The Wellcome Collection commisioned two tactile interpretations of  artworks from the Wellcome Gallery in London.

This is 'Portrait of Dr Gatchet',  Vincent Van Gogh, 1890

The second interpretation is a detail from the painting ‘St Elizabeth Visiting the Sick’, Adam Elsheimer c 1598.  Images can be found here.

Both pieces are cast in resin with a bronze finish to combine the characteristics of fine detail with durability. They are light in weight to ease operation of the storage drawers in which they are displayed.

The brief from Weston Park Museum, Sheffield was to produce two tactile interpretations to accompany a landscape painting and a townscape model of Sheffield.

The ‘Horse and Cart’ is cast in resin with a bronze finish and is an interpretation of detail from the centre of a landscape painting of Sheffield.

‘Thor and Vulcan’ are two figures from the façade of Sheffield Town Hall and are cast in resin with a Portland stone finish.

Weston Park Museum opened to the public in October 2006. The museum was a shortlisted finalist for the Gulbenkian Prize 2007.

Tate London – Constable Tactile booklets

Tate London in association with the Aspire Partnership Programme commissioned two tactile booklets to interpret and accompany the painting ‘Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows’ by John Constable for a touring exhibition that opened at the Wolsey Art Gallery in Ipswich in June 2015.

The tactile booklets are bound in red leather with gold embossed text and contain tactile diagrams with descriptions and navigation text in large print and Braille. The tactile booklets and partner audio description provide the widest possible audience access to the exhibition as it tours the UK for several years.

Images by kind permission of Tate

A bronze tactile interpretation of ‘The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah’, John Martin (1789-1854). The interpretation incorporates areas of exaggerated depth to emphasise the dramatic subject matter for touch.

The bronze was commissioned for the 18th & 19th Century Gallery at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle.

Cast in resin with a bronze finish, this high relief tactile panel was commissioned as part of an RNIB interpretation project for the Museum in 2013. 

The interpretation is a detail from Dutch master Bernaert van Orley’s Virgin and Child.  It is located in front of the original painting and is accompanied by an RNIB large print and Braille tactile booklet.

The Beaney Art Museum was shortlisted for an Arts Fund Prize in 2013.

The Wellcome Collection commissioned two tactile interpretations of artworks from the Wellcome Gallery in London.

This is a detail from the painting ‘St Elizabeth Visiting the Sick’, Adam Elsheimer c 1598.

The second interpretation is of the etching ‘Portrait of Dr Gatchet’, Vincent Van Gogh 1890.  Images can be found here.

Both pieces are cast in resin with a bronze finish to combine the characteristics of fine detail with durability. They are light in weight to ease operation of the storage drawers in which they are displayed.

Elsheimer’s painting is complex and very detailed and therefore difficult to interpret for touch in its entirety within a small panel. Consequently this interpretation concentrates on one important foreground element of the painting, St. Elizabeth tending to a bedridden patient. 

This three metre long tactile bench is made from seasoned European oak. There are three carved relief panels on each face of the central backrest. 

The relief carvings are details from six of the paintings on display in the  18th and 19th Century Gallery at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle.

This is an illuminated tactile installation inspired by the stained glass panels located on the rotunda level of the Laing Art Gallery, overlooking the staircase. It is installed in a position facing the windows. 

The design consists of relief interpretations of five figures, cast in transparent resin and selectively painted to suggest some of the original colours. It is set into an oak cabinet containing an adjustable
light-box and a diffuser panel.

The Barbour Watercolour Gallery shows works from the Laing’s extensive collection of Watercolour paintings. 

This installation is designed to contain a tactile book of some of these paintings made by Sue King and her team at the RNIB. 

A rigid, leather outer binder is imprinted with Braille and large print text, which describes the contents. There is a laminated inner binder which holds the pages in place.

The inner binder can be easily removed from the outer binder to enable the Laing watercolour team to add a new tactile book with each new exhibition, with the object of building a tactile archive.

Tate London commissioned a tactile booklet to interpret and accompany the painting Le Passeur by William Stott of Oldham for a touring exhibition opening at Tate London in 2017 and travelling in 2018/19 to UK-partner galleries: Oriel y Parc, Southampton Art Gallery, Gallery Oldham and Aberdeen Art Gallery.

The tactile booklet is bound in blue Buckram with black embossed text and contains tactile diagrams with descriptions and navigation text in large print and Braille.

In 2019 Tate London, in association with Colchester and Ipswich Museums, commissioned two tactile books to interpret the paintings A Group Portrait and The Millstream by John Constable to accompany the paintings in the Constable Collection.

The booklets are bound in green Buckram with white embossed text.

In 2020, Tate in partnership with Southampton, Oldham, Aberdeen and Museum Wales commissioned a set of tactile books. Each of the four galleries chose paintings from their collections.

Southampton City Art Gallery:

Afterglow in Egypt – William Holman Hunt

Summer – Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Gallery Oldham:

Circe offering the cup to Ulysses – John William Waterhouse

The White Mountain – William Stott of Oldham

National Museum Cardiff:

Lady Charlotte Williams-Wynn and her Children – Joshua Reynolds

Storr Rock, Lady’s Cove, Evening – Alfred Sisley

Aberdeen Art Gallery:

Flood in the Highlands – Sir Edward landseer

The books were completed in 2021.

Each tactile booklet is bound in Buckram with embossed text and contains tactile diagrams with descriptions and navigation text in large print and braille.

Historic Royal Palaces commissioned a set of tactile interpretations as part of the Gold and Glory exhibition at Hampton Court Palace in 2019. The exhibition celebrated the 500th anniversary of the meeting of Kings at the Field of Cloth of Gold in northern France and opened to visitors in the Summer of 2021.

The interpretations comprised three tactile object replicas and a tactile book: a tactile interpretation of the Field of Cloth of Gold painting with large print text and braille