Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We wanted to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves to you and share the exciting work we’re doing at Our Visual World. Our Visual World is a new network of Deaf creatives in Wales that supports a collective of people with a wide range of artistic and creative experience.

As part of our development, we partnered with the highly supportive Artes Mundi to develop a training course for Deaf creatives. This was created in response to the lack of Tour guides based in Wales able to deliver BSL tours of exhibitions and events.

Following the successful completion of this course, there are seven BSL tour guides based all over Wales who have successfully delivered BSL-led tours for Artes Mundi 10. Our tours have taken place at Chapter, Glynn Vivian At Gallery, Oriel Davies, Mostyn and National Museum Cardiff.

Letty Clarke, Curator of Public Programmes at Artes Mundi shared that “all of the tours were incredibly thoroughly researched, the tour guides made space to explain the complexities, histories and contexts shared in the AM10 exhibition. They created an amazing welcome for the Deaf community across Wales, which we would not have been able to replicate on our own. Deaf Culture is incredibly visual, and the insights shared by our tour guides provided a richness to our overall public programme, not just the BSL-led tours.”

With this foundation and by working with our network who have a vast amount of engagement and events experience, we would like to hear from organisations looking to reach the Deaf Community. We can offer advice and support in the following ways:

– Training and advice on Deaf Awareness and how to reach the Deaf Community

– Delivery of BSL-led exhibition tours.

– Introductions to Deaf artists around Wales for inclusion in future programmes and opportunities.

If this is of any interest to you, please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions you may have by emailing us at [email protected]

Additionally, we warmly invite you to join one of our online monthly meetings. It’s a great chance to learn more about us by meeting some of our members, partners and discuss anyaccess requirements you may have.

We see this work as being an essential part of developing much-needed allies for the Deafcommunity within the art world in Wales. Together we can create a more inclusive and accessible visual arts sector for all.

Very Best wishes,

Jane Simpson and Heather Williams.

Project Lead OVW Network Manager

Follow us on social media for updates, workshops, events and more

Facebook: @OurVisualWorld

Instagram: @our.visual.world

Our Visual World is a Connect & Flourish project supported by Arts Wales. It is hosted by GSArtists Swansea, and has been developed in partnership with Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, DAC, Llanelli Deaf Centre, with support from Deaf and hearing mentors – Jonny Cotsen, Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq, and Tom Goddard