AUSTIN, Texas — If you've been to an art gallery, you should know the No. 1 rule: Don't touch anything!
But one local group is working to change the idea that art can't be touched.
This is the second year for "Touch the Art," an interactive display that allows everyone, especially those who are visually impaired, to experience art in a whole new way.
A cardiac event that affected her optic nerve is the reason Jill Hudson is living in darkness.
"I lost my sight two years ago on April 1," Hudson said.
Now a blind advocate, Hudson is letting her light shine. One way to do that is through art.
"I want to make it really tactile; I want to incorporate braille, I want, you know, I want to be able to feel it, smell it, touch it," Hudson said. "It's kind of crazy, it's kind of wild. But it's just, it's so much to feel it."
So a multi-tiered homage to the "Blind Americans Return To Work Act" was born, with help from an artist friend and students at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
It's all part of the second annual "Touch the Art" exhibit. The goal is to make art more accessible to everyone.
And yes, you can actually touch the art.
Hudson and other artists spent weeks working with students, using smooth circular beads, sliding hands over rough dried clay and relishing the feel of wet paper-mâché – thin pieces of paper dipped and smoothed into place – all to create art meant to be embraced by palms and felt by fingertips.
Inside the "Almost Real Things" gallery space, seven large installations and more than 50 touchable gallery pieces are getting ready to stimulate the senses.
Natalie Earhart, co-founder of Almost Real Things, said being able to touch these creations adds a new depth and dimension to the experience.
"Think about gallery shows. Most of them, if you're visually impaired, you can't experience it in any way," Earhart said. "These are pieces you can walk into, you know, these are larger, you know, these are, 'I feel like I'm in this space.'"
Last year's "Touch The Art exhibit" was a huge success, attracting people from every part of the community. Earhart said she met a couple with a visually impaired daughter who had never been to an art exhibition.
"They didn't feel like they could go," Earhart said. "And they saw the piece on KVUE and they were like, 'We felt like she would enjoy this. She would feel welcome here.'"
For the next few weeks, this artistic vision will be brought to life, welcoming everyone to touch the art.
"I think it just makes it more powerful, brings us together and we can have this shared experience now," Earhart said.
"Touch the Art" opens Saturday, April 27, and runs through May 19. All ages are welcome. For more information on the exhibit, click here.