Tag: Art

Today was my final day working at the museum. I worked today to create small “paintings” as part of a virtual tactile program. The goal is to help people experience the artwork through other senses. The point of these little paintings is for people to be able to feel the paint without actually touching the paintings. I actually found this to be a really thoughtful program on the side of the museum. While the museum strives to be accessible for everyone, the main way to experience almost all the art there is to see it. For those who are visually impaired, it might prove much more difficult to enjoy the art. That’s why I felt that not only was this a creative way to include these individuals in experiencing art, but also an incredibly thoughtful program that went beyond the expectations of a museum.

Today I sat in on two meetings which were again preparing for the reopening of the Museum when the permenant collection is redone. Similarly to the other ones, these meetings were mainly to discuss very specfic details with people all across different departments. After attending all these meetings the last two weeks, it became clear to me that not only does the museum attempt to display art that is accessable to everyone who wishes to see it, but also to enhance the experience as much as possible. I now feel as though I understand a lot more that goes on to create an experience that is enjoyable for everyone. Things like certain frequencies causing issues with hearing aids, having space for wheelchair users to do a complete turn, planning for people with processing disorders or sensory issues are all things that while one person can have knowledge of, might not be possible to consider all the time. That’s why having all these groups of people come together to share their concerns and ideas is such a crucial part of the Museum experience.

Today I attended a few different meetings regarding the upcoming redesign of the Museum. I found it really interesting how much detail went into a very small task. For designing plaques they would discuss things like font, and sizing and how that would impact its accessibility. They even put a gray bar at the top of any writing so it would be easier to identify for people who are visually impaired and use a font that’s the most accessible. During the second meeting, they discussed a game they were developing to make the art-viewing experience more interactive. I had an idea about how much work went into designing any kind of game, but I was really surprised to see a museum beginning to implement that type of technology into their viewing. During my time at the museum so far I’ve been really surprised by the amount of tech that was going into all of their projects.

Today I attended a couple different meetings during the day. The Museum is currently working on redoing all of the exhibits inside the buildings, and I got to see a model of the museum they use to plan out where all of the paintings and other pieces will go (photographed above). They discussed issues like wheelchair accessibility and spent a lot of time rearranging certain exhibits. For the second meeting, I went to the Raleigh Wetlands center where directors in accessibility met to plan a function. There was someone from the North Carolina Symphony, Marbles Museum, The Nasher Museum, and many other organizations. They worked to plan a conference where they would all be giving presentations on accessibility to other organizations in hopes of educating the NC art community on their respective areas of focus.