This Tuesday afternoon I’ll be sitting on a panel at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium with a theater director, a mother of three school-aged children, and a lawyer. Theater director Brian Balcom uses a wheelchair, one of Laurie Viets’ children is on the autism spectrum, attorney Rachel Arfa is profoundly deaf and uses bilateral cochlear implants to hear, and me? I’m blind.
So what do we all have in common? We all enjoy plays, go to concerts, visit museums and attend other cultural events in Chicago.
There I am lounging on a ruby red couch shaped like lips during a touch tour of the Pop Art Design exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago a few years back.
And now Lynn Walsh, the Manager of Accessibility and Inclusion at Shedd Aquarium, has asked the four of us to talk with staff there about ways museums and cultural institutions can be welcoming to all visitors — including those of us with disabilities. All staff and partners of Shedd have been invited to this session, but the main audience will be the Guest Experience team (the staff members who greet groups, sell tickets and memberships, man the information booth, welcome guests to the 4-D Theater, Oceanarium, Tide Pool, Sea Star Touch, Sturgeon Touch, and so on).
Shedd Aquarium’s Lynn Walsh is also co-chair of the Chicago Cultural Accessibility Consortium (CCAC), a Chicago non-profit organization encouraging cultural institutions to become more accessible to visitors with disabilities. CCAC offers a free accessible equipment loan program for institutions throughout Chicagoland, coordinates monthly professional development workshops for cultural administrators, manages a Google CCAC volunteer group for those interested in volunteering at an accessible event, and maintains a running calendar of accessible programs and services offered by Chicago-area cultural organizations.
The Chicago Cultural Access Consortium was founded in 2013, and in five short years it has established Chicago as a leader in providing accessible arts to those of us with disabilities. Thanks to them and all the Chicago-area cultural institutions who participate, I’ve been able to enjoy everything from architecture walking tours to live theater to outdoor music events as much as my fellow Chicagoans do. Maybe even more! The list of questions the Shedd Aquarium asked us to think about before Tuesday’s presentation strikes me as a helpful list other institutions (cultural or otherwise) might want to consider when it comes to accessibility:
- What do you like about Shedd/the collection?
- When thinking of accessibility and inclusion, what do we get right?
- Where would you like to see improvements — at Shedd or at cultural organizations in general?
- Do you know of a place that knocks it out of the park? What do they do?
- Can you give us examples of accommodations that have made your experience at a cultural organization amazing?
- Can you give us examples of accommodations that made your experience a self-conscious one?
- What are some tips for service industry folks regarding how to find out what accommodations are needed?
- Do you have any examples of times someone got it wrong, but then recovered well?
Kudos to Lynn Walsh at the Shedd Aquarium for putting Tuesday’s event together–I already know I’ll be learning a lot from the audience members and my fellow panelists there.
Beth, your input is always good. I’m sure you’ll help them a lot!
I hope so…
Love the picture of you on the lips sofa. You look like you are ready to be swallowed. The questions are well thought out. Would like to know what everyone says.
I’ve heard rumors that the lip photo is on the MCA web site somewhere, but I’ve never checked to make sure. As for the answers to the questions, I should still have them fresh on my mind when our Me, Myself and I class starts at the Cultural Center again Wednesday so will be able to let you know then. Stay tuned!
Such a great photo!! Makes me miss you a lot though. Hope all is well!
Thanks, Tara. I miss you, too – your boys must be in school by now! And your praise of the photo means a lot, it coming from a fine photographer like you. I’ll pass the compliment on to Pat Fraser, Director of Visitor Experience at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA). Pat is a member of the Chicago Cultural Accessibility Consortium, and she took the photo at a special touch tour the MCA offered for its Pop Art Exhibit in 2016.
Beth, that photo of you on the lips sofa is absolutely classic. Your active support of these museums is as great at their attempt to provide a truly meaningful experience to all those with disabilities. FYI, the lips couch was taken from Salvador Dali’s “Portrait of Mae West in a Surrealist Apartment” which is at the Art Institute. The Dada artist Man Ray had earlier created a painting called “Observatory of Time – The Lovers” where a giant red pairs of lips hovered in the sky like a giant balloon. Neither of them were any more thrilling than the photo of you lounging across that sofa. Thanks you so much for sharing it with us.
And all this time I thought it was Andy Warhol. Thanks for setting me straight, Mel. Honest. I love the art history!
Thanks as well for the compliments. Stretching out on the couch like that was truly my pleasure.
Thanks to you Beth and the other panel members who always say YES to Shedd and other cultural organizations who are trying to be as accessible and inclusive as possible. We are all still learning and we couldn’t do it without all of you! Looking forward to tomorrow’s session.
What a coincidence. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s session, too, and I couldn’t enjoy all the cultural Chicago has to offer without all of you working so hard to be as accessible and inclusive as possible. Gee whiz. It’s a love fest!
Beth, from what I can tell the lips sofa was created by Studio 65 in 1970. The title is “Bocca”, very similar to the Italian word Bocce, which means “kiss.” Warhol did a series on lips and a movie called “Kiss” in 1963, but this is not his. The sofa was in a show at MCA titled “Pop Art Design”. You want to talk art history? I’d love it! I’m ready anytime you are.
Bravo to the Shedd! I also find them especially helpful when I send my ‘handicaped’ husband with an assistant for a visit.
You know, on a quiet day at the Shedd, I can imagine it being the perfect place for Roy –finding a bench and watching the fish swim around sounds magical Good to hear the staff there is so accommodating –I have found them to be that way as well.
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