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Make tactile art

Create a piece of artwork you can explore with your hands.

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You’ll need

  • Big pieces of card
  • Pens or pencils
  • Glue sticks
  • Dried food (for example, pasta, beans, rice)
  • Natural materials (for example, leaves, twigs, feathers)
  • Craft materials (for example, tissue paper, pipe cleaners, stickers)
  • Aprons (or old clothes)

To watch in full screen, double click the video

Before you begin 

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
  • Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help. 

Planning and setting up this activity 

  • You'll need lots of items with different textures. Everyone could bring in any items they can from home, to share with everyone else.
  • Items need to be: 
    • small and light enough to stick to a piece of paper.
    • things that people are happy to stick to paper – they shouldn’t be anything important or precious.
    • clean and safe, for example not sharp.
  • You could use craft materials, natural materials, dried food (for example, pasta, beans, rice), or other items like sweet wrappers, bubble wrap and cotton wool.

What is tactile art?

  1. Ask everyone if they know what tactile art is. 
  2. Explain that tactile art is supposed to be touched. It includes different layers and textures to represent different things and because you experience it by feeling it, it often doesn’t matter what it looks like. Lots of people can experience tactile art – including people who are blind or partially sighted, or who have visual impairments. These people are often excluded from other types of art that you can only experience by looking at.

Collect natural materials 

  1. Together, everyone could go outside and look for natural items  they could use in a piece of art. If you don’t have any outdoor space, you could go to a local park.
  2. Make sure everyone knows the area that they can explore and understands what things they can and can’t collect. It’s always a good idea to check for dangerous rubbish, such as glass, metal or sharp objects, and be on the lookout for dog poo. If you see any, it’s best to find somewhere else to explore.  
  3. Tell everyone to only collect natural objects that are no longer part of a living thing, such as leaves and sticks that have fallen onto the ground. Remind everyone not to touch or pick up any items that aren’t nature, such as litter. You could always plan in a litter pick for another time. 

Make your art

  1. Give everyone a piece of card. 
  2. Everyone should sketch the landscape they’re going to create with their tactile art. It doesn’t need to be perfect, as they’ll be sticking materials on top – this is just a rough outline. People could draw the view of the place they’ve collected their materials, a landscape they remember, or an imaginary place.
  3. If they have aprons or old clothes, people should put them on now (if they’re not already wearing them). 
  4. Everyone should help lay the materials they’ve collected out, so it’s easy to see and feel them. 
  5. Everyone should close their eyes, and feel different materials. Which materials feel like the things in their landscape? Do some beans feel like the rocks, or cotton wool like clouds? How about plastic wrappers for a lake, or a straw for a lamppost? 
  6. Once everyone has gathered and laid out their materials, they should stick them down with PVA glue. It’s fine to leave gaps of blank card, as this is a texture in itself. Remember – it doesn’t matter what these works of art look like, as you experience them through touch. 
  7. All of the artwork should be left to dry before anyone tries to feel it, or they’ll just move the materials around in the wet glue. 
  8. Once the artwork is dry, everyone should experience each other’s pieces.

Reflection

This activity can help you think about how to respect and value others. People who are blind, or who have visual impairments, often miss out on art if no adaptations are made. How do you think it might feel to be excluded? Why is it important that tactile art is made and displayed? What else could be made tactile for people who are blind or have visual impairments (think about thinks like maps, or signs)? How else could you make art more accessible for people who are blind or have visual impairments (think about things like image descriptions, which explain things in words which can be read out)?

This activity also gave you an opportunity to value the outdoors. Did you enjoy going outside to collect your materials? Did you feel comfortable in the space? Why is it important to spend time outside, and to have outdoor spaces? Did you look after the natural spaces while taking the materials you needed?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

Glue and solvents

Always supervise young people appropriately when they’re using glue and solvent products. Make sure there’s plenty of ventilation. Be aware of any medical conditions that could be affected by glue or solvent use and make adjustments as needed.

Rubbish and recycling

All items should be clean and suitable for this activity.

Gardening and nature

Everyone must wash their hands after the activity has finished. Wear gloves if needed. Explain how to safely use equipment and set clear boundaries so everyone knows what’s allowed.

Outdoor activities

You must have permission to use the location. Always check the weather forecast, and inform parents and carers of any change in venue.

Visits away from your meeting place

Complete a thorough risk assessment and include hazards, such as roads, woodland, plants, animals, and bodies of water (for example, rivers, ponds, lakes, and seas). You’ll probably need more adult helpers than usual. Your risk assessment should include how many adults you need. The young people to adult ratios are a minimum requirement. When you do your risk assessment, you might decide that you need more adults than the ratio specifies. Think about extra equipment that you may need to take with you, such as high visibility clothing, a first aid kit, water, and waterproofs. Throughout the activity, watch out for changes in the weather and do regular headcounts. 

  • You don’t have to limit your pictures to landscapes – people could create a portrait or still life too.
  • You could paint over your (dry) creations. Remember, you experience them with touch, so they don’t need to be true to life. They could be all one colour, or different colours. Think about the way dry paint might change the texture of some things, for example cotton wool.
  • Anyone who doesn’t want to close their eyes while they feel the materials can keep them open. Anyone who’s sensitive to textures can just use ones they feel comfortable with, use fewer types, or just draw or paint.
  • Anyone who finds it difficult to not match the colour of their materials to the colour of real life items could colour in their materials with pens or paint.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Beavers Creative Activity Badge
Cubs Artist Activity Badge
Squirrels Exciting Experiments Activity Badge
Cubs Disability Awareness Activity Badge

Think of ways your favourite activity, hobby or sport could be made more accessible.