Rich Curtis Wins Keller Art Prize
Artist Rich Curtis has won the Helen Keller International Prize, a major art prize set up in Scotland with funds donated by Helen Keller, at a ceremony held in Glasgow today, Saturday 18th April.
His work, Sight Unseen, is made up of 20 textured paintings which were designed to be felt as well as seen.
Mr Curtis worked with various individuals from the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, playing them music and asking them to respond by drawing marks on paper.
Ms Keller became the first deafblind person to obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree and helped change the perception of deafblind people.
She visited Scotland in 1933 as part of an awareness-raising tour which took her and her teacher Annie Sullivan around the world.
Ms Sullivan helped develop a form of sign language which allowed Keller – who was deafblind – to communicate again.
While in Scotland, Keller received an honorary degree from the University of Glasgow and set up the trust fund – through the sale of two bullocks – which was to be used for the interests of other deafblind people.
Sense Scotland became trustees of the fund in 1989, transforming it first into an international essay competition and then into the current multi-media art competition.
The competition is run biennially and is open to both professional and non-professional artists.
Gillian Morbey, chief executive of Sense Scotland, said The Helen Keller International Award is a unique opportunity for artists from across the world to reflect on deafblindness and disability, through a range of artforms.
Congratulations Rich Curtis!
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