Johanna Schwanberg in conversation with Eva Böhm, Sigrid Kundela and Monika Wagner
"Publicly accessible, barrier-free, and inclusive, museums promote diversity and sustainability" – this is a central premise of the new ICOM definition of museums. But are museums really already as inclusive as the museum community would like them to be? What is missing, what bothers, and what excites people with disabilities during their museum visits? What prevents people from less educated backgrounds from visiting museums? What visible and invisible barriers still exist in museums?
In conversation with ICOM Austria President Johanna Schwanberg Three experts talk about their experiences in working with museums:
- Eva Böhm, sign language interpreter and managing director of WITAF,
- Sigrid Kundela, founder of the self-help group for traumatic brain injury patients, and
- Monika Wagner, founder of “Hunger for Art & Culture”.
From different perspectives, they describe positive experiences and talk about successful collaborations and projects. They also point out gaps and areas for improvement. Above all, Böhm, Kundela, and Wagner offer creative suggestions for how inclusion can be practiced more intensively in museums and what is urgently needed to achieve this.
Johanna Schwanberg: The new ICOM definition of museums lists accessibility and inclusion as key goals for a successful museum of the future, where everyone feels welcome. How far are we on this path?
Monika Wagner: I have been following developments in terms of inclusion in museums for over 20 years and I believe that a lot has happened in this regard. Museums are definitely on the right track, although there is of course still room for improvement. For us at "Hunger auf Kunst & Kultur", inclusion in the sense of access for people who cannot afford it was our primary concern. What is encouraging is that many museums have joined our cooperation over the past few decades, but we have noticed that money is not the only barrier; rather, much more is needed to make people feel welcome in museums. Museum architecture, which is reminiscent of giant temples, is often off-putting, so people do not go in, even if they do not have to pay an entrance fee.
Eva Böhm: As the managing director of WITAF, I can only speak for people with hearing impairments who use sign language. We had individual collaborations long before the term "inclusion" entered the museum world. I've always found open ears, but funding is often a hurdle, both for the institutions and for the visitors. Deaf people face severe educational discrimination, many live in low-income situations, and it's very important that museum visits and tours are free of charge. Aside from the removal of financial barriers, it's particularly important that the respective target group is aware of the offering. Museums often say they've developed a special educational program tailored to a specific target group, but no one shows up. That's a real shame. It works so well for us because, as an NGO, we often develop the programs together with the museums and sensitize art educators to what's required for a guided tour with deaf people. At the same time, we communicate widely through our newsletter and social media.
Sigrid Kundela: For People with traumatic brain injury, for whom I speak, still face many obstacles. One is the high admission price. If our association didn't cover the costs, or if the museums didn't offer the tours for free, as is sometimes the case, no one would be able to go. Often, however, there's also a lack of advertising. Or people don't come back after the first attempt because the tours are designed to be too strenuous for people with traumatic brain injury.
Johanna Schwanberg: So the placement programs are often not inclusive enough?
Sigrid Kundela: Some are good, but many museum educators have no idea what we need to follow the tour well and make the experience an enriching one. I wish we weren't confronted with so many dates and lecture-like information, but that people with traumatic brain injury were first asked what they want to know about a work of art. The programs should be conversational.
Johanna Schwanberg: Wouldn’t it be beneficial for everyone if mediation programs were designed as a dialogue?
Eva Böhm: Inclusion is often understood to mean that you have to adapt to a certain target group, but ultimately it is a benefit for any educational offering if people speak a little more slowly. It is also positive to alternate between showing and explaining, so that people can look at things in peace and only then receive an explanation. When a few selected works are examined in detail, inclusive moments suddenly arise. In the best case, inclusion refers to a diverse group - to very different people who, thanks to the group dynamic, leave the museum with added value. The focus is then not just on having visited a museum and seen something, but on the feeling of having walked through the respective museum with a group.
Monika Wagner: In my view, there should be both: a special program for individual, different target groups, and then offerings that address everyone together and are truly inclusive. We must not overburden museums and must keep in mind that a single museum cannot do everything, especially if it is a smaller one with limited financial resources. Sometimes less is more.
Johanna Schwanberg: Can you elaborate on that?
Monika Wagner: As a museum, I have to ask myself what my focus is on inclusion, and then it's important to fully engage with the community to find out what they need. That's what we do with our "Kultur-Transfair" projects, where we connect a museum or cultural institution with a social organization, and the two then work together over an extended period. Guiding people with mental illnesses through a museum is completely different than guiding deaf people who use sign language. It's great that many museums are now creating inclusion programs, but without knowing the communities affected, it makes little sense. Simply saying, "Please come, everyone," won't be enough. The idea of inclusion also applies to people who aren't from here. Cultural institutions are often surprised why people with a migration background don't visit them, but these people usually have no idea why they should.
Johanna Schwanberg: How can museums learn about the needs of different people so that museums become attractive to them?
Eva Böhm: The most important thing is good communication with social services. Of course, it's best if formats are developed together in advance. If museums want to focus on people with hearing impairments, we provide them with an awareness workshop in which we explain, for example, that deaf people can only view the artwork with me as an interpreter or with me. The way you conduct a guided tour with hearing groups doesn't work for people using sign language.
Sigrid Kundela: With the group I represent, it's completely different. People with traumatic brain injury can usually listen and watch at the same time, but I have to give them plenty of time to think about what's being said. With this group, you can't talk for an hour straight. They need frequent breaks and opportunities to sit down.
Johanna Schwanberg: So it seems that it is not just about guided tours, but also about architectural and curatorial aspects that must take inclusion into account from the outset?
Sigrid Kundela: There's a lot at stake. For me, there needs to be more seating in museums. Above all, there needs to be wall texts written and structured in such a way that I don't drop out after just the first few lines. Many wall texts in Austrian museums make no sense to us because they're far too long and complicated. I also wish for educational programs for people with traumatic brain injury that focus on a few works of art and treat them carefully and calmly.
Monika Wagner: Sometimes it's the small things that need to be changed. For example, tours are often only offered in the evenings or on weekends, but it would be a relief for certain groups of people if there were also tours at lunchtime.
Eva Böhm: As a curator, you should consider in advance how to design an exhibition so that people with disabilities can navigate through it without a guide and feel comfortable. It's also important to create spaces with seating. Above all, however, the spatial situation should be such that several people can stand together and the lighting should be reasonably appropriate. I understand that there are light-sensitive works of art, but there still needs to be a space here and there where visibility is good, because I can't interpret in sign language anywhere when it's completely dark.
Johanna Schwanberg: How do museums access all the different information that needs to be considered in order to become truly inclusive?
Eva Böhm: We need another "Museum Guide Inclusive," but in this case, it's not aimed at potential visitors but at the museum community as a whole. This guide should contain everything that needs to be considered when working in a museum with inclusion in mind.
Sigrid Kundela: The most important thing is that we feel welcomed and that our needs are taken seriously. It's best when we can be actively and creatively involved in museums. I recently went to the Hannah Höch exhibition at the Belvedere with my group of people with traumatic brain injuries. As is often the case, the tour was far too informative, but afterwards we were able to create our own collages from postcards and newspaper clippings in a separate room. That was fantastic, because suddenly we understood, through our actions, what Hannah Höch's art was about.
Johanna Schwanberg: So the biggest wish for museums is the opportunity for participation and a say?
Monika Wagner: It's about longer-term processes and truly engaging with one another, as has been the case with our "Culture Transfair" projects for years. This was particularly successful in a multi-month project involving young, job-seeking women with a migrant background at the Dom Museum in Vienna. The goal here wasn't to learn everything possible about an exhibition. Rather, the art educator invited the women to choose a work of art that most resonated with them emotionally. They then wrote their own texts about the respective exhibit and created a podcast based on the results.
Johanna Schwanberg: And these texts could then be heard in front of the respective artwork in the exhibition itself via QR codes.
Monika Wagner: Exactly – it was an incredible appreciation for these people, because suddenly something they had created themselves was being heard in a museum in the center of Vienna. This also gave the young women a close connection to the museum. But to be honest, such projects are very complex.
Eva Böhm: When you start incorporating the stories of the people affected into the museum's processes, you suddenly get a lot more done than you might have expected. We've now planned a photo journey with Fotoarsenal, two of which will be deaf-specific – at locations that are historically significant for the deaf community. I also think it's great that the Wien Museum has now approached WITAF about an exhibition because they want to include a station focusing on the Viennese dialect. The Viennese Sign Language dialect will also play a role – it will now be represented in the exhibition with its own video contribution.
Johanna Schwanberg: So, in terms of inclusion, it is crucial that different communities can get involved in the same exhibition in advance and that the exhibitions are mixed?
Eva Böhm: It can certainly be valuable to host an exhibition on the discrimination of deaf people. But such a presentation will primarily be viewed only by the target group, who already know that they are affected by this discrimination. Exhibitions that are aimed at everyone and that focus only on certain aspects, for example, on deaf people, are much more interesting.
Johanna Schwanberg: Ms. Kundela, as someone who suffered a traumatic brain injury yourself after an accident, you founded a support group for traumatic brain injury patients, with whom you often visit museums. What does a museum visit mean to the people you represent?
Sigrid Kundela: People with traumatic brain injury are just as diverse in their interests as everyone else. Some enjoy going to museums, others love movies or playing mini-golf. But a museum visit can be something truly special, if the educational program is well-designed and tailored to our needs, because it engages many of the senses.
Johanna Schwanberg: Do museums have special potential when it comes to making our society more inclusive?
Monika Wagner: Museums play an enormously important role, but the responsibility cannot rest solely with them. Preschools and schools also have a mandate to contribute to an inclusive society. Above all, museums need political support in the form of improved financial support. They cannot be left alone to manage the cost-intensive programs and infrastructure measures required for an inclusive museum.
Eva Böhm: We saw during the coronavirus pandemic what it does to people when art and culture are gone. Museums offer so much to learn about oneself, society, and the world at large. They're also an ideal place to exemplify inclusion. If I interpret an opening as a sign language interpreter in a museum, it can have a lasting impact, even if no deaf person is present. I may have raised awareness of the issue among 350 people in the room, who may then go home wondering why this target group is so invisible and what they can do to change this.