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In pursuit of enjoyment, discovery and community.
We want to thank the Docents and Staff at the Seattle Art Museum for a wonderful verbally described tour of the Picasso exhibit. Special thanks to Hjylimar Hinn for his work in creating tactile guides which he calls " Braille Docents " to aid in the understanding of the verbal description of Picasso's Art. We were very fortunate to have Linda Shaw from the Seattle Times and Jen Graves from the Stranger join our group. Link to the Seattle Times article Vision Loss Connections is an organization of people who are blind and low vision who live in the Puget Sound Region. The Award Winning - City Stream Program premiered on the 17th of November on the Seattle Channel (#21) with a film about Vision Loss Connections! Our mission is to promote and involve people who are visually impaired in support, education and recreation groups throughout the the Puget Sound Region. Our goal is to bring individuals together to build bridges of activities and shared interests that connects people living with impaired vision. Our activities are open to people with all levels of vision loss and those experiencing the challenge of living with eye problems. Family members and friends are also a vital part of our group activities. Volunteer involvement is also welcomed! Our aim is to promote easy and affordable access to the rich cultural and recreation opportunities that are available to people living in the Puget Sound area. We have been very busy planning some new activities for 2011! Future dates for upcoming verbally described art tours: New Season of Audio Described Performances at the Fifth Avenue Theater All performances are Saturday Matinees with tickets at $25.00 per person -available to a person who is visually impaired and a friend or family member 12 May 2012 - Damn Yankees In addition, The 5th Avenue Theater In partnership with ACT Theater presents an Audio Described Performance on The Tactile Art Class will meet once a month. It will be a Hands On experience geared to artists who are visually impaired. People who want to make Art will be interested in this class. The focus will be to create works of art that are experienced primarily by touch. Each class will introduce a different tactile project to work with, incorporating a broad range of materials. This is a studio workshop with artist/ facilitators available to assist in your creative endeavors. The class will offer the opportunity to explore tools and a variety of materials interesting to the tactile artist. Come and let your artistic expression run wild! See the events page for details. Seattle King Cobras Goalball Team on Community Stories In the episode on the 31st of January Community Stories profiled the Seattle King Cobras Goalball Team, the first goalball team in the Seattle area in over 30 years. Described as "soccer for the blind", goalball provides a team sport outlet for the blind and visually impaired community. It was created by World War II veterans who wanted to continue to play sports after becoming visually impaired. Teams of three stand on either side of a court marked with rope so players can feel the boundary lines Players serve a ball with bells inside of it to the opposite side of the court in effort to get it past defenders and score a goal. Today, a dedicated group of new players and advocates have started Seattle's first goalball team in over 30 years. Patt Copeland is the program manager for Vision Loss Connections, a non-profit group that serves as an organizer for and link between the blind /visually impaired community and various recreational activities. She met lifelong athlete Telea Noriega, who as a youth played football and competed as a goalball player on a national level, and they both expressed an interest in starting a team in Seattle. Copeland and Noriega found a number of people who had played goalball in the past and then began to recruit new players, who have found a passion for their new sport and teammates. "The feeling of fully participating in something is a confidence builder," says Nancy Lopez Swaney. Twelve-year-old Su Park, the youngest member of the Seattle King Cobras, had never played a sport before. "I personally felt a little left out in the sighted society. But that sense of being left out is totally gone when it comes to this team," she says. Meet the Seattle King Cobras Goalball Team and learn about the sport of goalball on Community Stories on SEATTLE CHANNEL, Cable 21. See Goalball page for more details. |