The National Gallery of Prague Is Using VR to Introduce the Blind to Iconic Sculptures

The phrase is the bane of many children who find themselves in museums meant to teach them how to appreciate art … but instead teach them they’re bulls in china shops.

This must be all the more frustrating for the blind, who mostly can’t conceive of the art at all if they can’t use their other senses. With this in mind, the National Gallery of Prague launched “Touching Masterpieces,” a campaign that lets them touch iconic sculptures in virtual space.

Created with help from Geometry Prague and NeuroDigital, in collaboration with the Leontinka Foundation for the blind and visually impaired, the virtual reality experience features haptic Avatar VR gloves, specially adapted for this campaign, that let the blind “touch” work like Michelangelo’s David, Venus de Milo and the bust of Nefertiti.

Think