Almost Real Things

A lot of you have been asking how Touch the Art began... so here’s the scoop.

Back in 2019, during the , we took a fateful ART Bus Tour to the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired to explore their tactile student show. It was unforgettable, and when we got our own gallery we immediately started brainstorming a collaboration show with Gretchen , the art teacher at TSBVI. Touch the Art was born.

Our first event was in a traditional gallery show format where the high school art students sold hundreds of dollars worth of work. We became obsessed with learning from Gretchen, her students and the staff—every accessibility tip and “wouldn’t it be cool if art shows had...” comment sparked new ways to make our event even more immersive and accessible. We share these tips with the dozens of professional artists who participate each year, so they can push themselves out of their comfort zones to create groundbreaking tactile works. We have over 150 pieces this year.

In 2024, Natalie led the charge to create our Touch the Art Collective, a mentorship program where we select a small group of artists to regularly attend art classes at TSBVI to collaborate on immersive installations that are featured within the experience.

It’s such an awesome process (we capture it all in a mini-documentary) and even more amazing when the students come through for the final experience, as shown in these clips. They realize that they’re the stars of the show and all the things they’ve taught us are implemented for them to fully experience the space and the art.

This 2026 edition is our favorite yet, and proves once again what can happen when you close your eyes and open your heart to new possibilities.