Accessibility is a notion that has recently dominated the debate that has developed regarding the revocation of the exclusion of vulnerable public groups from all activities that constitute human life, and especially from cultural sites. At the same time, in this contemporary social dialogue, which derives from the new ever-changing expectations and needs, but also from the social demands on a global scale for equality, justice, prosperity, sustainability, acceptance of diversity and social cohesion, culture is now the driving force of sustainable development, which also permeates the UN Sustainable Development Goals, while for the European Union cultural heritage is a 'priceless resource'. In this volatile environment, the social dynamic and educational role of the museum has been redefined, as revealed by the recent definition of ICOM.
The issue of inclusion has been systematically concerned in recent decades the services of the Greek Ministry of Culture, as the access of every citizen to cultural goods, tangible and intangible, is an important goal and obligation. Indeed, the Ministry's services are particularly sensitive to eliminating all kinds of barriers, not only physical, but above all sensorial, with the aim of including everyone in the cultural experience.
The paper will present the multidimensional strategies which the Department of Educational Programmes and Communication, mainly in recent years, has designed and developed. Our policies cover a wide range of actions, such as:
• design and implementation of actions directly addressed to different social groups with the aim of empowering them through non-formal education actions, but also of facilitating their integration into society.
• training museum professionals to design and implement relevant educational activities in their archaeological sites and museums,
promoting relevant scientific research by organizing interdisciplinary seminars or conferences.
The main objective or our action is in general to raise and consolidate the culture of inclusion in both education and culture, while supporting and giving prominence to the public character of the Ministry’s services.
More than 500,000 people visit the LVR-APX every year. A day out on the site of the former Roman city is an exciting experience. With a focus on accessibility and inclusion, there is plenty for disabled visitors to discover and experience. The APX has been committed to accessibility since it was founded in 1977 and is very well attuned to the needs of disabled people, because accessibility is seen as a necessary requirement for an inclusive environment. Inclusion is one of the main concerns of the institution's work today.
In order for the park to be accessible the craftsmen's houses and the amphitheatre have ramps, visitors can borrow wheelchairs and walking frames, tactile panels provide information at various points and new buildings are built without barriers. From 2025 onwards, a new inclusive shuttle service will be available for visitors. In addition to making the park and museum as accessible as possible, inclusion is also a focus.
In recent years, however, we have come to realise that the approach of many of our offers is much more integrative than inclusive. We embarked on a journey from integration to inclusion, evaluating all our existing offerings for disabled people and started developing new formats. My proposal focuses on two examples. One is a project which we are revising this year and the other is a new major exhibition project.
The first example is our Touch Gallery, established in 1991. It is in a separate room and accessible for visually impaired and blind visitors. We are developing an inclusive concept to give blind and visually impaired people equal access to the open-air exhibitions, rather than separating them from other visitors. Our biggest inclusive project to date is a new permanent exhibition on archaeological working methods. Over an area of 500 square metres, visitors can experience the archaeological steps from excavation to analysis and interpretation in a fun and engaging way. A serious game will guide visitors through the exhibition and disabled people will be able to play the game just like any other visitor. Developing a game that meets the needs of all visitors is a huge challenge as this game will be played by people with visual or physical disabilities and deaf people.
Another aspect I would like to report on is that we take the principle "Nothing about us without us" very seriously in all our projects and work together with various disability organisations to develop new inclusive formats.
As stated in the new museum definition by ICOM (2022), museums are open to the public, accessible, and inclusive, fostering diversity and sustainability. It is necessary to design museum exhibitions and events together with participants to encourage diverse usage of the museum, regardless of disabilities. Based on this, we implemented the event titled “Let's Observe Summer Birds 2024," embodying the concept of the universal museum—museums enjoyable for all—formerly proposed by Professor Kojiro HIROSE of the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, who is completely blind. The event was held on May 18th, 2024, at the Nagoya University Museum in Nagoya, Japan.
Since 2022, in our citizen-participatory biological monitoring surveys, we have held a bird-watching event called "Let's Watch Summer Birds" in May. In 2024, for the first time, we incorporated the opinions of visually impaired individuals and changed the title from "watching" to "observing." This implies an engagement that sharpens multiple senses, not just visual observation, but also listening with the ears and touching with the hands.
In this event, groups consisting of both visually impaired and sighted individuals were formed, supported by bird-expert staff and museum curators.
The first part of the program involved a campus walk. During the walk, the groups worked together naturally to identify birds’ calls, sharing their discoveries and insights regardless of whether they had visual impairments or not. As a result, we identified 15 species of birds during the one-hour walk.
In the second half, we conducted tactile experience activities, including a workshop to explore the structures and functions of crow feathers using a stuffed specimen of an entire crow and individual feathers. The perception of crows seemed to change before and after participants touched them.
By sharing the experiences between visually impaired and sighted individuals, we can learn more sensitively through mutual support. This suggests the importance of inclusive participation and collaboration.
In this presentation, the specific initiatives and outcomes of this project will be reported.
The National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMΣT) is the sole public institution in Greece constantly supporting art psychotherapeutic practice. With its group art psychotherapy program “Exploring the Museum’s Images – Exploring my Image” that begun in 2017 it has been a pioneer in bringing art psychotherapy within the museum field. A different kind of program started in October 2021 and run in 3 cycles (October 2021-June 2022, October 2022 – June 2023, October 2023 – June2024). EMΣT hosted an art-based research art psychotherapy workshop, which was addressed to professional art psychotherapists. The workshop was designed and implemented by artist, researcher and art psychotherapist Maria Konti. Konti invited contemporary Greek artists, art theorists, psychologists, choreographers, etc. to give presentations on their own practice and collaborate with a group of participating art psychotherapists. Important theories and approaches of art psychotherapy were examined, taking as the main theoretical axis the methodological tools of contemporary artistic practice. The methodological study was based on the artistic proposal An Architecture of Interaction which is conceived and developed by seven artists and theorists with the aim of creating an educational tool for the production of interactive works.
The three workshops investigated the clinical practice of response art of art psychotherapy in relation to the contemporary artistic practice of the archive, performative writing and the image created as material substance by painters.
In the symposium all workshops will be presented along with their critical reflections and the art works produced by the participating art psychotherapists.
https://www.emst.gr/en/education/art-psychotherapy/scientific-research-art-psycotherapy-workshop
https://www.emst.gr/en/education/art-psychotherapy/call-for-participation-in-the-workshop-quot-entering-forest-quot
https://www.emst.gr/en/education/art-psychotherapy/quot-the-image-quot-art-based-research-art-psychotherapy-workshop
In recent years, museums around the world have been developing targeted actions to approach sensitive social groups of audiences. This fact is clearly determined by studies on population and demographic data as well as social and environmental reality (immigration, population aging, social exclusion, climate crisis, etc.).
The Basil Papantoniou Foundation (BPF), which coincidentally celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, was one of the first institutions to develop original and innovative educational programs in Greece, while closely cooperating with other institutions in this direction. It's continuous care for education in the museum space is also outlined through the history of its activities.
In this presentation, we will present the educational program of the BPF for approaching elderly people. The activity aims at socializing and entertaining the participants as well as cultivating a two-way relationship between them with the BPF’ s museums and its collections. It starts from structures that aim to improve the daily life, inclusion, psychology and health of elderly people such as the Open Protection Centers for the Elderly etc. and develops in the BPF’ s exhibitions. The contact of the participants with selected objects and their unique stories is the trigger for discussions and narrations of personal experiences. At the same time, through participatory actions and workshops, their interest in gaining new experiences and utilizing their free time is mobilized.
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