A Touch of Museum to Scale: an accessible art collection
The OPEN Expertise Center and Rubi - The Cultural Factory want to make the art collection of the University of Antwerp accessible to the widest possible audience: students, staff, visitors, with and without disabilities. For the 'Museum to Scale' collection, which is exhibited in Building R on the City Campus, we therefore initiated a project in which we want to enable an inclusive art experience.
The goal of this project was to develop a multilingual and inclusive (audio) guide to a selection of six artworks and to create two tactile artworks. The project departed from several key principles within the current movement for greater diversity and inclusion. First, participation. Experts by experience and artists were central to this project. For example, we collaborated with sound designer Yannick Heeren, artists Tonia In den Kleef and Nadia Naveau, actress and performer Hilde Verhelst, poet Max Greyson, Visual Box, and user organizations Doof Vlaanderen and VeBeS. The second key principle was inclusion. A Touch of Museum to Scale strives to bring together diverse audiences through the same audio guide. Thus, we hope that everyone - art connoisseurs or laymen, young or old, sign language users, persons with or without sensory impairments - can experience the art collection together without barriers.
Finally, in this project we wanted to experiment with all the senses: text, words, music, touch. How can visual art be experienced not only visually? Can poetry and music help visitors experience the works more deeply? How do you experience art with your hands?
Find out in A Touch of Museum to Scale.