Beyond the Visual: Blindness and Expanded Sculpture

Beyond the Visual: Blindness and Expanded Sculpture is a ground-breaking collaborative research project spearheaded by Dr Ken Wilder (University of the Arts London Professor of Aesthetics), Dr Aaron McPeake (artist and Associate Lecturer at Chelsea College of Arts) and Dr Clare O’Dowd (Research Curator at the Henry Moore Institute), together with Shape Arts, the UK’s leading disability-led arts organisation. The project is the recipient of the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) inaugural Exhibition Fund, a major grant supporting innovative, collaborative exhibition approaches. The three-year project will culminate in a free exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute, in November 2025.

As part of the project, the Beyond the Visual Research Season will explore engagements with contemporary sculpture using senses other than sight, challenging the dominance of sight in the making and appreciation of art and investigating wider questions around the nature of artworks and the varied ways in which they can be experienced. The Research Season aims to rethink not only the under-representation of blind and partially blind arts practitioners but also the relationship between artworks and audiences, exploring what is gained from creative practices that emphasise a broader approach to sensory experience.