Living Paintings Trust

The Living Paintings Trust aims to improve the life chances, mental health and wellbeing of children who are blind and visually impaired by supporting them to overcome the issues of isolation and marginalisation. The organisation has the approach to make the visual world of pictures, books and learning accessible to those who are blind and visually impaired – they do this by creating unique audio and tactile books for children with sight loss. 

The Living Paintings Trust received a grant from the Hays Travel Foundation to manufacture and publish 35 copies of a ‘Touch to See’ version of ‘Jonty Jentoo’, written by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. To create the copies, artworkers create line images which are used to carve the images into wood which results in the tactile images to use in the copies. In addition to the tactile images, recipients also are able to listen to an audio description of the book, which explains what the child is feeling in the tactile image.

Through the work of The Living Paintings Trust, blind children have been able to feel more confident and have developed an interest in reading. With the contribution from the Hays Travel Foundation, The Living Paintings Trust has been able to transform the lives of over 5,300 children living with little or no sight in the UK and aims to continue growth.