Marge Ainsley

So my work schedule started on a grand scale today with a visit to the amazing Metropolitan Museum of Art. I met Christena Gunter, Access Co-ordinator, who talked through the Met’s approach to access outlined here.

Meeting Christena really reinforced the points I’ve read recently in Museum Journal letters – that we have a responsibility to provide access for all, through permanent activity and planned programmes, as well as physical space. We spent an hour talking through the comprehensive access portfolio at the Met, built up after decades of commitment to this area. They clearly puts a lot of work into thinking about target audiences and their needs, and the training of those delivering every session. Whether it’s something for a blind/visually impaired visitor, d/Deaf visitor, those with learning difficulties or visitors with dementia and their care partners – there’s a vast range of programmes offered.

The key to Christena’s work has been partnerships – working with the relevant organisations to train, support and help develop various aspects of the programme, such as Art Education for the Blind. This opens doors to the audiences as well as providing the expertise needed to put the programmes together. The Met has a trained team of contractual educator’s who lead on all the sessions provided – and these work closely with partners to ensure they are matching the needs of the target groups.

The programme highlights for me were:

‘In Touch’ tours - self-guided tours for visual impaired and blind visitors. Visitors are given tactile image sheets, with Braille and large print accompanying text which focuses on particular objects within the museum which can be touched as part of the ‘trail’.

‘Verbal Imaging’ (description) – provided both on a 1 – 1 and group basis for blind/visually impaired visitors. I thought it was a great idea to provide a personalised service, to really meet the varying needs of blind and visually impaired visitors – rather than assuming everyone has the same ones. And it’s offered as a group for those who may not feel all that comfortable on a 1-1 basis.

‘Scent Workshops’ - for blind/visually impaired visitors. Working with a perfumer, different scents were taken into the Egyptian collection – the group talked about the works along with the scents and then visitors created their own perfume. I thought this would be a great idea to develop for the Scent Bottle Collection at the Harris Museum & Art Gallery.

Touch Collection – this includes 200 objects given by the curatorial departments – some real, some reproductions. These objects are used by various blind/visually impaired groups including families and schools, and across the access programmes.

‘Seeing Through Drawing’ sessions – lessons are created for blind/visually impaired visitors by the educators, and participants use string instead of pencils – creating self-portraits and tactile images. They also put dye in the glue for visually impaired participants so they can pick out some of the colours. There are some great photos of the work created in these sessions on the Met’s Access Facebook Page.

‘Met Escapes’ – sessions for visitors with dementia and their care partners. The sessions are truly used as an escape, for both individuals, to focus on something other than the illness. The session involves art activities and gallery tours – and are programmed at the times of day most likely to meet their needs – both in terms of alertness and schedule. The activities are structured not just for the visitor with dementia, but also for their care partner – so they both get something out of the session. The Met had worked with Columbia University (where I’m staying on this trip!) over a number of months to develop and pilot the programme.

Sign Language tours – the Met have separate sign-language only tours (as well as sign language interpretation provided during their general tour programme), which were requested by the deaf community. The sign-language only tours (with no voiceover) are given by a Deaf educator, and have a regular following – effectively become a deaf club. Another example of how working with a partner/within a community can help access audiences and provide a service they are comfortable with.

So where does all the funding come from to make this happen? It’s back to the American philanthropy system. You’ll find programmes that are sponsored by individual donors, companies, as well as funding bodies. The development department supports the access team by giving them access to grants and funding available is channelled their way. Exhibitions teams must provide access information as part of the exhibition planning process – and consult the access team to help them budget accordingly.

But we don’t all have the funding or human resource to put a programme such as this together, right? Christena reminds us to look at what the law requires us to do as a bottom-line – something I’ll be looking at again when I get home. It’s not just about physical access in the small print. Even if we take a few steps such as making access a priority area within exhibition planning (where a proportion of the overall budget is assigned to it), working with one new partner to develop a new area of work for a particular group, or starting to consult with particular audience groups on how provision can be improved…will at least get us moving in the right direction. But it’s not about quick wins – this kind of work, as Christena said, takes and needs time and nurturing.