Project timeline and budget
Project duration: July 2023 – July 2026
Value: £250,000
Funded by: AHRC (UKRI)
Project summary
This 3-year ground-breaking research is a collaboration between Chelsea College of Arts, the Henry Moore Institute and Shape Arts - the UK’s leading disability-led arts organisation. It aims to enhance blind people’s experience of art in museums.
In November 2025, it’ll culminate with a landmark exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute (HMI) in Leeds. This highlights work by blind and partially blind artists. Beyond the Visual explores engagements with contemporary sculpture using senses other than sight. It also challenges the dominance of sight in the making and reception of art.
The exhibition will mark the first major UK-based sculpture exhibition. The exhibition will feature works by blind or partially blind artists within a major national institution. This is rare in having a blind curator intrinsic to the project.
The project involves public participation in various activities. This includes a:
- Research season
- Conference
- Full schedule of public events that go along with the exhibition.
Project aims and approach
The project builds upon an earlier AHRC funded research network, Beyond the Visual: Non-Sighted Modes of Engaging Art. This concluded to a 2-day symposium at the Wellcome Collection, London.
A book called Beyond the Visual: Multisensory Modes of Beholding Art (UCL Press) will be published to work alongside the exhibition at HMI.
The second iteration of Beyond the Visual focuses on contemporary sculpture. This led to creating an exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute, which will be opening in November 2025.
Research outputs
Beyond the Visual, exhibition, November 2025 – March 2026
Ken Wilder and Aaron McPeake (eds). Beyond the Visual: Multisensory Modes of Beholding Art. London: UCL Press (forthcoming, August 2025).
Impact
The project was built on a collaborative approach to creating exhibitions and involved lots of public engagement activities.
The project investigators worked closely with partner organisations, including:
- Tate
- Wellcome Collection
- Henry Moore Institute
- Shape Arts
- VocalEyes
- The DisOrdinary Architecture Project.
This process led to the creation of a large, international and multidisciplinary network of scholars, artists, curators and writers.
The aim is not a ‘one-off’ exhibition. It’s to influence major museums to be more inclusive, changing the idea of disability access from just meeting needs to being part of creative practice (see Amanda Cachia’s 2022 Curating Acess).
The project is informed by Hannah Thompson and Georgina Kleege’s notion of ‘blindness gain’. This resulted in the start of new staff training and exhibition protocols at the Henry Moore Foundation and Institute.
Project team
Professor Ken Wilder, Principal Investigator
Website: Ken Wilder Artist
Dr Aaron McPeake, Co-Investigator
Website: Aaron McPeake
Dr Clare O’Dowd, Research Curator, HMI
Partners
- Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
- Laurence Sillars, Head of the Henry Moore Institute
- Clare O’Dowd, Research Curator HMI
- Shape Arts – Jeff Rowlings, Head of Programme
Advisory Board
- Laurie Britton Newell, Senior Curator, Wellcome Collection
- Dr Alison Eardley, University of Westminster
- Professor Georgina Kleege, Professor Emerita, University of California, Berkeley
- David Johnson, Artist
- Professor Hannah Thompson, Royal Holloway, University of London
How to get involved
For further information, contact:
