The ‘Voice Painting’ project is one of the projects that received funds for the implementation during the ‘Novi Sad 2021’ Foundation’s public call for accessibility launched in April 2018 with the aim to increase capacity of public institutions having its quarters on the territory of the City of Novi Sad and municipalities of Irig, Sremski Karlovic and Beočin.
The main idea of the project is to record audio books and make contemporary work of Serbian writers accessible to blind and visually impaired. In consultations with the Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired and City Library Novi Sad, 10 books (five literary works for children and young people and five literary works for adults) will be recorded using at least two professional narrators (male and female), with adequate post-production.
The project is implemented by ‘Mladost’ Futog CC through two parallel project activities, education of employers about the topic of accessibility and production of content. First educational activities started this month and first educational session was held in the Historical Archives of the City of Novi Sad on 19 November. Ms Marija Vrebalov and MA Milica Mima Ružičić – Novković from the Living Upright Centre.
According to data of the Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vojvodina, there are around 3,500 blind and visually impaired people (13,000 in Serbia), of which 150 are young. Audio editions of books of Serbian contemporary writers are not part of the library offer to a significant degree, thus the implementation of the project will become accessible to blind and visually impaired, improve quality of their lives (so-called ‘biblio’ therapy), and enrich audio-fund of the library of the Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vojvodina.
The implementation of the programme for accessibility is organised within the ‘Accessible Art 2021’ project, whose main goal is to improve the quality of life in public spaces. Activities within the programme will serve as the model for cultural institutions how to adjust their cultural contents to everyone.
