ABOUT
Contributors to the Content of the Site
Site Creator
Disability and Inclusion: Resources for Museum Studies Programs was developed by Art Beyond Sight (ABS), working for over 25 years to make the arts and culture accessible to all. In New York, ABS works with museums and schools. Nationally and internationally two key ABS initiatives are an annual Awareness Month in October, and a bi-annual international conference on Multimodal Approaches to Learning (produced with the Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Purpose of the Site
This site is not a curriculum or a pre-packaged course of study. It is a resource bank of articles, videos, photos, case studies, activities, and links that Museum Studies faculty can use within existing courses. The goal is to dramatically improve how museum studies programs teach about disability and inclusion.
The broad topic is how future museum professionals – curators, designers, educators, and managers – can learn to create accessible programs and exhibits for all visitors. Our hope is that university instructors:
1. learn from the material
2. use it in lectures and class discussions
3. use it to create assignments for students.
The site is organized into six modules. There is no prescribed order for exploring their content. Each module contains suggested activities, which come from museum professionals and from faculty in Museum Studies programs.
Art Beyond Sight invites instructors to contribute to this site and share activities they create for students that relate to Disability and Inclusion. Send a description of the activity and any supporting resources (Word format). If you have photos send them too.
Email with any attachments to: elisabethaxel@artbeyondsight.org
Participating Universities
Art Beyond Sight staff worked with faculty, alumni, and students from these museum studies programs:
Arizona State University, Tempe
University of Washington, Seattle
Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis
University of the Arts, Philadelphia
Cooperstown Graduate Program, (State University of New York – Oneonta), Cooperstown, NY
George Washington University, Museum Studies, Washington DC
Advisory Board
Janet Marstine, Programme Director, Art Museum Studies, School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester.
Phaedra Livingstone, Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies, University of Oregon
Christine Reich, Director of Research and Evaluation at the Museum of Science, Boston.
Janet L. Rassweiler, Leadership in Museum Education Program, Bank Street Graduate College of Education
Francesca Rosenberg, Director of Community and Access Programs, Museum of Modern Art, NY.
Richard Sandell, Richard Sandell, Professor of Museum Studies, School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester.
Carol B. Stapp, Museum Education Program, The George Washington University;
Ray Silverman, Formely Director Museum Studies, University of Michigan.
Jennifer Teich, Project Coordinator, AHRC New York City
Contributors to the Site
Sally Yerkovich (Content Lead and Writer)
Nonprofit consultant and Director, Institute of Museum Ethics, Seton Hall University
Elisabeth Axel (Writer)
President and CEO, Art Beyond Sight
Chris Catanese (Writer)
Museum Consultant and former Director of Visitor Experience, New-York Historical Society
Hal Kramer (Project Coordinator and Writer)
Museologist and Evaluator
Nina Levent (Writer)
former Executive Director, Art Beyond Sight
D. Lynn McRainey (Writer)
Chief Education Officer/Elizabeth F. Cheney Director of Education, Chicago History Museum
Cynthia Overton (Writer)
Director of Special Projects and Strategic Partnerships, Art Beyond Sight
Site Design and Construction by EdensWorks, Inc., Lou Giansante, and
Liba Bader, Alti Bukalov, Jackie Farber, Rena Teitelbaum, Adina Marks
Funders
The project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bannerot-Lappe Foundation, Blanche T. Enders Charitable Trust (JP Morgan), the Laura J. Niles Foundation, and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
