RALEIGH, N.C. — Tactile tours are back at the North Carolina Art Museum. The pandemic caused the team to stop the tours for more than a year.


What You Need To Know

  • Tactile tours stopped during the pandemic

  • Tactile tours allow blind visitors to wear gloves and touch specific art pieces

  • The museum needs two to four weeks' notice to prepare the tour for the visitor's arrival

Carl Borriello is blind and says the tactile tours at the museum are now a favorite pastime. It allows him to wear gloves and touch pieces of art while a doscent describes the art. 

“A lot of blind people, 80 to the 85-percent of them, become shut-ins," Borriello said. "They don’t know where to go that’s safe. Here’s a place, better than the mall, walking around a mall. You come here [and] enjoy life.”

Specific tours are also available for those who are deaf and those with autism.

“We are still human beings. I’m still me. I just don’t see, but I still want to experience the things I enjoy. This museum makes you feel alive and makes you feel you have a purpose again," Borriello said.