LONDON, UK.- The Royal College of Art presents BlindArt 'Sense & Sensuality' through March 7, 2005. An art exhibition you can touch. All works for sale to raise money for charity. At last, a contemporary art exhibition you can touch and experience with all senses, not just sight. The exhibits at ‘Sense & Sensuality’ (RCA, 2-7 March 2005) are 60 finalists from the UK’s first ever annual competition to create works of art that can be appreciated by the visually impaired and blind, as well as the sighted.

Organised and funded by the charity BlindArt, the competition was open to all artists, and works displayed at the resulting ‘Sense & Sensuality’ exhibition will include many by partially sighted and blind artists, and most can be touched. All the works will be for sale, with part of proceeds going to raise money for BlindArt projects.

The exhibition takes place at the Henry Moore Gallery, Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London SW7 from Wednesday 2nd to Monday 7th March 2005 (10am-5pm Wednesday to Sunday, and from 10am-3pm Monday). Entrance is free to the public. There will be full access facilities for blind and partially sighted visitors.

BlindArt is a recently launched UK charitable organisation celebrating art for, and by, the visually impaired and challenging perceptions of artistic vision.

From the 60 finalists selected for the ‘Sense & Sensuality’ exhibition, BlindArt will award a Competition Prize of £5,000 and a purchase prize, which will become part of BlindArt’s Permanent Collection. Both will be announced at a Private View on the evening of Wednesday 2nd March. The Rt. Hon. Estelle Morris MP will be presenting the Prizes.

The Competition Prize is judged by a panel that includes Professor Glynn Williams, Head of The School of Fine Art at the Royal College of Art; William Packer, Art Critic; Simon Labbett, Royal National Institute of the Blind; Frankie Rossi, Director of Graphics, Marlborough Fine Art; Gary Sargeant, an artist with a visual impairment, and Sheri Khayami, Founder of BlindArt and a partially sighted person.

The Permanent Collection Prize is selected by BlindArt, who will purchase a work of art from the competition to become the first piece in the BlindArt Collection, which will be housed in the UK, and in time, tour the world.

The Blind Art Collection will be the world’s first and only permanent collection of visual arts for the blind and partially sighted, and will include paintings, sculpture, installations and other works of art, accessible to the sight-impaired using any of the senses. The Collection will also help promote artists with visual impairment.