Chuck Baird: Deaf View Image Arts

Chuck Baird was born deaf on February 22, 1947, in Kansas City. He had three deaf sisters as well. Both his mother and father were hearing and it was discovered through medical testing that he and his sisters probably had Pendred Syndrome which caused them to be born death.

Chuck Baird’s father was a hard working mechanic and his mother was a Red Cross nurse before she married his father. His parents worked hard to be able to send their three children to the Kansas School for the Deaf. Baird’s first art teacher Grace Bilger, an expert in watercolor, and she got Chuck Baird started in his love for art. In 1967 he graduated from the Kansas School for the Deaf and then started college at Gallaudet University. He also attended the Rochester Institute of Technology. He played at RIT for four games and then decided to give up the sport for his love of art

Miller put on a workshop for deaf artists to explore works about the deaf perspective which Baird attended. During this workshop the term De’VIA (Deaf View Image Arts) was introduced and the group wrote a program that outlined their vision. A mural was also painted to accompany the program. The group’s historical work was unveiled at the international Deaf Way Festival the following summer. This genre explored the perspective of deaf people and their experiences in a hearing world. Hearing impaired children of really connected with seeing ASL being used in art to express their point of view. Chuck Baird died in 2012 from cancer, but his murals and other large pieces of his artwork can be found all over the world. Baird’s heritage goes on with the work of the Chuck Baird Foundation, which he set up to commit support of young deaf artists. I am glad that he was able to make such a big impact on deaf people and they way they viewed and created art using ASL in their own work. For many, it helped them to work through and explain to others what it is like to be