Please Touch

Whether you’re a young child on your first visit to the museum or an experienced art aficionado, the lure to run your hand across an amazingly smooth, cool sculpture or experience the texture of a thick impasto brush stroke never really goes away. Sometimes art creates a longing to touch, but most of us respect the museum rules, mind our manners, and hold our hands behind our backs and lean in for a closer look. The exhibition Please Touch shakes off all of the traditional museum-goer behavior and asks visitors to use their sense of touch to experience the exhibition. For Please Touch, the museum commissioned a group of regional artists to create new works that actively engage audiences of all ages. Erin Guido creates brightly colored dynamic shape and text murals often found in surprising places, like abandoned buildings, offering friendly encouragement as they declare “come over all the time” or “hi.” Jordan Elise and Christopher Lees create mounted animal sculptures they call Horrible Adorables and design patterns for fabric and wallpaper, as well as plastic toys for Kid Robot. Inspired by skateboarding and D.I.Y. culture, Jay Croft’s illustrations have donned skateboard decks, his zine Street Canoe, and most recently, a mural at Chill Ice Cream in downtown Akron. Each artist has created an interactive work that visitors can touch and manipulate as they make meaning of it in their own ways. Read an interview with Jay Croft. Read an interview with Jordan Elise Perme & Christopher Lees. Read an interview with Erin Guido and John Paul Costello. Please Touch is organized by the Akron Art Museum and supported by a generous gift from The Mary S. and David C. Corbin Foundation.  Related Links: [ ‘Please Touch’ at Akron Art Museum breaks down barriers By Anderson Turner, Akron Beacon Journal ]