Press Release: (Dis)Ability Inclusion is Driving Positive Change at the Hunt Museum
5 March, 2024
Rethink staff, Darragh Wallace and Niamh Moriarty who visited the Hunt Museum last month. Here they are pictured with Maria Cagney and Simon Thompson, Hunt Museum, enjoying the Seeing Without Sight exhibition which closed on February 29, 2024.
5 March 2024, Limerick, Ireland
The Hunt Museum is delighted to announce the Inclusive Museums project. It is funded through Rethink Ireland’s “Disability Awareness and Participation Fund” and is aimed at increasing access and inclusion for people with disability.
This exciting project is focused on facilitating change through positive activism. It places autistic persons and those with visual impairment at its centre. Through two working groups, they will identify barriers to access and participation in the Museum but will also work with us to put solutions or accomodations in place, which will ultimately make it a more inclusive and equitable place for everyone.
Maria Cagney, Curator of Education and Inclusive Museums project lead at the Hunt Museum
New visually impaired co-creator on the project, Geraldine Conway, from Kilmallock, explores an object from the Hunt Museum Collection.
An employment opportunity for an autistic person or individual who is blind/visually impaired to work as the Inclusive Museums Project Assistant is also being provided. The Museum is working with a wide network of stakeholders from the disability sector to put this in place.
According to Cyril Killeen, Dóchas Midwest Autism Support, who are also being funded by Rethink Ireland:
“This Inclusive Museums employment opportunity will be transformational for the right person, building their confidence and employability skills, while also enabling them to advocate for other persons with disability. They will be supported in this role so that they can harness their lived experience of disability to help Hunt Museum staff to develop their knowledge, which they will then share with other museums around Ireland.”
Training opportunities are also being provided to autistic people through the Project, including in digitisation. Simply put, it consists of a series of digital processes, including laser scanning, which has enabled the Museum to create and share online over 350 digital replicas of Collection objects. Digitisation also allows for 3D printed object replicas to be created and used for tactile learning in the Museum. Wonderful examples were presented in the museum’s award winning multi-sensory exhibition Seeing Without Sight, which was produced in collaboration with a group of visually impaired co-creators.
The museum’s work with persons with visual impairment also continues through the Inclusive Museums project. New visually impaired co-creators have joined the Seeing Without Sight team and have started producing new audio descriptions for museum objects.
Daragh Wallace, Fund Manager at Rethink Ireland stated:
“Rethink Ireland is thrilled to be funding and supporting the Inclusive Museums project. It is truly innovative in terms of how it works with people with disabilities to create a more inclusive museum experience for all. From visiting the Hunt Museum recently and seeing first-hand the amazing detail in the 3D-printed replicas, I was blown away by the potential of this project. We look forward to supporting the project’s growth through this partnership.”
The Inclusive Museums project builds on other positive developments in disability access and inclusion recently achieved at the Hunt Museum. In November 2023, AsIAm, Ireland’s Autism Charity, awarded Autism Friendly status to the Museum and in the coming weeks a Quiet Space for autistic people will also be provided.
Young person from the National Learning Network, Raheen, operates a handheld scanner to 3D digitise a medieval object from the Hunt Museum’s Collection.
The Museum would like to emphasize that they are still looking for persons who are blind/visually impaired and autistic people to get involved in the Inclusive Museums project.
For further information, contact Maria Cagney, on maria@huntmuseum.com and 061 312833.
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