Title
Painting with words. Audio description in the art museum
Conference name
Arsad 2015
City
Country
Spain
Modalities
Date
19/03/2015
Abstract
Following the principles of New Museology (Marstine 2006; Hooper Greenhill 2007), museums around the world are increasingly aware of the need to implement resources that allow visitors with different capabilities to access their collections and transform the museum into an inclusive learning experience. Accessibility programs in museums have a long tradition in countries like the United States and the United Kingdom (Soler Gallego 2012, 2013), and in recent years they have developed considerably in Spain.
The aim of this paper is to report on two on-going projects on accessibility at the CajaGRANADA Museum and the Sorolla Museum carried out by the association Kaleidoscope. The projects consist of a series of audio descriptive guided tours followed by an art creation workshop, whose main goal is to improve access to these museums for visually impaired visitors. The methodology followed is inspired by the principles of Emancipatory disability research (Hollins 2010). In addition to this, some of the tours are open to visitors without visual impairment in order to create an inclusive experience and raise awareness of the benefits of multisensory learning for all. During the tour, the museum's architecture, the exhibition's design, and a selection of artworks are audio described. This description is complemented with contextual information about the artwork and tactile diagrams created with different materials and techniques (thermoforming, fuser, EVA), which are explored following directions given by the audio describer. During the tour, visitors are invited to participate by sharing their own descriptions, interpretations and sensations with the group.
The tour is followed by an art creation workshop in which visitors can freely express themselves through different materials and techniques, which are especially adequate for visually impaired people, such as textured paint, modelling and embossing.
The aim of this paper is to report on two on-going projects on accessibility at the CajaGRANADA Museum and the Sorolla Museum carried out by the association Kaleidoscope. The projects consist of a series of audio descriptive guided tours followed by an art creation workshop, whose main goal is to improve access to these museums for visually impaired visitors. The methodology followed is inspired by the principles of Emancipatory disability research (Hollins 2010). In addition to this, some of the tours are open to visitors without visual impairment in order to create an inclusive experience and raise awareness of the benefits of multisensory learning for all. During the tour, the museum's architecture, the exhibition's design, and a selection of artworks are audio described. This description is complemented with contextual information about the artwork and tactile diagrams created with different materials and techniques (thermoforming, fuser, EVA), which are explored following directions given by the audio describer. During the tour, visitors are invited to participate by sharing their own descriptions, interpretations and sensations with the group.
The tour is followed by an art creation workshop in which visitors can freely express themselves through different materials and techniques, which are especially adequate for visually impaired people, such as textured paint, modelling and embossing.