A Transformative Artistic Experience Visits the PAC Tonight

A large pink and blue photo-painting on a screen is on a stage before a group of piano-bass-drums musicians and a conductor

Blind Visionaries in performance, with a photographic rendering musicall supported by the Daniel Kelly Trio.

Albany, N.Y (Feb 3, 2022) — Exploring the nature of sight and blindness, light and dark — and what it means to truly see — Blind Visionaries takes the Performing Arts Center (PAC) stage tonight at 7:30.

Blind Visionaries features images created by the blind and visually impaired photographers of the Seeing with Photography Collective in combination with original jazz music performed live by the Daniel Kelly Trio. The show has been called a transformative performance experience.

Photos by the Collective will be projected while musicians perform Kelly’s original jazz compositions, inspired by the works of art and the photographers themselves. Narration is through recorded interviews with members of the Collective; the artists share their experience with vision loss as well as their journey to find healing and resiliency through artistic expression.

Based in New York City, the Seeing with Photography Collective is a collaboration among visually impaired and sighted photographers. Their work can be seen in the book Shooting Blind published by Aperture and the short documentary BlindSight.

The UAlbany community can get a sample of the Collective’s artistry today in the PAC lobby from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and tomorrow from 9 to noon in a display of approximately ten photographs. Admission is free, donations are welcome.

A photo of a man in African dashiki amidst burning flames of gold — A photo from the collection of the Seeing with Photography Collective.

In performance of Blind Visionaries, audience members participate with members of the Collective as the dynamic process of “light painting” is demonstrated. In BlindSight, this is process is described as bringing the artists’ “haunting and poetic images” to audiences in a way that “transports the viewer into a unique dream world of surreal portraits.”

Both the Collective members and Kelly, a composer who explores the meeting place of music with literature, visual art and journalism, have made a commitment to arts education and young audiences. As such, in addition to tonight’s public performance, Blind Visionaries will be performed for area high school students on Friday at 10 a.m.

UAlbany students will also have an opportunity to interact with Blind Visionaries’ artists. Members of the Collective will give a workshop on the light painting process to students from Danny Goodwin of Art and Art History’s Advanced Photography class along with self-selected blind and visually impaired students. Additionally, two Music Program classes will have Kelly as guest speaker.

Goodwin expressed delight with the workshop and also noted a UAlbany connection to the artistic style that will be featured. “I’m earnestly looking forward to this workshop, as are my students,” he said. “It is particularly satisfying that the Collective will introduce light painting to the class. Professor Emeritus Phyllis Galembo, who retired in 2018, is something of a pioneer of this technique and her absence is conspicuous in the photography program.”

Tickets tonight for Blind Visionaries are $20 for the general public and $15 for students, seniors and UAlbany faculty and staff. Reservations and further information can be obtained from the Box Office at (518) 442-3997 or the PAC website.

The artists’ residency and performances are presented by the PAC in partnership with the University Art Museum. Funding support is provided by the Alumni Association through the Grandma Moses Fund, University at Albany Foundation, University Auxiliary Services and UAlbany's StAR Program.