Beyond the law

National Museum, Prague

In 2021, I was in Prague, visiting the National Museum. Having taken the elevator to reach the cupola and get to see the beautiful city from above, I saw it had a bench. I remember being invaded by a strong emotion witnessing this small, discreet gesture of hospitality and kindness. The museum did not include the bench because it was obliged by law. It acknowledged that not everyone would be able to stand during the slow journey of getting to the top, so it wanted to make sure that people would feel comfortable and safe; they would feel welcome. When we honestly wish to open the doors to everyone (whatever “everyone” might mean), to share the experience with all those who are interested in being part, we are not conditioned by laws. We are ready to go beyond.

The same strong emotion invaded me when, a few months ago, I read an article by Raphaela Platow, executive director of the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. It was entitled “Extending the Invitation: Strategies for Welcoming Visitors and Reducing Barriers to Access”. The museum’s mission is to “Invite everyone to celebrate art forever”. But, Platow asks, “what does, or should, this invitation look like in practice?” – thus, tackling two of the questions that are permanent in my practice: 1. Why do we do what we do? and 2. How do we move on from beautiful words to actions?

The Speed wished to move beyond words (and probably also beyond legal imperatives), by questioning itself: how can we create new ways to make the museum an inviting and welcoming space of community belonging; how can we continually expand the communities to whom we are extending the invitation; how we are inviting visitors to engage with the museum, our collections, space, and programs. In order to create a more welcoming museum, the Speed considered access across four key dimensions: cultural, social, financial and physical. In short (though, recommending reading the whole article for more details):

Cultivating a Culturally Welcoming Museum: How to create an inclusive space, where visitors feel their history, background, and cultural identity are represented and respected rather than suppressed in the name of a grand canonical narrative? How can we embody and communicate that value [of inclusion] to visitors? These questions have orientated the museum’s both curatorial and cultural mediation/interpretation practices.

Building Inviting Spaces for Social Exchange: How can we create an inviting, social museum experience, and extend the message that visitors can bring their full selves to the museum into every aspect of their engagement with the space? Chatting with people one knows or doesn’t know has always been of way of thinking and creating meaning regarding oneself and the world. The museum has put in place docent-led chat spots, in the galleries, that provide opportunities for casual, open-ended conversations. And it also provides new, comfortable gallery seating, creating a “living room” environment.

Breaking Down Financial Barriers: Can the goal of cultivating a culturally and socially welcoming environment be achieved if much of the public cannot afford to make it through the doors in the first place? With generous private donations, the Speed has guaranteed free entry on Sundays and on their First Thursdays evening hours, as well as free family or individual memberships to anyone for whom cost is a barrier of access. The financial dimension, though, would not have the same results if the cultural and social dimension hadn’t been approached in the way the Speed has done it. To this, we should also add the physical access dimension.

Connecting Physical Openness to Holistic Wellbeing: Regarding this dimension, one would expect to find out how the Speed has become more accessible for disabled visitors. This is a minimum legal requirement, though, and it has to be guaranteed; thus, it is not even discussed, it’s a natural obligation and expectation. What is discussed in this part is how the museum will open its park and its collection, every day and hour of the year, to the local community and other visitors. The objective is not only to give an opportunity for people to engage with the art, but also to address the problem of the critical lack of public green space in their part of the city. In the museum’s words, “the park is intended as a welcoming destination for the whole community to connect with art, nature, and each other.”

This is what my expectation of museums, and other cultural venues, would be in 2024: an honest intention of extending the invitation; a true desire to question their practices; concrete actions rather than beautiful words and eternal reflection. These are the questions that we, as cultural professionals, as well as journalists should be asking when a new or renewed cultural space opens in the city. These are also the questions all members of society should feel they are entitled to ask.

Spaces to live and think together are essential. This “together” will not happen if the cultural, social, financial and physical dimensions are not central in our planning. And if this is the case, it is not the law that matters. Honest organisations and professionals take the extra step and go beyond the law. With pleasure.