We
have now completed our Lottery-funded project providing social activities
enabling people with visual impairments to access art and culture in their
communities.
The project has been very successful and the
groups in each of the 5 Borough areas have all requested more. In addition
there have been spin-offs with a gallery visit for one group and the
development of art and craft sessions.
You can download a word version of our Project Resource Manual here.
Sensory
Book Club
The
COESI charity has been successful in securing Big Lottery funding to run Social
Activities for people with visual impairments in the Tees Valley region which includes
accessible Art and Culture.
Our
aim is to bring people with visual impairments together socially to access and
experience culture, history and art in a local environment.
KNOW
SOMEONE WHO MAY BE INTERESTED?
Come
and join us for some social, informal sessions with refreshments and experience
a Touch to See tactile and audio resource created by Living Paintings.
To find out more about the monthly
sessions being held across the 5 Boroughs in the Tees Valley region contact
Sophie Bishop at 01287 204204 or email to info@coesi.org.uk to
book a place.
In
the Tees valley region, covering Middlesbrough, Darlington, Stockton,
Hartlepool and Redcar and Cleveland, we are currently running social activity
sessions which include the use of the Living Paintings Touch to See Book Club
resources.
Check
out their website at http://www.livingpaintings.org/
We
will be running these sessions for people with visual impairments between October 2016 and September 2017.
Come and join us!
In the North
East of England people with sensory loss can be very isolated, with few
accessible activities and limited support available, especially in a deprived,
largely rural area such as Teesside.
Cultural
exhibitions and events are by default experienced mainly by sight. Unless an
exhibition or event has been specifically designed to be accessible people with
visual impairments generally choose not to attend. Often no alternative tactile
and audio formats are available to inform people with visual impairments. This
makes access to community events, museums, festivals, markets and galleries
very difficult for people with visual impairments and we want to explore new
ways to address this. People with visual impairments do not have equality of
access to their communities and progressive sight conditions such as Macular Degeneration
and Glaucoma not only lead to depression but also isolate people in their homes
leading to deterioration in health and wellbeing.
We have been successful in our application for funding from the Big Lottery to deliver a programme of social
activities focused on enabling people with visual impairments to re-discover
and access culture in and around their communities.
The activities will be provided for people who are blind or
partially sighted across the Tees Valley region covering 5 Borough areas from
October 2016 to September 2017.
Through regular
enjoyable social meetings we will enable and empower people who are blind and
visually impaired to access, appreciate and understand the culture, history and
art in their communities.