Babylon Arts’ ‘Inspired by Nature’ project, funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund has concluded with some notable outcomes above and beyond expectations! The 18-month partnership between Ely Museum, the National Trust’s Wicken Fen Nature Reserve, the Highfield Littleport Academy, RNIB, CamSight and Vision Norfolk set out to deliver a programme featuring innovative and creative approaches which aimed to facilitate connection and engagement with nature and the arts for people with low vision.
One of the main highlights of ‘Inspired by Nature’ is well documented in a robust case study for the ‘Nature Group’. This outlines the amazing interaction between artist Tom Adams and a group of around 14 regular participants who were blind or with low vision who took part in sensory walks at Wicken Fen, taster workshops, and finally co-produced a captivating audio artwork, ‘The Lantern Men’ which was premiered as part of the ‘Sensing Nature’ exhibition at Babylon Arts, where visitors were invited to listen via headphones in a specially constructed bird ‘hide’!
During that exhibition and repeated in the Babylon Summer Open exhibition, we were also able to produce both ‘audio descriptions’ for some key artworks on display, to be accessed by the visitors via headphones or by scanning a QR code, as well as providing ‘raised drawings’ to be available for those with low vision to ‘feel their way’ around selected artworks. The audio descriptions and recordings were written and produced by two of our Babylon Young Associates, who also gained the first ever digital badges via Badge Nation in ‘Audio Describing for the Visually Impaired’ and ‘Audio Describing and Recording for the Visually Impaired’. Lead Artist for the Highfield Littleport residency, Kaitlin Ferguson, used her expertise to ‘re-draw’ graphic images of chosen works to be suitable to be printed as raised drawings. It is heart-warming to note that all the artists selected for these additional accessibility initiatives were delighted to have their work interpreted for audiences with low vision!
And the final accolade for Babylon Arts is the newly acquired status of ’Visibly Better Employer’, an RNIB standard awarded after considerable scrutiny of our recruitment and retention processes, which makes us the only cultural organisation in the country to have achieved this! It signifies that Babylon Arts both welcomes and supports applicants and employees with blindness or low vision.
We are delighted to say that the ultimate aim of the ‘Inspired by Nature’ project for improved access to arts and heritage for a wider range of people and for the 3 venues involved to become welcoming, inclusive and accessible has been achieved across the board as an impactful legacy!
For further infromation, see our feature with the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm29rpl2mm3o
Photo credit - CamSight
