Where do we stand on accessibility for the disabled in museums? Mart and Museion take a closer look

Where do we stand on special projects in museums for people with disabilities? On April 5 and 6 the Mart - Museum of Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto and the Museion of Bolzano are launching a conference, Art for all, on good practices for people with disabilities: a two-day event of meetings, workshops, visits to talk about inclusion and special needs. An initiative dedicated to inclusion and museum accessibility open to educators, teachers, museum mediators, and students. The event is organized by the two museums and the Alteritas Trentino Association with the contribution of the Autonomous Province of Trento. The goal is to build together a more equitable and inclusive society.

The Trentino and South Tyrol museums have long been at the forefront on the subject and have long launched specific projects aimed at people with disabilities, illnesses or hardships. In Rovereto, the Mart’s education and cultural mediation area has for years offered guided tours in LIS, tactile paths for the blind, workshops for people with special needs, and activities designed with third-sector professionals (carried out in the museum or in the venues that house and welcome people with disabilities or illnesses). Also recently launched is the LIS videoguide, available free of charge at the ticket office, which encourages deaf people to visit independently. The Mart’s is therefore a winning bet, thanks to constant work and the construction of a virtuous network spread throughout the territory. Every year the Education Area involves more than thirty individuals from all over Trentino and outside the province, including cooperatives, associations, mental health centers, nursing homes, public agencies and social-health institutions. With the result that each year more than three thousand people participate in the Mart’s Special Projects, engaging experiences designed to stimulate manual skills, creativity and to produce and share knowledge.

In Bolzano, on the other hand, Museion’s mediation, in line with the social transformations taking place and the diversity of languages, cultures, ideas, age groups, interests and needs that characterize contemporary society, offers a wide program of activities dedicated to a heterogeneous public (local and international). The goal is to transform the museum into a place of exchange, capable of bridging personal life stories and art, and into an opportunity to meet others, that is, “the other.” Museion’s enjoyment of art is proposed, where possible, as a collective experience that indiscriminately unites the individuality of each and every one, regardless of whether or not one has special needs. Specific mediation formats, organized in collaboration with various local partners, include the monthly Meetings of Stories, aimed at senior citizens, the initiatives for language and intercultural exchange with migrants and asylum seekers With New Cultures and Atlas & Art, the format In All Senses with moments of direct interaction for people with or without special physical or mental needs. Added to these areAlzheimer Circle meetings for people with and without forms of dementia. In 2018, more than six thousand adults actively participated in Museion’s mediation programs, and of these a considerable proportion attended meetings in the area of inclusion and accessibility.

In addition, on the occasion of Art for all, the Mart in Rovereto will present its first relief work to the public. It is the three-dimensional reproduction, coming exactly one hundred years after its creation, of The Daughters of Loth, a masterpiece painted by Carlo Carrà in 1919, already chosen as the guiding image of the museum’s Collections: the work thus becomes accessible to the blind and visually impaired. The reproduction of the work was funded through ArtBonus 2018, thanks to donations from sponsors, associations or private citizens who chose to support the Vedere con le Mani project.

Below is the full program of Art for all. LIS/Italian interpretation is guaranteed for the talks, workshops and guided tour indicated with an asterisk (*). Reservations required at lectures and workshops: eventi@mart.tn.it. For more information you can visit the Mart website.

April 5, 2019

Lecture Hall

2 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. | Registration of participants
2:30-3:00 p.m. | Greetings
15.00-15.40 | The museum and its publics between mediation and participation (Ornella Dossi, Mart; Brita Köhler, Museion)
15.40-16.10 | Touching Contemporary Art (Aldo Grassini, Museo Tattile Statale Omero)
16.10-16.30 | Coffee break
16.30-17.00 | Accessible museums for deaf people: projects and perspectives (Stefania Pedrotti, Trentino MAPS project contact person)

Exhibition halls
17.00-18.00 | Meet in art workshop:
- Tactile experience. Getting to know a work of art through touch*.
- Viewpoints. Guided tour of the Mart in collaboration with the social cooperatives Il Ponte and ITER*.
- Art for all? In all senses* The mediation of art as a shared experience, for people with and without special needs

Foyer II floor

7-7:30 p.m. | LIS Concert Closed Mouth Choir. School of Music I Minipolifonici. Conducted by Valentina Bellamoli

April 6, 2019

Conference Room

8:30-9:00 a.m. | Registration of participants
9.00-9.30 | Inhabiting Art. A dialogue between dance, museums and inclusion (Anna Bragagnolo, choreographer; Irene Balzani, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi) 9.30-10.00 | Art awakens the soul. A traveling project to enhance neurodiversity (Roberta Biondini, artist; Cristina Bucci, Associazione L’Immaginario)
10.00-10.20 | Coffee break

Exhibition halls

10.20-11.30 | Meet in art workshop:
- In between
- Exercises in misunderstanding: a workshop to investigate ways of communicating with art*
- Autism: facilitation strategies
- Guided tour of the Mart Collections*
11:30-12:30 | Comparison of experiences

Ph. Credit Bianca Lampariello

Where do we stand on accessibility for the disabled in museums? Mart and Museion take a closer look

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