Korean society is rapidly transitioning into an aging society. Currently, the population aged 60 and over constitutes 27% of the total population, and by 2025, it is expected that one in five people will be classified as ‘elderly,’ marking the entry into a super-aged society. It is important for the elderly population to enjoy a creative life through culture (Cretive Aging / Active Aging) and to experience the joy of communication using information and communication technologies (Digital Aging). However, the development of content for seniors in museums is still inadequate.
The National Folk Museum of Korea's "Come Visit My Memories" is an online digital content project designed with this issue in mind, specifically targeting seniors. The content is structured to allow seniors to reminisce about their memories through museum artifacts. By engaging with artifacts from the era they lived in and scenes they witnessed, they can recall their past and share their unique stories with family and friends via social media.
"Come Visit My Memories" allows participants to select memory-laden objects from their childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. They can express their memories associated with these objects through recordings or writings, and share them with family and friends via social media or by submitting them to the "Hall of Fame" site. As this project targets the elderly, the UI design, including image size, text amount, and screen layout, has been intuitively designed.
Reminiscence techniques are said to enhance the meaning of life and self-esteem among the elderly. Through participation in "Come Visit My Memories," seniors can revive their memories and meaning, and use these memory-laden objects as mediators to communicate with the MZ generation and their families.
In this presentation, we aim to share the insights gained from this project at the National Folk Museum of Korea and explore the role of museums in an aging society.
Come Visit My Memories https://nfm-trd-2023.apoc.day/#/
National Folk Museum of Korea https://www.nfm.go.kr/english/index.do
The Historical Museum of Crete houses its exhibitions in twenty-three rooms, offering a complex picture of the History and Art of Crete from the first Christian times to the 20th century. The temporary exhibitions range from Byzantine to contemporary art, the presentation of major historical events from the end of the 19th century to the Second World War.
From the school year 2021-22 the department of educational programs of the Historical Museum of Crete carried out a wider renewal of its educational policy and programmes. In this context, the inclusion of special audience groups in the planning of the Museum's educational policy was set as a fundamental goal. Starting with special education, as early as September 2021, a pilot version of the programme "In touch with the past", designed for primary school children of special education schools, was implemented.
This collaboration was expanded with the publication of a children's book to raise awareness about ASD, entitled, “Sarantavotano”. Since the school year 2022-23, the Museum has included in its programmes yet another one for special education schools entitled, "Water from the cloud".
A different group of audience that the Museum targeted, were people with memory issues. They were introduced to the Museum through our valuable collaboration with the Alzheimer Centre of the University Hospital. Repeated group visits from the Centre and close consultation with the different specialties of their caregivers, helped the museum educators to adapt the programme to the needs and special interests of the individuals. The culmination of this effort came with the participation in a joint educational programme of primary school children and people from the Alzheimer Centre.
The future holds many challenges. Beyond forging the partnerships we have already started through the enrichment of our programmes, we would like to offer scope for reflection, negotiation and inclusion of other sensitive groups that are socially or economically marginalized. As well as to focus through our activities on difficult, new challenges that concern the local community, such as overtourism and the resilience of cultural monuments.
Culture for all is a universally acknowledged notion.Billions of people worldwide live with different types of disabilities, and museums are, more than ever, aware of the importance of including these individuals and welcoming them in its spaces, exhibitions and programs. In the process of designing for visually impaired people in the context of museum exhibitions we had some questions: how to include visually impaired people in the activities of museums?Although the growing concern to make museums accessible to individuals with visual impairments, their participation in these institutions is still limited, given the multiple barriers they often experience and the lack of assistive technologies to promote access.In the process of designing for visually impaired people in the context of museum exhibitions we had some questions: how to include visually impaired people in the activities of museums? Accessing museums has been difficult for people who are blind or partially sighted, often due to objects being placed in glass cases creating a barrier to access. Many museums around the world provide some accessibility but what happens when a museum looks at the issue in its entirety and sees blind and partially sighted visitors as important as everyone else. However, in Armenia, the accessibility landscape within museums remains limited, and this void is particularly pronounced in Gyumri. Realizing the cultural importance of our museum, we strive to eliminate this gap and make our exhibits accessible to everyone, including people with visual impairments.Museums should also take great care in insuring that the signs are formatted correctly and placed in easy to find spots.
By prioritizing accessibility and adopting international best practices, the museum in Gyumri is paving the way for a more inclusive society. Through this initiative, the museum can teach and inspire visitors, contribute to the educational development of individuals, and reinforce the cultural relevance of the museum itself. For now we have implementing almost 3 educational programs for visually impaired. In Armenia we have few museums which holds an exhibition designed for the blind. In or museum only original works are displayed in the exhibition. The exhibition formed by the principles of tactile interaction in order to meet special needs and expectations of the blind. All works which we want to exhibit can be touched with hands and “read” with fingers.
Visiting the 19th and 20th century Athenian architecture monuments with the elderly people is an experience that requires careful preparation, but rewards with new perspectives and opinions on many topics related to the city, its history, its evolution and modern history. Specifically, organizing outdoor tours and activities at the Athenian monuments for the elderly audience needs conducting pre-visit surveys to gather pieces of information on their special interests and also their mobility and conditions of health. Since the monuments are scattered in the urban fabric and not in a protected closed space, as museum exhibits are, the preparation is more demanding, since it needs to anticipate weather conditions, frequent stops, accessible pathways, and a carefully curated selection of activities that maintain interest without leading to exhaustion.
Experience has shown that elderly groups need to actively participate during the educational programs, ask lots of questions not strictly only about the topic of the tour, but also about their wider interests, and develop discussion. This behavior of the elderly is reinforced by the fact that the programs focus on monuments of their city, monuments of their own path and life. The educational program is not just telling a story of the past, but the story of their own past. Therefore, elderly groups always want to participate vividly, clarify, give their opinion or narrate their memories. Consequently, the approach is different from any other age group. In addition, the reaction and response of the elderly towards Athenian architecture is more intense from the one they would have towards any museum objects.
Finally, multisensory experiences that include auditory, visual and tactile elements are employed to cover various needs. After the visit, feedback is collected to provide additional data and improve future programs.
The Touch Tour at the Vasarely Museum Budapest provides access to the permanent collection for visually impaired visitors through reproductions of works of art, sets of hands-on materials, and gallery and art activities. It also allows sighted visitors the opportunity to experience artworks by Victor Vasarely through their sense of touch and gives them a hint at what it might be like to live with severe visual impairment. Victor Vasarely is often called the father of Op art as many of his works of art find their foundations in kinetic art and optical illusions. Viewing his artworks, thinking about them and discussing one’s experience with others allows visitors to have a better understanding of visual perception and how the brain processes visual stimuli. The talk reveals the innovative strategies used to show the principles on which optical illusions and other visual phenomena are based to visually impaired visitors. It introduces the materials and activities developed and tested over the last three years to present the concept of dualities in Vasarely’s work. Dualities include colours and shapes, math and art, movement and stillness, empty and full, as well as convex and concave. The presentation aims to inspire conference delegates to use the presented strategies with their own collection, therefore providing access to a wider range of visitors.
Educational interpretations of museum exhibits in the Archaeological Museum of Messenia with emphasis on the elements of their identity. These elements become an encounter and interaction with visitors, particularly vulnerable groups, the elderly, the disabled and teenage students (who are at an age of intense search for their own identity)
What stories can museum exhibits hide or create?
What is behind museum objects? What does the place of their creation have to tell us? Where does the raw material of their creation come from? How did they use to make various objects of everyday life or religious use in different periods?
What do unidentified objects from an illegal excavation mean? How important are the past and its history to a family? How comfortable are we with our identity? Do we sometimes wish we could forget it or erase parts of it? Questions that are posed to visitors and raise reflections on their personal identities. Two different paths, the museum exhibits and the museum visitors who meet in a museum action and create a common path of searching and recognizing the concept of identity.
The presentation will unfold this fruitful encounter of particular groups of museum visitors with particular exhibits at the Archaeological Museum of Messenia and how this encounter with educational museum methods becomes fruitful and creates a meaningful and two-way relationship with the participating visitors who are searching and discovering.
The educational programme of the Archaeological Museum of Messenia tries to create a bridge between the identities of the museum exhibits and the personal identity and memory of the members of vulnerable groups of audience. It creates an interesting interaction which make the museum to be a space with soul and empathy.
PRISME is the Digital Mediation Innovation Lab of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Operating from October 2018 to December 2023 thanks to a grant from Quebec's Digital Cultural Plan, PRISME enabled museum professionals, technology creators and researchers to collaborate across Quebec on human-centered design approaches. Together, they have developed new digital mediations for museum audiences and advanced knowledge about digital museum mediation. The human-centered design approach adapted by PRISME to the museum context enables the development of new, transformative digital mediations for museum audiences. It's called "human-centered" because audiences are considered not as users with needs, but rather as human beings with projects and aspirations.
Based on qualitative research methods, the tools developed by the Lab have been put to the test many times with different types of audience, notably in the development of projects for audiences with specific needs: cultural diversity, neuro-divergence, people living with visual impairments, elders etc.
To support the innovation efforts of the museum network, PRISME has created a new web space offering facilitation tools, resources and inspiring examples. In this web space called "Digital Toolbox", museum professionals in education and cultural action have access to tutorial videos with explanations on the human-centered design approach, as well as tips and facilitation tools to appropriate thiking design methods to realize meaningful digital mediation experiences.
It is evident that regional and local-municipal museums are currently facing an extremely challenging financial situation, which has resulted in the closure of their educational departments. This paper presents the history of the Educational Department of the Contemporary Museum of Crete Art of Crete - Municipal Gallery "L. Kanakakis" (CCA) as a case study of the struggle of a municipal museum to offer learning experiences in the face of significant challenges. The research is based on the study of the CCA’s archive and the analysis of museum staff interviews conducted according to the historiographical and qualitative research methodology. The CCA was established in Rethymno by Maria and Bambi Marangos with the collaboration of the Municipality of Rethymno. The gallery was inaugurated in 1992 and the CCA's permanent collection comprises a notable series of 780 works by Greek and international artists, encompassing a diverse range of contemporary Greek art from 1950 to the present day. Nevertheless, the museum does not currently have a permanent exhibition. In contrast, the CCA presents temporary exhibitions with a duration of between three and twelve months. The educational department is situated within the broader context of the CCA's activities and was inaugurated during the 1996-1997 season. The objective of the museum learning activities is to foster creativity and expression in students of all ages, from primary and secondary school students to adults. Furthermore, the museum strives to provide services to underserved communities and audiences, including individuals with disabilities, senior citizens, refugees, and those struggling with substance abuse. However, since the period of the pandemic, the Educational Department has been under-operated. Staff in the Educational Department have not been appointed, and as other under-resourced local museums, it is hoped that they will be able to persevere with the help of volunteerism and of the Program of Extended Teaching Practice of the University of Crete. Nevertheless, it is unclear how long this will be sustainable.
'Junior Curators' is a partnership program with underserved school children and a local museum. The program involves students choosing a museum artifact or specimen as their main focus of the project, then researching this artifact or specimen using a variety of resources including the museum curatorial or education staff, engaging in dialogue about the complex issues surrounding their artifact or specimen, and then recreating the artifact in a unique or creative way.
Recently this program was done with first-fifth grade underserved students from two elementary schools in a gifted and talented program in Waco, Texas. The gifted and talented students completed an interest survey and were paired with a museum artifact or specimen related to their interests. Combining information about their object given to them by the Mayborn Museum in Waco, TX, as well as their own research, students created a model, drawing or diagram of their object and had the opportunity to learn how museum labels are written by museum staff.
The "Junior Curators" unit involved learning about different types of museums, museum professional roles, activities found within museums, and visits, both in person and virtually, from experts in the field. This unit culminated in a field trip at the local museum to write labels and design their school exhibit. Their creative objects were displayed at the museum from 4 months and students received free tickets to bring their friends and families to see their "Junior Curators" exhibit.
During the "Junior Curators" program, students had the opportunity to engage in dialogue in complex topics such as immigration, religion, scientific ethics, and endangered cultural heritage. A variation of this program has also recently been used by the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C. in partnership with the American Art Museum.
The presentation focuses on how the Cretan open-air Museum "LYCHNOSTATIS" responds to the contemporary need for well-being, inclusion and accessibility, through illustrative examples. The global health crisis and the confinement that the planet experienced 2 years ago, was a blow to the general population and especially to the vulnerable groups. Hence, the Museum had to re-evaluate the quality of the museum experience it offers to vulnerable groups and to plan strategically several actions aiming to create a supportive, welcoming and safe environment for everyone.
Based on its open and multi-thematic character, the Museum enriched its collections based on the living heritage of Crete. It also collaborated with scientific bodies and social stakeholders, trained its staff, designed actions for both the general public and vulnerable groups and their carers, outlined and marked relaxation zones.
A good practice is the collaboration with the ‘NEFELI’ Daily Center of Heraklion University Hospital for patients with dementia and Alzheimer. During the planned visit of its members to the Museum, tangible and intangible evidence of the recent cultural heritage of Crete from the Museum's collections were used to activate vision, smell, touch, and taste while mobilizing deep memory, creating insightful connections with their personal and shared past.
Another example is the long-term cooperation with "Zoodochos Pigi", an Association of people with autism and mental retardation. Several organized visits of its members to the Museum have been carried out over the last 25 years and even a volume of fairy tales on the subject of autism was created and published.
At the same time, the Museum addresses the general public calling them to reflect on current controversial issues. The example of two art exhibitions in 2021 and 2023 with mosaics made of expired pills by a doctor will be mentioned. The mosaics narrate the story of pandemics as well as the solidarity of both, the doctors with the public and the Greek people with the refugees around the world, and sparkle an inspiring dialogue on social inclusion and the advocating role of Museums in contemporary societies.
The 'Made to Measure' (Musée sur Mesure/Museum op Maat) programme of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (RMFAB) focuses on sustainable, innovative projects that bring together multiple target groups.
Informal carers (someone who provides unpaid help to a friend or family member needing support) are a growing but often overlooked group who need connection with themselves, their loved ones and others. As part of the 'art on prescription' project, we organised six afternoon sessions for 11 informal carers between 45 and 72 years old and from different social backgrounds. They were taken out of their caregiving context for a while. Through an accessible and interactive art experience, they learned new skills, took time for themselves and came into contact with peers. The sessions started from their own world of experience and input.
Over the past year, the RFMAB has also worked in collaboration with Ghent University on a phygital tool (combination of physical and digital elements) that can be used outside the museum context (residential care centres, centres for psychiatry, etc.). The interactive tool is designed to inspire wonder through art via one’s own experience, to get to know each other better and to encourage visits to the museum afterwards.
This tool is now being further developed, together with the Ghent University and Hospital into an interactive, sensory, tangible and inclusive AI design that connects patients with their loved ones/carers and with each other.
Co-creation and citizen science are the cornerstones of our approach.
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