Haptic Homes: Selly Oak

by Fae Kilburn 

Haptic Homes: Selly Oak was an arts project involving workshops and a final exhibition by disabled artists and local people.

Inspired by disabled artists and the Commonwealth Games. 

Haptic Homes was inspired by the Commonwealth Games in 2022 to create fun, accessible art for people that interact in a non-visual way.

The project asked three disabled artists, Fae Kilburn, Clarke Reynolds and Zoe Partington, all with visual impairments, to run workshops about everyone’s favourite places. That might be their garden, or a tropical paradise, or visiting a café to chat to friends. The artworks inspired by these conversations were then specifically designed to be interacted with. Buttons could be pressed, textures felt, art could be sat or stood on.

“If they damage it, it proves that the work’s been engaged with. I can fix it, I can patch it up, I can create a new one.”

Clarke Reynolds – Artist

The resulting artworks were exhibited throughout the Commonwealth Games at Sense Touchbase Pears in Birmingham with the opportunity to experience the venues first online virtual exhibition tour. With thanks to Birmingham 2022 Festival and Birmingham city council, in partnership with Arts Forum Selly Oak and Number 11 Arts.

A copper metal sheet with raised dots in the foreground and a group of people in the background
A young woman in a wheelchair sat at a table with audio buttons
A group of people stood in a room wearing medals
A young woman reading braille with a man and a woman
A woman guiding a man in a wheelchair viewing textured artworks hung on a wall
A woman wearing a hat talking about an piece of art hanging on a wall. Art is made of labels
Artists describing their work to the visitors
Visitors to the Haptic Hones Exhibition at TouchBase Pears

Artist profiles

Fae Kilburn 

Fae is a Midlands based artist and arts facilitator, specialising in printmaking. Fae has a particular interest in making art accessible to all audiences and is constantly seeking out innovative ways to achieve this.

Clarke Reynolds 

Clarke is registered severely sighted but is also a visual artist. Clarke’s artistic language is Braille, the tactile coding system, which is made up of a six-dot cell to allow people of low vision to read the alphabet as words are important to a visually impaired person. 

Zoe Partington 

Zoe’s work explores critical thinking in relation to her experiences as a disabled person. Using creative audio description has allowed Zoe to expand into non-visual experimentation through language, stories, sound and colours.  

Thank you to all the artists, Fae Kilburn, Clarke Reynolds and Zoe Partington, the amazing people from Sense services and local community groups of all ages who participated in workshops and visited the exhibition.  

With a special thanks to Birmingham 2022 Festival and Birmingham City Council, in partnership with Arts Forum Selly Oak and Number 11 Arts.