Blind and visually impaired artists ranging from elementary-school students to older adults are bringing their work to the Coral Gables Museum this month in an exhibition built around touch, collaboration and what it means to experience America beyond the visual.
“America Touched, America Seen,” presented with Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, brings together collaborative works by second- and third-graders and adult program participants, along with five individual works by Miami Lighthouse artists. The exhibition is part of programming tied to America’s 250th anniversary and explores community, resilience, belonging and soccer through tactile art-making.
Art built through touch and collaboration
The exhibition centers on the way artists with limited or no vision work with materials through touch, movement and spatial awareness.
Many of the pieces grew out of group sessions, allowing artists to respond individually to materials while also making work alongside one another. The result is an exhibition that treats tactile experience not as an accommodation added after the fact, but as part of the artistic process itself.
The show also connects to the nationwide America 250 commemoration. Its themes include community, resilience and belonging, while soccer appears as another point of connection — particularly relevant in a year when South Florida is hosting World Cup matches and blind soccer is growing rapidly in the region. Miami Lighthouse describes the exhibition as part of its America 250 programming with the museum.
A gallery with another Miami Lighthouse connection
The exhibition is housed in the Coral Gables Museum’s Anthony R. Abraham Gallery, named for the late South Florida businessman and philanthropist whose family foundation has long supported Miami Lighthouse.
That relationship now extends beyond the arts.
The Anthony R. Abraham Foundation has helped fund Miami Lighthouse’s blind-soccer program and its dedicated mini-pitch, where visually impaired children and young adults learn the game using an audible ball and other adaptations. Miami Lighthouse credits the foundation among the donors that made its blind-soccer pitch possible.
The foundation has also committed $1 million toward the development of the first U.S. Paralympic blind-soccer team ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Its chairman, Thomas Anthony Abraham, serves as a USA Blind Soccer ambassador.
That makes the soccer theme in “America Touched, America Seen” more than a passing reference: the organization behind the gallery has also invested in expanding the sport represented in the exhibition.
Artists across generations
The exhibition draws from three groups within Miami Lighthouse.
Older adults participate through the organization’s Social Group Health and Activities program, or SGA, which uses arts and crafts, social activities and health services to help adults with significant vision loss maintain independence and social connections. Art activities in the program include painting, ceramics and other tactile work intended to build dexterity as well as encourage creativity.
Second- and third-grade students from Miami Lighthouse Academy contribute collaborative works of their own. Five adult Miami Lighthouse artists are represented by individual pieces.
Miami Lighthouse describes itself as Florida’s oldest and largest private organization serving people who are blind or visually impaired. Its programs range from early-childhood services and education to employment training, rehabilitation, arts and activities for older adults.
If you go…
“America Touched, America Seen” is on view Sept. 17 through Nov. 1 at the Coral Gables Museum, 285 Aragon Ave. A public opening is listed for Saturday, Sept. 19, when the museum is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The exhibition is in the Anthony R. Abraham Gallery and is sponsored in part by the Florida Division of Arts and Culture and the National Endowment for the Arts. Miami Lighthouse has also scheduled a World Sight Day reception for Oct. 8 from 5 to 7 p.m., with performances by its band and United Voices Choir.
