VOA慢速英语2021--荷兰博物馆为视障人士举办艺术展

The Utrecht Central Museum in The Netherlands offered an unusual art exhibit¹ this month. Called The Blind Spot, visitors could look at artworks as expected. But, they could also touch and smell them.

The show was designed to provide a better experience for museumgoers with poor eyesight.

The creators made copies of famous paintings and added representative elements that could be heard or smelled. Visitors could even get a "feel" for the art, which included touchable elements.

Visitor Farid el Manssouri seemed to enjoy his experience. He smiled as he moved his hands over cheese, grapes and bread, part of the representation² of a famous 1610 painting by Floris van Dyck.

"The first thing that struck me was the smell," el Manssouri said.

"I could really smell the cheese, and I touched it too."

El Manssouri wondered how the food did not fall from its unbalanced position. "That was really surprising to feel ... I guess it was glued on pretty well," el Manssouri said.

Artist Jasper Udink ten Cate and designer Jeroen Prins created The Blind Spot. They said they were inspired by an experience they shared with a blind visitor at a past art show. They had provided³ food to go along with an artwork at the show. The blind visitor was very moved by that, they said.

"That moment was the starting point," ten Cate said.

Steffie Maas is the museum's head of inclusivity. She said The Blind Spot was an experiment on the way to more such improvements⁴.

Visitor Bas Suurland also praised The Blind Spot, calling the experience "quite unique in the Netherlands."

Words in This Story

glue – v. to make (something) stick to something else by using glue

inspire – v. to make (someone) want to do something : to give (someone) an idea about what to do or create

unique -- adj. very special or unusual

1 exhibit   

vt.展览，展出，陈列；n.展览品；陈列品

参考例句：

• Next week those goods will exhibit in that shop. 下个星期，这些货物将在那家商店展出。
• The economy continued to exhibit signs of decline in September.9月份，经济继续呈现出衰退的迹象。

2 representation   

n.表现某人（或某事物）的东西，图画，雕塑

参考例句：

• The painting is a representation of a storm at sea.这幅画描绘的是海上的暴风雨。
• All parties won representation in the national assembly.所有政党在国民大会中都赢得了代表资格。

3 provided   

conj.假如，若是；adj.预备好的，由...供给的

参考例句：

• Provided it's fine we will have a pleasant holiday.如果天气良好，我们的假日将过得非常愉快。
• I will come provided that it's not raining tomorrow.如果明天不下雨，我就来。

4 improvements   

增加或修改( improvement的名词复数 )； 改进； 改善； 改良

参考例句：

• improvements in efficiency at the factory 工厂效率的提高
• They've spent a lot of money on home improvements. 他们花了很多钱装修家居。