BEAM UP: Blind Engagement in Accessible Museum Project

BEAM UP is a project born to help museums to move from the production of services for people with visual impairments to the production of services done together with the visually impaired in the field of contemporary art.

Local expert groups, in Citta di Castello (Italy), Zagreb (Croatia), and Cork (Ireland) have been working together for two and a half years to research, design, plan, and implement a set of actions, approaches, mediations and events that aims to ensure visual art projects and exhibitions are accessible to people with a visual impairment. 

The Glucksman brought together the LEG (local expert group) in Cork, where the members met to discuss museum access, the experiences of individuals with visual art exhibitions, and the possibility to facilitate wider audience participation through different engagement strategies. The outcomes of these meetings are realised in the exhibition, Fashion Show: Clothing, Art, and Activism, through audio descriptions, assistive technologies, and tactile models which alongside the support of trained gallery assistants supported access for people with a visual impairment. The LEG consists of Tom Kenny (UCC Disability Support), Clair Butler (UCC PHD Candidate), Eoin Nash (COPE Foundation), Tadhg Crowley (The Glucksman), and Orla Dalby (The Glucksman).

BEAM UP is the follow-up to VIBE, Voyage Inside a Blind Experience, and has been developed in partnership with Atlante Servizi Culturali, along with the expertise of l’Istituto dei Ciechi di Milano, a leading institute for people who are visually impaired in Milan, Italy. 

The project is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.