Friday, Nov. 3, from 6-7 p.m. Panelists Mark Andres and other members
of Seeing with Photography Collective will talk about their work with visually impaired
artists, about developing new photographic techniques and processes, and about art-making
as a collaborative enterprise. The panel will be moderated by Galleries Director Patrick
Rodgers. This event is free, but registration is required.
Lastly, the Lively Arts Series hosts “Daniel Kelly Trio -Blind Visionaries” Saturday, Nov. 4, at 7:30 p.m. This impressive, multi-media performance
explores the breathtaking images created by the blind and visually impaired members
of The Seeing with Photography Collective, with original music by Daniel Kelly Trio.
Tickets are on sale now.
This engagement of Daniel Kelly Trio/Blind Visionaries is made possible through the
Jazz Touring Network program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment
for the Arts.
Each of these events helps bring visual arts into the theater in a unique and interesting
way, said Rodgers.
“Since the newly renovated theater opened, the gallery space is a much more visually
rich area than it was before,” he said. “Now we’re featuring programming with visual
artists with a performance. It’s cool to offer something photographic. Photography
is hard to host workshops around. Mark Andres has made this a fun, collaborative process.
I’m excited for students to engage with professional photographers and make these
photos together. It’s a funky, funny, organic process that shows how theatrical photography
can be.” The workshop and panel discussion likewise will be engaging and energetic,
he said.
Folks who visit the art gallery outside the theater would have a difficult time determining
which of the pieces were created by artists who are blind or visually impaired, he
said.
“This level of imagination, strangeness, curiosity, haunting imagery, beautiful portraits-
the emotional gamut is broad,” he said. “You couldn’t distinguish these images from
other photography. It’s collaborative and complicated and nuanced.”
For more information about the Blind Visionaries series of events, contact Lively Arts, email Lively Arts or call the Box Office at (215) 641-6518.
MCCC is celebrating the 40th anniversary season of its Lively Arts Series at the Montco Cultural Center, the College’s
new platform encompassing all arts and culture venues, series and programming. Designed
as an interconnected campus, the Montco Cultural Center includes the newly renovated
563-seat theater and the Black Box Theater on the Blue Bell Campus, and the fine art
galleries at the Blue Bell and Pottstown campuses.
This press release was produced by the Montgomery County Community College. The views expressed here are the author’s own.