Light art for everyone: Barrier-free tour of the Freising Diocesan Museum

Light art for everyone: Barrier-free tour of the Freising Diocesan Museum

There is exciting news from the art scene in Freising, which is also important for several cities in Germany. The focus is on a telephone museum tour that was specially designed for people without visual perception. Today we received news that a blind participant called the “On Call Culture” project and wanted to find out more about James Turrell's impressive light installation. Experienced tour guide and art historian Christina Metz, who signed up for the project, enthusiastically explained the installation and wanted to give listeners a feel for Turrell's artwork. An excellent example of barrier-free art education!

James Turrell's light installation is entitled “A CHAPEL FOR LUKE and his scribe Lucius the Cyrene” and is located in the house chapel of the former Freising boys' seminary, directly in the Diocesan Museum. This installation has an architectural connection to an important work of art in the museum, the Freising St. Luke's Picture, a Byzantine icon that shows the Virgin Mary and, according to tradition, was painted by St. Luke himself. Christina Metz described how Turrell's work dissolves the boundaries between light, color and space and thus takes the viewer's perception into new dimensions, while the participants in the tour develop a feeling for this transformation.

Barrier-free art education in Freising

The concept of “On Call Culture” is a big step in inclusive art education. This project offers low-threshold telephone tours for people who cannot experience cultural offerings visually. More than 100 cultural institutions in Germany are already taking part, supported by Aktion Mensch and the Hamburg Authority for Culture and Media. This initiative has already been very well received: 25 participants registered for the last tour, including people from cities such as Berlin, Kiel and Cologne.

The telephone tour, which lasts about an hour, is not only informative, but also offers enough time for questions. The Diocesan Museum itself, housed in a neoclassical building from 1870, provides a fascinating backdrop for such tours. The combination of Christian art and modern light installation is a unique experience made accessible to people regardless of their visual abilities.

Including art education in practice

The project in Freising is not alone: ​​there are similar initiatives around the world that aim to make art accessible to people with disabilities. The MoMA in New York has been establishing art courses for people with disabilities since the 1940s and was awarded the Zero Project Award for this. The Manchester Museum has also set standards with its interactive project “Haptic Probos” for blind visitors.

In addition, numerous cultural institutions such as the Art History Museum in Austria have set themselves a major goal: promoting the participation of blind people in art education. These organizations create tactile content that allows art to be experienced through touch. The goal is clear: culture should be accessible to everyone, without restrictions.

Christina Metz's next telephone tour is already scheduled for December 20th and will focus on the Italian Renaissance. It remains exciting to see how the collaboration between art institutions and accessibility initiatives continues to grow and what new opportunities arise.