Six people gathered together in a room at the Ackland Art Museum that was largely painted white. As they stood together, one wouldn’t be able to clearly see what made them all alike: their color blindness.
The museum is the first of its kind in North Carolina to offer complimentary color-correcting glasses to their guests who are color blind. To help highlight the service and partnership with the glasses brand EnChroma, the UNC institution hosted an event where they let the six Triangle residents try out the glasses – and take them home.
From left to right: Logan Moore, Sherrill Roland, Eric Elbogen, Scott Robert, Delia Hudson and Ryan Hudson introduce themselves at the start of the Ackland Art Museum’s event celebrating its partnership with EnChroma.
After introducing themselves to each other and the gathered crowd, each person was handed a pair of EnChroma glasses and they moved to a colorful gallery. Then, the group put on their glasses at the same time. For some, the change was noticeable immediately – for others, it took a few minutes for their eyes to adjust. But before long, the six people began discussing what new colors they were seeing in the artwork and around them.
The group of participants in the launch of Ackland’s EnChroma partnership put on their glasses for the first time.
The group examines one of the first pieces at the entrance of the “Arrange” exhibit at the Ackland Art Museum.
The event offered Sherrill Roland, who is a Durham-based artist with one of his own pieces at the museum, a chance to see his own work and others’ in his field from a new perspective. Having realized he was color blind as a teenager, Roland avoids painting in his work and often sticks with only a couple of tones at a time. Wandering into a gallery to see his mural while wearing the glasses, he said he was trying to slowly absorb how the colors have different relations to each other.
“Seeing them with these glasses for the first time is definitely very interesting,” said Rolland. “I will have to revisit some of these paint chips that I used to describe which [shades] that I wanted, because now they’re a bit different. So, now I can begin to redefine things that I thought I knew.”
The partnership with EnChroma had been in the works for a while, according to Lilly Rodriguez, the museum’s learning resources coordinator. She said moving forward, visitors will be able to reserve a pair of glasses online before coming to the museum or request a pair at the front desk upon arrival.
“Close looking is a big part of our work here at the Ackland,” Rodriguez said. “We think a lot about all the different ways that people engage with artworks and what those possible barriers might be. So, this is just one way to allow more visitors to experience art in full color here at the Ackland.”
Delia Hudson was the only woman in Wednesday’s gathered group who was color blind – as the deficiency is much rarer in women compared to men. Her son Ryan is also color blind and received his own pair of glasses, and the duo walked through the gallery together, pointing out different details.
The CHCCS speech pathologist described her vision as taking a little longer to adjust when she first put on the glasses, but that it came with a wave of emotions.
“Honestly, it felt like I was going up a rollercoaster or something,” Hudson said. “It just felt increasingly like every few seconds, I could like see a little bit more. I started getting goosebumps and super excited, and I just wanted to like grab [Ryan and ask,] ‘What do you see?’”
Delia Hudson speaks with her son, Ryan, and Eric Elbogen about her experience wearing the color-corrective glasses.
Logan Moore describes his experience looking at a central piece in the Ackland’s “Arranged” exhibit.
It was not Ryan’s first time trying color-correcting glasses – but the first pair he’d gotten were not as effective. Hudson said that experience made him unsure if Wednesday’s event would be as special as it turned out to be.
“Going in here, [I was] a little bit concerned if it was going to work and just to see how different it really was,” the high school sophomore said. “But I was kind of shocked to see how different it actually is and how beautiful the world really looks.”
Through welling tears, his mother added, “Just to know that he gets to see the world the way everybody else does is super exciting.”
For anyone without color blindness, the glasses may seem to give everything a pink hue – but for those who struggle to perceive that shade, it can make a big difference. Scott Robert, a Raleigh physician who is red-green colorblind, said he enjoyed a smaller, square piece with vibrant greens, pinks, and yellows in the exhibit that he explored.
“I’m surprised to see that [for] the green, the difference is not that dramatic,” said Robert. “But it’s that pink that looks like a light tan at the bottom… [Now,] that couldn’t be any pinker.
“I think for me,” he added regarding dramatic differences, “what I’ve noticed is the amount of the same color, like [when] it’s monochromatic and it’s a big swath of color – either the walls or one of the paintings. If it’s a smaller detail, it is a little harder to tease out.”
For Rolland, the glasses aren’t the only new thing he experienced in the week: he’s also a first-time professor of art history at UNC. As he left to go prepare for a class, the artist said he planned to wear the spectacles to also help with his teaching and to discuss artwork with his students.
“I told them that I was visiting today to have this experience,” Rolland said with a laugh. “I’ve got a lecture planned, so it’s going be probably [have a] ‘pause for the cause’ every time a new image comes up, [so I can examine and say], ‘Oh, I didn’t see that earlier,’ and experiences like that.”
For more details on the Ackland Art Museum’s accessibility efforts, visit the museum’s website.
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