About the project
Beauty is a universal human experience. However, the way we perceive and feel it is deeply personal. What moves us, what we find meaningful, and how we experience beauty differ from one person to another. Yet, for many, beauty is intrinsically linked to vision. But do we need vision to experience beauty?
Unseen Beauty: Art Beyond Sight is an inclusive exhibition bringing together visually impaired and sighted individuals, artists, and scientists in a process of co-creation. Through tactile sculptures, paintings, poetry and personal stories, the exhibition celebrates diversity in how beauty is perceived and experienced by visually impaired people. The exhibition invites attendees to explore beauty beyond sight, where sound, touch, memory, emotion, and imagination shape perception of beauty, and where vision is not the primary guide.
Rather than offering a scientific explanation of beauty, we chose art as our medium, because art allows space for individuality, emotion, and dialogue. This project is about recognising and respecting the uniqueness of each experience.
This project is a dialogue between people who approach the world from different perspectives: scientists, artists, educators, and a writer contribute distinct ways of observing, interpreting, and communicating the world. Some are sighted, others are visually impaired. This project does not aim to emphasise differences, but to bridge them, by focusing on something we all share: the human experience of beauty.
About the exhibition
The exhibition includes:
- Paintings and artworks inspired by ongoing conversations between the sighted artist Joseph Venning and visually impaired adults, exploring questions such as “How do I see myself?” and “How do I experience beauty in the world?”. These works emerged from an ongoing creative dialogue, where the artist and the participants shaped each piece together.
- Personality pods: tactile sculptures created by visually impaired children from the Royal
- School for the Blind in workshops led by sighted artist Anna Gaston. Each sculpture reflects the child’s personality and the beauty they experienced through exploring different tactile materials, inviting visitors to engage through touch.
- A poem by blind writer Mandy Redvers-Rowe, sharing her experiences and reflections on beauty.
- Audio recordings sharing personal reflections and stories, placing lived experience at the centre of the exhibition.
Why this matters
Visual impairment is often discussed in terms of limitations. This project shifts the focus toward shared human values, creativity, and inclusion. By centring individual voices and experiences, the exhibition challenges stereotypes and highlights the richness and diversity within the visually impaired community.
Click to listen to the audio version
Beauty is universal. Experience is unique. This exhibition celebrates both.
Behind the scenes
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Exhibition
For audio descriptions, please use the player located directly beneath each image.
Listen to Portrait of Julie
Listen to On Top Of The World
Listen to Julie Reflection
Listen to Portrait of Kat
Listen to The Broken Are More Evolved
Listen to Kat Reflection
Listen to Portrait of Matt
Listen to Eras
Listen to Matt Reflection
Interview with the artist Joseph Venning about his experience co-creating the paintings with visually impaired participants.
Listen here
Interview with artist Anna Gaston about her experience co-creating the Personality Pods with visually impaired children from the Royal School for the Blind, Liverpool.
Listen here
A Question for Aphrodite
by Mandy Redvers-Rowe
Aphrodite
can I ask you to close your eyes and let me show you
what beauty is to me?
It is the shiver down my spine
the faint strings of a violin
in a crowded shopping street.
My heart lifts
As the notes sing out
to soar and climb and dance above
inhabiting some higher place:
the smell of lavender
a crashing wave
the stillness of a hot day
the taste of salt water as I bob under and swim to the bottom -
the heavy tick of the clock
a child laughing
snow falling as I walk with my four legged guide.
Aphrodite
you know I love you
bring back my mothers voice
her strong heart beating through her ribs
my sister and I winkle picking with grandparents -
in muddy harbour sand
or my own girls’ childhoods, once baby soft and smelling of sudocrem
but now fully grown
inhabiting clouds of sophisticated perfume.
Aphrodite
you can see but I cannot
You cast an image and capture hearts
You have your ways
And I have mine
I take my lovers hand
a hand I’ve held for so many years
a two part harmony
my harbour in the storm of life
there is beauty in our ageing bodies
there is beauty in our long relationship
there is beauty in our changing story.
Audio version of the poem
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Jane Barr
Workshop at the Royal School for the Blind
Contributors
Dr Irene Senna
Dr Magdalena Sliwinska
Dr Valeria Occelli
Dot-Art Gallery
Joseph Venning
Anna Gaston
Blind and visually impaired individuals
The Royal School for the Blind
Bradbury Fields
Mandy Redvers-Rowe
Arrow Studios
Student Interns
Aimee Dutton
Carlo Giordanengo
Diphda Richards
Eimear McElroy
Additional support
Lucy Byrne for organisational and curatorial support and coordination of
the exhibition.
Andie Griffiths and Pippa Workman for project support; Adarsh Makdani for technical support.
Faith Bebbington for installation and building bespoke display structures for selected artworks.
Funding
Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England awarded to Dr Irene Senna (Liverpool Hope University), with additional financial support from Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool John Moores University, and Edge Hill University.
