Museums & Galleries

 

Arts Access Australia works with major museums and galleries stakeholders including Museums Australia, The National Standards Taskforce and touring agencies to improve access to museums and galleries by Australians with a disability in line with the objectives of the National Arts and Disability Strategy.

 

Statistics

Statistics available through the Cultural Ministers Council (CMC) 2007 report Cultural Participation by Persons with a Disability and Older Persons indicate that both groups have significantly lower rates of cultural participation than the overall population. The report found that 20% of people with disabilities and 21% of older people visited museums and galleries, compared with 32% of all Australians aged 15 or over. The CMC report also provides state and territory break down with specific figures for museum and gallery visitors.

Australia Council Research in 2010 (More than bums on seats: Australian participation in the arts) found that people with a serious illness or disability reported much lower levels of arts participation.

There is Australian literature on the perceptions of people with disabilities who visit museums and galleries. The 2005 report Many Voices Making Choices: Museum Audiences with Disabilities, a joint project of the Australian Museum and the National Museum of Australia, aimed to give voice to the views of visitors with disabilities and suggest ways in which museums and galleries can better support their access needs.

Overall, it was found that people with a disability are supportive of museums and galleries, are motivated visitors and see museums and galleries as excellent environments for learning, education and social interaction. People with a disability have strong networks and often visit in groups or with friends and family. Ensuring their access needs are met offers the potential for museums to increase both visitor numbers and the diversity of their audience. In addition, by finding better ways to meet the needs of visitors with disabilities, museums and galleries will automatically be improving the visiting experience for all visitor groups.

In 1995 the Australia Council published an Arts and Disability report by Des Walsh and Juliet London that identified barriers to attendance including ticketing costs, transport and lack of information about access.

Australian Research

In response to the lack of baseline research into the Museums and Galleries sector and access the Australia Council for the Arts provided $50,000 in support for Arts Access Australia to initiate research and conduct a survey. The full research report and survey results can be found here:

Access and Audience Development in Australia: Museums and Galleries (PDF)

Access and Audience Development in Australia: Museums and Galleries (Word document)

There were 107 responses to the research. Key findings include the following.

* There is a moderate level of recognition for Arts Access Australia.

* The vast majority of organisations are attracting some people with disabilities as audience members and have some access services available.

* The vast majority of organisations do not promote exhibitions to people with disabilities or monitor their attendance.

* While organisations generally have a very low usage of existing access resources and organisations, this is combined with a very high desire to find out more about access.

* People with disabilities have a low level of employment and even lower participation on boards and management committees of museums and galleries.

* Regional and smaller organisations are often better at including people with disabilities than their metropolitan counterparts.

Case Studies

 

The Australian Museum (Sydney)

The Australian Museum has a comprehensive Disability Action Plan which describes the Museum’s aim to become a key collaborator and leader in the provision of best practice universal access within the Australian and international arts community. Through a partnership approach to implementing the Australian Museum - Disability Action Plan 2010-2012 the Museum will:

- demonstrate a commitment to providing access to existing and future work including, but not limited to programs, services and venues

- address access with a holistic approach towards all its important elements - access to services, physical access, access to information, communication about access and attitudinal access.

- Access is a priority in front and back of house areas and at all levels of management.

Click here for more information about The Australian Museum's Disability Action Plan.

Remembering Goodna
Remembering Goodna: Stories from a Queensland mental hospital presented the difficult and complex history of Queensland’s oldest and largest mental hospital that was founded in 1865. In developing this exhibition, the Museum of Brisbane worked in partnership with The Park Centre for Mental Health (Queensland Health) and Professor Mark Finnane of Griffith University, an expert in the history of the hospital. The exhibition’s curatorial team employed processes and principles that ensured that the history of the hospital was presented sensitively, and allowed visitors to engage with it at their own comfort level. The curatorial approach favoured first-hand accounts so that the people who had lived and worked at the hospital had the opportunity to speak for themselves. The stories of patients and hospital staff were told side by side, often presenting conflicting and contradictory viewpoints. The exhibition attracted 60,000 visitors, around 650 of whom left substantial written feedback.

Click here to download Remembering Goodna.


Historic Houses Trust (HHT), NSW
Historic Houses Trust museums and galleries in NSW generally offer wheelchair access, disabled toilets, hearing aid loops, braille guides, TTY, Auslan (on notice of booking), large-print format and English as a Second Language (ESL) guides. The Trust produced an important training booklet titled Open House: Welcoming Visitors with Disabilities. This resource is also available in large-print and text-only versions. It is an important guide for staff and volunteers which covers international access symbols, strategies, terminology and information for dealing with visitors with a range of specific disabilities. The HHT also regularly uses the disability awareness training handbook produced by Accessible Arts NSW. The HHT also offers a Sensory Sunrise Tour at Elizabeth Farm, which is an access-friendly tour with braille guide, audio guide and tactile map of the garden. Information about this tour is mailed out to disability peak organisations.

Click here for the HHT Disability Action Plan.

 

The Age of Fishes Museum, Canowindra, NSW
A chance discovery at Canowindra, NSW, in 1955 revealed thousands of ancient fish fossils dating 360 million years, from the Devonian Period. The Age of Fishes Museum displays many of these beautiful fossils together with live aquarium displays and wonderful recreations of life in the Devonian.

The Museum employs three staff and over two dozen dedicated volunteers who assist with the day to day running of the Museum, and also act as tour guides.

The museum has worked extensively with the local community to ensure its accessibility, and has undergone several stages of redevelopment across the building, signage, facilities, services and materials. Funding was obtained from a variety of sources and community consultation and feedback helped to determine priorities.

In 2009, Fiona Ferguson, of the Age of Fishes Museum, addressed the Inclusive Museums Conference. You can read more about the museum by clicking here for the Powerpoint presentation.

 

The Australian National Maritime Museum
The Australian National Maritime Museum houses exhibitions that explore Australia's links with the sea and consider how maritime activities and issues have shaped the lives of people in Australia.

The museum aims to offer maximum access to its exhibitions and facilities, and focuses on welcoming people with disabilities through its doors, with accessible parking, ramps and other physical access provisions, audio induction loops, Auslan-interpreted programs, descriptive touch tours and other programs underpinned by a trained staff and an organisational philosophy that embraces access and awareness.

The Maritime Museum is a member of the Accessing The Arts Group (ATAG), which is dedicated to improving access for people with disabilities within the arts, disseminating current best practice and providing a forum for arts professionals to discuss areas of interest.

Liz Tomkinson of the Australian National Maritime Museum spoke at the 2009 Inclusive Museums Conference. View the Powerpoint presentation here.

 

Related Work

Related work supported by Arts Access Australia includes:

National Standards for Australian Museums and Galleries
Arts Access Australia provided input to the proposed National Standards for Australian Museums and Galleries. The draft Standards mention access at key points and we will continue to work with the National Standards Taskforce on the practical aspects of refining and implementing the Standards. For more information: click here.

NSW Accessing the Arts Group
Based on the USA Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD) model Accessible Arts NSW coordinates a group of arts professionals dedicated to improving access. For more information: click here.

NSW Access and Heritage
Accessible Arts NSW is leading a team investigating the relationship between access (disability discrimination) and heritage through both legal and practical research. For more information: click here.

Resources

Click here for audience development resource links.

 

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