The National Neighbourhood
with Dublin City Council Culture Company
A Journal
The main of focus of my work is jazz vocal performance. In recent years, I’ve been attracted to projects that allow me fuller expression of other areas of my arts practice including dance, visual art and writing. For example in developing performance for and with children and in blending my love of literature into jazz performance.
Another motivation driving this broader embrace of work, and collaboration, which I love, came through my acknowledgement of having a visual impairment.
I couldn’t help but notice the relative absence of people with disabilities in arts and culture, both as audience/participants and artists. I saw it as a question of creativity for me, as an artist, to answer in my work.
In acknowledging my visual impairment and through collaborative arts practice around accessibility and inclusion I attempt to play my part in changing understanding around disability and making the world a little more welcoming and inclusive for others, either as artist or audience.
So, I was very excited to be invited to partake in TNN and to learn that the group all had varying degrees of visual impairment. I was curious to see to what art and culture meant to the group and whether or not their sight-loss had been a barrier. Together with the partner institutions, I was hopeful about what we might learn and what might change through the experience of the art over the course of the 10 weeks. I’ve included images from my journals inspired by the session over the weeks!
Our first session took us back in time to Old Dublin and the ways of life of people in Henrietta St. Stories from the guide became woven between among stories and experiences of people in the group. There was such richness!
I feel that when people experience being a marginalised group in society, such as the experience of people with disabilities, that they will be quick to recognise and empathise with other marginalised groups and individuals. This was borne out by the second session with the Abbey where many of the This is Ireland monologues expressed some degree of feelings of separateness and distinctness from mainstream groups in society. This did provoke a lively debate!
The contributions on this session made me aware that the group had important things to say and I felt it important that my artist led session assure them these sessions afforded them a welcoming space for their voices As a singer, then, I focused on voice and sound, exercises, explorations and some games to connect to the body, warm up and free the voice. This then led into a conversation where the group explored what art and culture meant to them. They shared positive accessible experiences of art as well as exploring how art might become more accessible and how that might be addressed throughout the weeks.
Our next session opened with a presentation by Roisin Hackett of her work at the lab gallery. This was very powerful and inspiring and provided lots of food for thought. We were then whisked away to a beautiful painterly scene through audio description which everyone loved. I believe it was the first time the Lab had offered audio description, certainly on zoom, and I feel they were much encouraged that this was a very welcome way for people to experience art and also convinced that it can evoke a great depth of engagement by its audience. I do have a theory that people who have a visual impairment are particularly sensitive to sound, to words, and so, audio description provides very wonderful experience.
Our next session was with the Chester Beatty library and this time we journeyed off on a magic carpet such as hang in the collection of the library to the beautiful exotic illuminated manuscripts of Rimini. This too was accompanied by audio description with a twist! We were all asked to bring along some sensory objects so as to create the atmosphere of the time when these manuscripts were created. This was a lovely touch and one welcomed by the group. In our own information age and when communication is instant it was mind-bending to go back to a time when people worked with quills on papyrus in candlelight.
The National Library presented their Seamus Heaney exhibition with readings of his poems and discussion. This went down extremely well. I was reminded of the particular power of Heaney and his connection to Irish people as everyone from the group shared their personal connections to the poems. It was Heaney’s poems that inspired one group member to propose that, as soon as restrictions lift, we all meet to pay a visit to this wonderful library and meet the guides. Everyone agreed and felt it was really something to look forward to.
Our session with the National Concert Hall gave us a history of the hall and, like many others, included a discussion on accessibility. Many of the smaller music venues are poorly accessible in the city or in areas of the city that are particularly challenging to get to and from safely. Lack of safety, bus routes, and poor footpaths, are all factors that deter people who have disabilities from venturing out into the night to go to concerts and gigs and for that reason, the NCH is quite a favourite as well as having staff that can assist when you arrive. Cormac Larkin took us on a fantastic journey back in time to the history of Jazz in Ireland, one memorable line being Louis Stewart’s when being auditioned by Jim Doherty, do you know any Benny Goodman? The question with the never-ending answer also came up: what is jazz?
We were taken to the Hugh Lane the next week, and I mean taken! The group really welcomed an audio description of the building and its layout as well as 2 images in inverted colours. This was something the group felt all galleries could have on their websites so as to help someone who is visually impaired or for whom mobility is challenging to prepare in advance for their visit. As the group explained, often when a person with VP arrives somewhere, something as simple as altering light conditions can be extremely disorientating and stressful. Being able to orient beforehand would really alleviate stress and facilitate better enjoyment of the art. Here again we were treated to a wonderful audio description with sound effects which were also particularly welcome by the group as a means to really connect with the paintings.
We had experienced so much together over the weeks. I was so grateful to witness the blossoming of the group as they came forth more and more with their responses to the art and, I think, genius ideas around improving accessibility. So, I was not really surprised when on the last session, no one wanted it to end and lots of ideas were shared on a group project, which included new ideas around accessibility.
This final image is made with recycled materials: lightbulbs and cut up advertising board with acrylic paint and glitter - well it was Christmas! And I thought the glitter might suggest the energy and all the ideas contributed and yet to be heard by the group. As I was making the piece the word pioneering kept coming into my mind. So much over the weeks was pioneering, the experience of engaging with culture online, online accessibility, and many of the aritsts and their work that we learned about had been pioneers too. Pioneers who had come through challenging times, creatively, as we too are hoping to do!
