SEEING BEYOND SALON: An evening of art & perception December 8, 2007

A party presented by the American Visionary Art Museum with interactive art, music, food & drinks and stories from a surprising new book called SEEING BEYOND SIGHT: PHOTOGRAPHS BY BLIND TEENAGERS.

* STORYTELLING by Tony Deifell, author of Seeing Beyond Sight (Chronicle Books)

* SCREENING of scenes from upcoming film about blind photographers in Seeing Beyond Sight book

* Thoughts by David Linden about how brain evolution has given us love, memory, dreams & God (author of The Accidental Mind)

* PHOTO EXHIBIT of images from the "Blind Photography Challenge” workshops

* PARTY & INTERACTIVE ART about seeing and perception
> Make a collaborative “Tactile Collage” w/artist Loring Cornish
> Get a “Retinal Tattoo”
> Try a game of "seeing with your ears”
> Music: DJ Joe Wall
> Watch “ZEA” – short film that will keep you guessing
> and more

free public event | RSVP

EVENT HOST COMMITTEE:
Lane Berk, Marshall Clarke (Youthlight), Gin Ferrara & Susan Hayman (Wide Angle Media), Nancy Haragan (Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance), Lenneal Henderson (University of Baltimore), Rebecca Alban Hoffberger (American Visionary Art Museum), Susan Magsamen (Family Stories & AVAM board), Ted Rouse (Healthy Planet), National Federation of the Blind, Rory Turner (Goucher College), Elena Volkova (photographer), and more

ABOUT THE BOOK:
SEEING BEYOND SIGHT: PHOTOGRAPHS BY TEENAGERS (Chronicle Books) by Tony Deifell w/ foreword by Robert Coles

“uniquely powerful” ~ Utne Magazine | "savvy, passionate, witty, and yes, beautiful" ~ FastCompany.com | "This book will make you look—and look again—at how you perceive and what you assume." ~ Shambhala Sun | "demonstrates countless new ways for all of us to think about vision, art and perception, and what it really means to see" ~ Chronicle Books

> New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Times, Utne Magazine and more recent press: http://www.seeingbeyondsight.org/book/press

> For more information: http://www.seeingbeyondsight.org

> Get the book as a gift for the holidays on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Beyond-Sight-Photographs-Teenagers/dp/0811853497

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tony Deifell is a visual artist and social entrepreneur. He has spent over a decade creating youth-generated media projects, including From the Hip, Youth Voice Radio, and ISM, which was recognized by the White House as a national model of diversity education, using video diaries to address race issues.

He serves as Chief Strategist for KaBOOM!, serves on the board of directors of Active Voice, advises film and television projects, and continues to develop participatory media-making productions such as WDYDWYD? (Why Do You Do What You Do?). http://www.wdydwyd.com

Tony was an artist-in-residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts, taught documentary studies at Duke University, and was a national leadership fellow with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. He taught photography at Governor Morehead School for the Blind from 1992 to 1997. He lives in San Francisco with his wife Mardie Oakes.

Official Website: http://www.seeingbeyondsight.org/events