Culture Without Barriers

The project "Audioimaging. Independent, integrating visit to the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź for audiences with different needs" assumes expanding the areas of accessibility of the permanent exhibitions of the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź through the offer of audio guides integrating audio description in Polish, description in plain Polish, and sound materials (archival recordings, effects sound, music). The project leads to the completion of the recipient's journey in the museum institution and the integration of audiences with different needs.

The Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź was established in 1930, inspired by avant-garde artists from the "a.r." group. – Katarzyna Kobro, sculptor and theoretician, Władysław Strzemiński, painter and theoretician, Henryk Stażewski, painter, and two poets - Julian Przyboś and Jan Brzękowski. They donated to the city of Łódź an international collection of avant-garde art, consisting of works by the most outstanding European representatives of cubism, constructivism and surrealism. The artists donated works to enable their presentation to the Łódź community, to the workers of the Łódź textile factories of that time, who were in theory "unprepared" to receive art in general and the achievements of the avant-garde in particular. Even before World War II, the museum served as a teaching laboratory. The exhibition, experimental at that time, guided the audience through the development of formal tendencies in 20th century painting. It was accompanied by strictly educational activities - lecture series for the crews of factories in Łódź. The tradition of the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź is the responsibility to involve every recipient in the experience of art, without exception.

Modern accessibility activities have opened the museum to people with disabilities. Accessibility of the collection, especially for people with visual and hearing disabilities and people with cognitive challenges, built in the programs "Avant-garde without borders" (2017), "Educational avant-garde in the avant-garde museum. Activities about art for the public with individual cognitive challenges" (2019) and in the current "Digital Poland", as well as the initiatives of the Accessibility Coordinator (guided tours with audio description and typhllo-materials of all permanent and temporary exhibitions, guided tours in Polish Sign Language and translated into Polish Sign Language) translates not only into a growing audience of people with special needs (quantitative growth), but also into the growing awareness of this audience regarding both modern and contemporary art and the possibilities of making it available and accessible (qualitative growth). These expectations strive to achieve greater independence in the journey within the museum institution, expanding the space of personal autonomy and the sense of agency and subjective emancipation. This is indicated by corrections made by the Museum's expert, Magdalena Rutkowska, a self-advocate for the blind, as well as by information obtained through free interviews with the audience.

In addition, our museum has a large and constantly expanding database of recorded audio descriptions in Polish (approx. 200 and 300 in progress), which are available at the exhibition after scanning the QR code located on the plaques next to specific works of art. Thanks to the audioguide device, we will be able to upload these audio descriptions in the Polish language version and they will become available to Polish-speaking blind and visually impaired people who do not use mobile phones and do not have access to computers and websites where the audio description database is available.

The response to these needs is the project "Audioimaging. Independent, integrating visit to the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź for audiences with different needs"

The project is particularly addressed to blind and visually impaired people and people with cognitive disorders.
 

AGREEMENT No. 75/KBB/063/2022 for entrusting a grant under the "Culture without barriers" project implemented by the State Fund for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons under Measure 4.3 of the Operational Program Knowledge Education Development 2014-2020

Funding amount: PLN 123,848.00