MIXmuseum
Challenge
While art museums have been demonstrating their commitment to diversity through human resources, programming and curatorial practices, they are just beginning to explore the spatial needs of non-normative visitors who fall outside of the cultural mainstream and to look at design initiatives that go beyond mere code compliance.
Mission MIXmuseum assembles an interdisciplinary team of inclusive design consultants and museum stakeholders (curators, educators and administrators) to collaborate with Case Study Partner Museums to transform the key public spaces that shape the visitor experience – entry, reception, lounges, circulation, restrooms, and galleries – into accessible spaces that allow people of different ages, genders and abilities to mix.
Participatory Design
MIXmuseum collaborates with Partner Museums and experts representing Medicine and Public Health to conduct surveys, focus groups, and workshops that draw from the lived experience and expertise of museum stakeholders and an intersectional sampling of museum visitors.
Toolkit
Outcome of our work is a Design Toolkit consisting of Design Guidelines (standards and scalable prototypes) and Interdepartmental Engagement Practices, a methodology for museum stakeholders to collaborate on projects informed by inclusive design principles that we adapt to meet the specific needs of museum clients.
Dissemination
With the support of the Museum Access Consortium and the Architectural League, with the consent of our Clients we have the ability to share our findings by distributing the Toolkit to museums across the U.S., convening workshops, presenting design symposia and consulting with partner museums to adapt the Toolkit to their specific needs.
Audience
The Toolkit will benefit museum stakeholders, architects and exhibition designers. By tackling this issue from a broad cultural and historical perspective, our work will resonate with artists, art historians, and critics as well as students of art, architecture, and museum studies who are exploring inclusion and diversity in their own work and curriculums.
Participants
Case-Study Partner Museums
Queens Museum (NY)
Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven)
Brooklyn Museum (NY)
Yale Center for British Art (New Haven)
The Studio Museum in Harlem (NY)
The Victorian and Albert (V&A) Museum (London)
Whitechapel Gallery (London)
Museum Network Bronx Museum of the Arts (NY) Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (NY) Design Museum Helsinki (Finland) Frye Museum (Seattle) Hammer Museum (Los Angeles) Museum of the City of New York (NY) Museum of Finnish Architecture (Finland) Nationalmuseum Sweden (Stockholm)
Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto)
Serlachius Museum (Finland) Walker Art Center (Minneapolis) Whitney Museum of American Art (NY)
Community Affiliates
Chapel Haven (New Haven)
Queens Community House (NY)
DisOrdinary Architecture Project (UK)
Design Advocates
The Architectural League of the City of New York
Center for Curatorial Leadership
Museum, Arts and Culture Access Consortium
Universities
Yale University
Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London
Aalto University (Helsinki)
Advisory Board
Quemuel Arroyo, Accessibility, NYC Department of Transportation
Hansel Bauman, Chief Architect and Director of DeafSpace Institute, Gallaudet University
Esther Bell, Chief Curator, Clark Art Institute
Jos Boys, Co-Director, DisOrdinary Architecture & Senior Lecturer in Environments for Learning, UCL
Connie Butler, Chief Curator, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Danei Cesario, Committee Chair, AIA New York Diversity & Inclusion
Deborah Cullen, Director, Bronx Museum
Elizabeth Easton, Director, Center for Curatorial Leadership
Turry Flucker, Art Collections Director and Curator, Tougaloo College
Linda Friedlaender, Senior Curator of Education, Yale Center for British Art
Dave Hollands, Head, Creative, Royal Ontario Museum
Terry Kogan, Professor, University of Utah, College of Law
Seema Rao, Principal, Brilliant Idea Studio
Joseph Rosa, Director, Frye Art Museum, Seattle
David Serlin, Professor of Communication, UC San Diego
Ruth Starr, Accessibility Manager, Cooper Hewitt
Susan Stryker, Professor, University of Arizona Gender & Women’s Studies
Mabel Wilson, Professor, Columbia GSAPP