Opportunity: Inclusive Museums Project by The Hunt Museum

The Hunt Museum is delighted to announce the Inclusive Museums project, funded through Rethink Ireland’s Disability Awareness and Participation Fund and aimed at increasing access and inclusion for people with a disability.

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 people with autism, will also be provided.

This exciting project is focused on facilitating change through positive activism. It places people with autism, and people with a 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

Training opportunities are being provided to people with autism through the project, including in digitisation. It consists of a series of digital processes including laser scanning, which has enabled the Museum to create and share online over 360 digital replicas of collection objects. Digitisation allows for 3D printed object replicas to be created and used for tactile learning in the museum, examples of which were presented in the museum’s award winning multi-sensory exhibition Seeing Without Sight, which was produced in collaboration with a group of co-creators who have a visual impairment.

An employment opportunity for a person with visual impairment or autism to work as the Inclusive Museums Project Assistant is also being provided. The Hunt Museum is working with a wide network of stakeholders from the disability sector to put this in place.

The museum’s work with persons with a visual impairment also continues through the Inclusive Museums project. New co-creators who have a visual impairment have joined the Seeing Without Sight team and have started producing new audio descriptions for museum objects.

The Hunt Museum would like to emphasise that they are still looking for more persons with a visual impairment and people with autism to get involved in the Inclusive Museums project. For further information, contact Maria Cagney by email at maria@huntmuseum.com or by calling 061 312 833.

For more information, visit huntmuseum.com.

“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.”

– Cyril Killeen, Dóchas Midwest Autism Support

“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.”

– Daragh Wallace, Fund Manager at Rethink Ireland