On Wednesday the 31st of July, 2024, ten lucky people with vision loss attended a free Highlights Tour of Melbourne’s Ian Potter Gallery, thanks to the support from the City of Melbourne Council.
Tour guides, Amy and Leah, had both attended Blind Sports & Recreation Victoria’s Vision Loss Awareness Training in the lead up delivered by Program Manager, Miriam Bilander, and BSRV Ambassador, Annette Leishman. As a result, Amy and Leah did an impressive job of describing the famous art works, conveying rich stories about artists and historical context, as well as adding tactile elements, like handing around dress fabric and hand-made lace.
During the tour, participants admired the heroic rural activity in Tom Robert’s iconic painting ‘Shearing the Rams’ and were moved by Frederick McCubbin’s 1904 floor-to-ceiling three panel oil on canvas, ‘Pioneer’.
Most interesting, however, was to hear how the gallery itself has juxtaposed First Nation art against colonial art it its display of the various works. For example, in one room there were nine indigenous shields on one wall, and on the opposite wall, were nine impressionist paintings done on the back of cigar box lids. Similarly, two dresses were displayed next to each other – one an emerald green silk Victorian dress from the mid-1800s, and the other a traditional Victorian blouse and skirt re-imagined in charcoal tissue paper that had been printed with possum fur symbolising Kelly Koumalatsos’ First Nations ancestor’s cultural identity in the face of colonisation.
At the conclusion of the tour, it was lovely to hear Elsa, a BSRV participant, exclaim -
“Some people ask why I go to galleries when I cannot see, and I explain to them that with the descriptions and the atmosphere, I enjoy the experience very much”.
This event was made possible thanks to the support of the City of Melbourne.
