Event | Visual Spectrums
The Visual Spectrums Collaborative Arts Project is a unique traveling exhibit that celebrates visual diversity by exploring the arts experience for people with varying sight abilities. Please join 2024-25 Research/Development Grantees J.A. Engman & Cheryl Weatherford for their Fairfield debut on Friday, November 7 at the Fairfield CoLab.
Location: Fairfield CoLab, 101 N Court St, Fairfield, IA 52556
Time: November 7th, 2025 at 6-10pm
This event coincides with the Fairfield 1st Fridays Art Walk.
About Visual Spectrums
The Visual Spectrums exhibit is the culmination of a year-long collaborative effort by artists and art appreciators across Southeast Iowa. The project, co-founded by writer J.A. Engman (Fairfield) and artist/art teacher Cheryl Weatherford (Iowa City), was born from Engman’s personal experience with vision loss and her desire to re-engage with the visual arts. "We wanted to create a highly collaborative endeavor connecting artists and audience members of all kinds of visual abilities” says Engman. The project seeks to both examine and “transform visual works and exhibition spaces to reach people who may have written off the visual arts as not being an area applicable to them.”
The collaborative group includes artists Jessica Bly, Miriam Alarcon Avila, Sarah Fitzgerald, Sena Graham, Joan McCracken Thomas, and Engman. Collectively, they created a body of work that engages the senses of touch, sound, and smell to convey the essence of visual art. Special thanks also goes to Lori Banos, who provided Braille signage for the exhibit, and space designer Ashley Phillips, who worked with art appreciators with unique visual experiences to conceptualize a space that includes changeable lighting, audio cues, and pieces that can be adjusted for closeup viewing.
"For a long time I have thought of my eyes as broken and of myself as unwhole,” says Engman. “Watching our artists at work, I suddenly felt open to seeing myself in a new light, as part of a unique group of diverse, passionate, creative souls. I went from thinking of our project as one of visual accessibility to one of visual diversity. I hope our collective endeavor inspires others as much as it has inspired me."
Learn even more about this project at https://visualspectrums.org/.
Support for this work is provided by the Big Field Fund, a program of Public Space One. Funding is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Engman and Weatherford extend a special thank you to the Big Field Fund and Public Space One for believing in the project and providing the initial funding to get it off the ground.