Category: Arts, Sport & Wellbeing

I’m an artist who focuses on creating concerts that stimulate the senses, particularly sound, taste, touch and movement. I manage Bittersuite, a company that’s pioneering new ways to experience music through all the senses, and the Open Senses Festival.

I’ve always enjoyed making works for all the senses, so I was keen to start working with the charity Sense and their Arts team, when I learned that my work could be used to stimulate and inspire people with complex disabilities and sensory impairments. Continue reading “I make art that stimulates the senses”

Over the past several months, Sense Arts has been working closely with six young people with sensory impairments and complex communication needs through a series of music making workshops.

These workshops were part of a project called ‘Music is a Vibration’,  which is an inclusive arts project that enabled the young people to co-produce their own musical compositions. The project put young people at the heart of several immersive environments in which they were able to create music and experience soundscapes. The workshops were led by artists Tom Peel and Justin Wiggan, assisted by Sense support worker and musician, Bamba Dia.

Continue reading “Young people with sensory impairments exhibit sonic works of art”

World cup fever is upon us! It’s all over the TV, radio, social media, and is the topic of many of our conversations at the moment.

In amongst all the hype, one video in particular went viral over the weekend, just as Deafblind Awareness Week kicked off. The video shows football fan Carlos and his friends celebrating a goal in Brazil’s game against Costa Rica on Friday. What’s different about this video is that Carlos is deafblind and is experiencing the football through touch.

Continue reading “Video of deafblind football fan inspires people to think about sport and inclusivity”

Sensibility was a three-day disability arts festival in Birmingham that showcased the contributions and connections to arts and creativity of sixty deafblind and disabled people. It brought together a diverse audience from all over the country, to celebrate and share a unique experience.

Continue reading “Success for Sensibility Festival”

Yesterday, we hosted a Sports Summit at the iconic Lee Valley Velodrome. This event provided an opportunity for people from the sport and health, and social care sector, to come together to hear about the what we’ve learned from our two year Sport England funded project, Sporting Sense. It was fantastic to see such a mix of organisations who all share a passion for making sport more inclusive and accessible to disabled people.

Continue reading “How Sense has been making sport more inclusive for disabled people”

A brand new disability arts festival called Sensibility is coming to Birmingham this weekend. As a dance teacher who has worked with Sense Arts for five years, I’m really excited to be leading a choreographed dance, movement and story session this Friday 18 May and Sunday 20 May, at Sense’s TouchBase Pears multipurpose venue.

Continue reading “Dance inspires, uplifts and connects us”

I’m a visually impaired mixed and multimedia artist working with Sense to support people with sensory impairments to produce art for a brand new disability arts festival called Sensibility, happening this Friday, 18 May.

Through art, I want to elevate the importance of all of the senses. I myself, exhibit my artworks nationally and internationally, but I also work on making more accessible sensory and tactile works, and smaller sculptures too.

Continue reading “I’m a visually impaired artist who’s helping others connect through creativity”

Six young people with sensory impairments and complex communication needs are making music through a series of Sense Arts workshops. The workshops are part of a project called ‘Music Is A Vibration’, and are being led by a musician and an artist who use innovative audiovisual technology to overcome communication barriers.

Continue reading “Innovative technology helps young people with sensory impairments make music”

At the end of an eight month project with Sense Arts and the British Library, we celebrated the archiving of sounds created by young people with sensory impairments.

My name is Emma McGarry and I am a visual artist. Together with another artist, Judith Brocklehurst, we have been working on a Sense and British Library collaboration to deliver an exciting eight-month project with a group of young people with sensory impairments. The project took inspiration from the British Library’s Sound Archive and allowed the national collection of sounds to be brought to a new audience through a series of participatory and exploratory sessions.

The project came to its conclusion and we celebrated with a big final event at the British Library and our own exciting submission.

Continue reading “Children with sensory impairments celebrate their sounds being archived at the British Library”