When you think about art, what comes to mind? Maybe your favorite artist or a favorite piece. You may have thought about an art movement or a medium. Regardless, art comes in many different forms, but there is one rule that must be followed regardless of the medium. This rule being, no matter how much you may want to, don’t touch. Usually, there’s even something between you and the piece that physically separates the observer and piece.

But what if you were supposed to touch the art? At the Shared Visions Exhibition, you can do just that. 

Organized by two ACC professors, Nathan Ables, and Katie Carons, the Shared Visions art show is an annual collaboration between ACC’s Art & Design Students and Colorado’s Center for the Blind. In this show, art students are challenged to make art geared specifically toward their sense of touch instead of sight.

The show was located in ACC’s Colorado Gallery of the Arts, celebrating its 10th anniversary, and was available to check out from November 7th to the 4th of December 2024. The show was created with the intent to make art accessible to the blind, as well as encourage viewers to think of art beyond the canvas. To make the exhibit as accessible as possible each artwork is displayed with a label that describes the piece’s look, function, and meaning and is translated into both English and Braille.

“You never know what there’s going to be,” One of ACC’s participating artists says. “It’s just such a unique process.”

Each year features a completely new gallery with its own set of unique ceramics, sculptures, and other such mixed media pieces, as well as a number of pots and sculptures from the ceramics program that the Center of the Blind offers for its members. It is a fantastic opportunity for the blind to be able to experience art.