Seeing Beyond Sight: Photographs by Blind Teenagers
May 21–July 8, 2007
Porch Gallery

NORTH CAROLINA PREMIERE
BOOK LAUNCH PARTY & EXHIBITION OPENING
Wednesday, May 23, 7–9:30 p.m.

7 p.m.–Author Tony Deifell: Stories about teaching photography to blind teenagers, with co-teachers Shirley Hand and Dan Partridge

8 p.m.–Screening: Scenes from a forthcoming film for the project by Bryan Donnell

PLUS: Meet some of the photographers themselves and view pictures from the blind photography challenge conducted at Artsplosure on May 19 and 20





Seeing Beyond Sight: Photographs by Blind Teenagers is a new book by Tony Deifell, with a foreword by Dr. Robert Coles (Chronicle Books, April 2007), from a project at the Governor Morehead School in Raleigh, North Carolina. With its ambitious, seemingly paradoxical premise, Seeing Beyond Sight challenges our definitions of art, vision, and perception. This rare book of visual art speaks with inspirational power, not only to the visually impaired community at large, but also to anyone who has ever considered what it means to see and perceive the world.

This North Carolina premiere includes other Triangle-area events:

Seeing Beyond Sight Challenge—Artsplosure Festival, May 19 & 20, noon to 5 p.m. (presented in partnership with Exploris and SFZero), Moore Square, Raleigh.

Book Signing & Author Presentation—Quail Ridge Books & Music, May 22, 7 p.m., 3522 Wade Avenue, Raleigh.

Tony Deifell is a visual artist and social entrepreneur who has spent over a decade creating youth-generated media projects, including From the Hip, Youth Voice Radio, and ISM based in Durham, North Carolina. ISM was recognized by the White House as a national model of diversity education. Deifell serves as chief strategist for KaBOOM! (www.kaboom.org), advises film and television projects, and continues to develop participatory media-making productions, including www.wdydwyd.com. He was an artist-in-residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts, taught documentary studies at Duke University, and was a national leadership fellow with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. He graduated from UNC–Chapel Hill, and he taught photography for five years at Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh, North Carolina.

More event information: www.seeingbeyondsight.org

This exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Duke Eye Center.

Listen to Tony Deifell, teacher Shirley Hand, and student Cassie Knight discuss Seeing Beyond Sight on WUNC's "The State of Things"









banner image:

Partial view of the Lyndhurst Gallery, one of four exhibition spaces at CDS. Photograph by Christoper Sims.


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