Out-of-sight visits art museum’s goal
Board focusing on access for everyone
— Being blind hasn’t stopped Rita Reese-Whiting from seeing paintings and sculptures at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, she said.
She has formed mental images of certain works through touch, smell and sound during private multisensory tours at the museum, she said. She ran her fingers over touchable paintings — replicas created with 3-D materials — felt the texture of sculptures through protective gloves, smelled an essential oil or candle and listened to music or detailed descriptions of the works. She felt immersed in the artwork.
“Being able to actually get my hands on something — that was fantastic,” Reese-Whiting said.
The tours resulted from Arkansas Council of the Blind members collaborating with the museum’s staff for the council’s annual 2017 and 2018 conferences. But the experience doesn’t end there, Reese-Whiting said.
Crystal Bridges officials invited Reese-Whiting, secretary of the Arkansas Council of the Blind Ozarks chapter, and Rachel Ames, treasurer of the Ozarks chapter, to join an accessibility advisory board in April, Ames said. By 2019, museum educators plan to offer quarterly events where anyone may engage with art using multiple senses and
recorded descriptions on the Crystal Bridges phone application, said Kim Crowell, associate museum educator and accessibility coordinator.
An audio description details a work by emphasizing the setting, shape and size of objects, colors and other aspects, as opposed to an audio tour, which focuses on the work’s creator or history, according to the American Council of the Blind’s Audio Description Project.
“Someone doesn’t have to necessarily be here to listen to the verbal descriptions,” Crowell said. “If they’re across the country, they can still hear the verbal description and learn more about our collection.”
The Audio Description Project website lists museums in 21 states that provide audio descriptions or other means of experiencing art without sight. Arkansas was not listed as of Friday because council members have not yet reported it to national officials, project Director Joel Snyder said.
Crowell thinks museum educators around the country should focus on making art available to all, and she dedicated time to this effort during her graduate studies program at the University of Florida in Gainesville, she said. She researched art programming for the vision-impaired for her thesis project and experimented with multisensory art.
“This is not only beneficial for individuals with vision loss. It’s also beneficial for visitors with all levels of sight” Crowell said. “Multisensory explorations really help people to slow down and discover things in the work of art that they might not have otherwise noticed.”
Crowell created a few touchable paintings for Crystal Bridges and recruited volunteer and staff artists who would make their art available to touch at the second multisensory tour, she said.
Hannah Goodwin, manager of accessibility at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, said creating awareness of programs for people with vision loss can be a challenge. The Boston museum has offered programs for nearly 40 years, but Goodwin continues to meet people who have never heard about them.
People with vision loss often have low expectations for what museums can do for them because options are scarce, she said.
“We’re in a visual arts institution,” Goodwin said. “We need to think outside the box.”
The Museum of Fine Arts offers monthly multisensory events and specialized tours upon request, Goodwin said. The staff previously needed weeks to prepare for a personal tour, but is moving toward a quicker turnaround of a day or two.
Crystal Bridges also offers free touch or multisensory tours for those who call ahead or request one online. Museum staff members prefer people make a request about two weeks in advance but can provide a tour on shorter notice, depending on staff availability, Crowell said.
The staff led four tours for 23 people in 2017 and have led three tours for 54 people this year as of July 8, said Beth Bobbitt, Crystal Bridges public relations director. Multisensory materials have also been used during tours for people with autism and Alzheimer’s disease.
The Crystal Bridges collaboration has allowed museum educators to prepare a model for Multi-Sensory Saturday drop-in events, Crowell said. The events will feature similar touchable paintings, descriptions, sounds and smells involved in the council’s tours. Reese-Whiting says this is a win for both the council and museum.
“We have the opportunity as an organization to shape the future of Crystal Bridges and how they serve persons with vision impairment,” Reese-Whiting said.
Reese-Whiting will offer board members her perspective about how the museum’s staff should accommodate visitors who are visually impaired during a tour or if an emergency arises, she said. She mentions fears such as bumping into or damaging a piece of art and safety concerns.
Ames, who joined the council in 1981 as a fully sighted member, has worked with people with vision loss for about 40 years and will offer a different perspective on training staff.
She has visited accommodating museums in other states and said Crystal Bridges is becoming a high-quality example for other museums.
The John S. and James. L. Knight Foundation recently awarded Crystal Bridges $50,000 to develop an audio program that could enhance the museum experience for visitors who are visually impaired, said Chris Barr, director of arts and technology innovation for the Knight Foundation in Miami. The program would use headphones that provide sound through a bone behind the ears and connect to a device that cues sound. A visitor could roam through galleries and still hear what’s happening around them while listening to audio cued by the pocketable device.