Access Program

FREE ACCESS in 2013

For more information or to schedule a tour or workshop, contact Shannon Crothers, Director of Education at 303-443-2122 ext 11 or shannon@bmoca.org.

VISITOR FOCUS: Inspiring stories of real peopleBeth Robinson

In 2004, Beth Robinson suffered a brain shear injury at work.  Over the past nine years, she has been working to achieve adaptive function, in mind and body.  Like many traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivors, she endures isolation. Sensory information such as sound and light trigger pain, fatigue, and leave her overwhelmed.

Beth is an artist. She uses jewelry making, an inherently repetitive art form, to help her short term memory, and integrate language and spatial relations.  For example:  How the words “left” and “right” work through the hands.

Staying well and visiting an art museum seemed like an impossible feat for her, until now.  ”Museum lights are often too bright for people with sensitivity to light, so we began the tour in the dark, with only the natural light from the four front windows” says BMoCA’s Director of Education, Shannon Crothers, who gave Beth her first tour of BMoCA.

Crothers launched the Access Program at BMoCA in 2009. Since then, she has toured people of all ages and disabilities, ranging from Down syndrome to Alzheimer’s disease. Tours are personalized for the individual or group and are available when the museum is closed to the public. Until now, she had not worked with a person with the consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI) like Beth.

“Beth recognized aspects of the work that most visitors don’t see. For example, when she drives, she isn’t able to look directly at oncoming cars. Instead, she drives a lot of back roads, and looks toward the sidelines.  She uses the soft focus of peripheral vision to manage the details of traffic. Daniel Pitin’s painting Before It Gets Dark reminded her of how the world appears when viewed that way.”

After seeing Marius Lehene’s piece Random Walks and Drives, Beth remarked, ”The light of a projection doesn’t seem to bother me. And I think this piece by Marius is the most powerful projection piece I’ve seen.”

The common thread between BMoCA’s two exhibitions, Pitin’s Cover Story and Lehene’s Random Walk with Drift, is that both artists share roots in Eastern Europe. This cultural intonation evoked memories as Beth recalled her travels in Belarus, USSR.

Beth plans to profit from the art she makes. A Nobo First Friday patron said, “The artist never makes money.”  That seems an accepted idea, but it is one that Beth is learning to reject. She hopes to supply galleries with work that integrates the diversity of people by trading and sharing her strengths, and gratefully accepting the help of people willing to be involved. Current works in progress include Help Wanted Sound Dampeners  and Walking Through Walls II.