Another Way of Seeing – a multi-sensory art experience in Leeds
An exhibition in Leeds will invite visitors to explore art using different senses, not just sight.
Another Way of Seeing features artworks inside wooden boxes – made to be touched, listened to, smelled, and discovered in surprising ways.
The exhibition is inspired by the work of Audrey Barker (1932–2002), a pioneering disabled artist who explored disability, accessibility, and communication through art. Barker created multi-sensory installations that often used boxes, grids, and frames – many titled Another Way of Seeing.
Although Barker isn’t widely known, I’ve been researching her life and work and want to bring her remarkable career to light. Thanks to funding from Leeds City Council through the Leeds Cultural Investment Programme, I’ve been able to organise this exhibition as a creative response to her legacy.
Barker described her work as “using the ‘languages’ of disability as an art form”, incorporating audio, raised text, braille and sign language. As well as her own life, she was informed by the experience of other disabled artists she worked alongside.
The artists taking part in the Leeds exhibition are: Emma Bentley-Fox, Emma Bolland, Jem Clancy, Michelle Duxbury, Tony Heaton, Sam Metz, Vickie Orton, Zoe Partington, and Saba Siddiqui.
The wooden boxes were crafted by Kit George.
The artists are disabled and neurodivergent people – including blind and partially blind artists – from Leeds and beyond.
Another Way of Seeing will be at Leeds Art Gallery. It runs alongside Beyond the Visual at the Henry Moore Institute nextdoor, a major show celebrating blind and non-blind artists who challenge the dominance of sight in art. Visitors can easily explore both exhibitions.
Another Way of Seeing, 2 - 14 December 2025, Leeds Art Gallery, Central Court (first floor). More details will be shared soon.
This project is funded by Leeds City Council through the Leeds Cultural Investment Programme.