Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
PEABODY, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — The Peabody Essex Museum began handing out special glasses for colorblind visitors.
The eyewear came from EnChroma, a glasses company that makes tinted pairs specifically for those who experience colorblindness.
The company partnered with PEM to have more than a dozen of the pairs of the glasses on hand for visitors who are red-green colorblind and are interested in experiencing the art in a whole new way, no extra charge.
On Thursday, a handful of interested individuals with red-green colorblindness got to try the glasses out.
Kat, one of those visitors and a former art history major, said that the reds and oranges in particular really popped out of the pieces.
She also said that seeing the pieces in this new way makes her want to experience even more of the world with these glasses.
“I really wanna go outside and see what the outside world looks like,” said Kat. “Even like a stop sign or a fire truck or bricks or even just grass…just that subtly we (many colorblind people) have been missing out on,” said Kat.
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The group of guests as a whole said the glasses added extra depth to the art that they had never experienced before.
Petra Slinkard, one of the curators of the museum, talked about her desire to reach out to a demographic of folks she felt weren’t always thought of in the museum world.
“I think for many museums, low vison has become a priority, but unfortunately, I think colorblindness was overlooked,” said Slinkard. “I have to say that this is one of the first institutions that I have been at that has taken this conversation seriously.
Close to 300,000 people in Massachusetts have some form of colorblindness, so there is hope that a collaboration like this has potential to positively impact a large number of people interested in art.
WBZ NewsRadio’s Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.
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