Not only in living history museums, Jay - I haven't been to the Met in a few years, but I remember they have reproductions in the ancient Egyptian art section that are available to be touched! A quick glance at their accessibility services office page indicates they have entire tours for "guided touch" - so art museums are in on it, too!
We have been working on making our exhibitions more accessible to Deafblind visitors by providing tactile experiences, too.
Meredith
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Meredith Peruzzi
Manager
Gallaudet University Museum
Washington DC
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-07-2018 09:06 AM
From: John Templin
Subject: Something I overheard
While it is certainly true that we cannot allow antiques to be tossed about by the general public, there are many alternatives which allow us to provide meaningful hands-on experiences to our guests. Reproductions are our lifeblood in living history museums. We reproduce everything from dugout canoes to textiles to food to jewelry and armour at Jamestown Settlement and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. Historic Jamestowne / Preservation Virginia has done remarkable things with 3D printing to reproduce artifacts. Heck, Colonial Williamsburg has a whole department predicated on reproducing historic items. If you're an art museum, maybe you have to stretch a little - the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has done wonders in this regard. Talk to a local custom kitchen firm about getting offcut pieces of marble or granite that your docents can use near statues you don't want touched, or get swatches of fabrics similar to those shown in a specific painting. I think it would be great to get a local art department to work with you on small cheap canvases (craft store stuff) that the students have used to demonstrate different painting techniques. That would help your institution engage with the local community as well as providing something to safely satisfy the touchie-feelie urges of guests.
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Jay Templin
Historic Site Supervisor
The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
Williamsburg, Virginia
Original Message:
Sent: 09-05-2018 03:00 PM
From: Matthew MacVittie
Subject: Something I overheard
Alan,
Though I agree that the sensation of touch can be quite valuable for the museum patron, the fact of the matter is many objects in museums should not be touched by it visitors. For example, The Seward House Museum has recently taken great strides to reduce the amount of stations and allow our visitors to experience the spaces as they would of in the 19th century. However, we remind our visitors that they are not to touch the artifacts due to the historic and often fragile nature of the pieces; and our docents keep a close eye out for the safety of our collections.
This is standard practice in history and art museums. Incorporating interactive aspects into an exhibition is always a great idea, but I would caution against forgetting that if it does not specifically instruct you to touch it than best to keep your hands off of it.
Original Message------
I was at a museum recently scoping out a possible project. I heard this and it made me cringe,"remember don't touch, its a museum "... made me realize there's a long way to go to make a museum be 'touchable'
Alan Ransenberg
The Alchemy of Design
7556 NE Stanton
Portland OR 97213
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