The national disability charity, Sense, in partnership with Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), has unveiled plans for a new arts festival that will take place in Birmingham on Friday 18 to Sunday 20 May 2018.
Sensibility Festival is a celebration of the senses which invites the public to explore, play and experiment. The festival will host a mixture of sensorial experiences, artist performances, workshops and art installations across two venues: MAC and TouchBase Pears. Visitors will be invited to explore the sensory labyrinth, a large scale interactive arts installation designed to be touched, eaten, smelt, moved and felt.
MAC and Sense Arts have developed the Sensibility Collective with local artists to explore dynamic ways to develop accessible and multisensory arts practice that is informed by people with sensory impairments. The festival challenges conventions of established art making methods and provides experimental art opportunities that nurture and inspire creative practices of any ability. .
The programme is co-directed by Graeae Theatre Company and Stephanie Singer (BitterSuite). Four artists, Justin Wiggan, Saranjit Birdi, Lyn Cox and Becca Thomas (InterAction), have led the creation of new work with 60 creative collaborators with sensory impairments.
Stephanie Tyrrell, National Art Manger at Sense, said:
“This will be a festival of art created by people with sensory impairments: Art you can smell, touch, taste, feel and hear.
It will explore how deafblind artists use their senses to create art. It will show how we can explore art and creativity through the senses, how we can feel sounds, touch colours, smell memories and taste sounds
The work produced will enhance creative opportunities for people with sensory impairments, which will in turn enrich current arts practices.”
The Sensibility Festival will take place Friday 18 May – Sunday 20 May 2018 at MAC and Touchbase Pears, Selly Oak. For specific event times, prices and booking please www.macbirmingham.co.uk
