Despite preconceptions, many people with sight loss enjoy creating visual art.

To highlight our members’ artistic abilities and to counter stereotypes around sight loss, we are hosting The Sight Matters Arts Exhibition at Corrin Court, with a private viewing for the artists and their families, as well as for friends of Sight Matters, taking place beforehand. The exhibition will be open to the public between 10am and 4pm on the 5th and 6th of August.

All of the work featured will have been created by our members, including submissions from our Younger Members Group.

We are looking to display artworks created by any of our members – and we are encouraging submissions from anyone who wants to take part. Please contact peter@sightmatters.im if you’d like to find out more about submitting your art.

In order to support our members’ creative ambitions, we are hosting several art classes taken by leading Manx artists in the run up to the exhibition. These include painting, drawing and ceramics classes, and members will be able to submit their creations made in these classes to the exhibition. If you’d like to find out more about these classes, please contact julie@sightmatters.im.

Additionally, we will be using the private viewing to run our 2023 Christmas Card competition. We are looking for festive/winter-y themed pieces to use as designs on this year’s Christmas cards. Entries will be judged by the Lt. Governor in two categories – Under-18s and Over-18s. The winners of both categories will see their work on sale around the Isle of Man on our Christmas cards.

Finally, we will also be exhibiting a collection of artworks created by James Fenton. James, a Sight Matters member, Burma veteran and centenarian, is a renowned artist whose artworks have previously been exhibited in London and the Manx Museum. We will be displaying a range of James’ work from throughout his career in a separate area alongside the other artworks.