A Sensory Feast Celebrates the American With Disabilities Act

Don Mathis | July 29, 2015 | Art | No Comments

A copper archer hunts from the dome of the Grand Rotunda of the former International–Great Northern Railroad, now VIA’s new headquarters.

SAN ANTONIO, TX – To celebrate 25 years of the American with Disabilities Act, VIA Metropolitan Transit opened up The Great Rotunda for an art exhibit July 27.

“The Color of Blind” invites spectators to experience a multi-sensory art show that challenges us to use all our senses to ‘see.’ A variety of art by local painters, weavers, and sculptors, was designed to be ‘read’ by touch.

Guests are welcome to run their fingers over ‘Study di Cosimo,’ a work by Oscar Saenze III.

The Great Rotunda, 123 N. Medina Street, is the 1908 International–Great Northern Railroad depot which stood in ruins in the 1970s. The San Antonio City Employees Credit Union restored it in 1988 before the recent VIA renovation.

The interior of the Grand Rotunda, built as a train station in 1908, entertained a hundred art aficionados Monday afternoon.

Jeffrey C. Arndt, president and CEO of VIA, spoke of the upcoming advances for the Metropolitan Transit. Every bus will have internet connections by fall, he said. And Phase II of the Transit Center next door will be completed soon.

David Anthony Garcia created a multimedia installation, ‘Unification 4.’

Trina Bacon and Kristel Puente coordinated the collection of art for the Color of Blind exhibition. Bacon would like San Antonio to have a museum for people with disabilities. “Such a multi-sensory museum would be the first in the nation,” she said.