Sensory Accessible

In this month’s blog post, I am excited to share with you some of the steps the Evansville Museum has taken to become more sensory accessible. As someone who is neurodivergent myself and has sensory needs, I am so happy to see the Evansville Museum embrace this need in our community.  

First up is Spectrum Dynamic, an exhibition currently on display in the Museum’s Begley Art Gallery. This exhibition, which will be up until December 31, 2022, was created in a collaboration between IU professor Caleb Weintraub and autistic individuals. Motion capture and 3D editing was used to create beautiful abstract images of these autistic individuals while they were stimming. Stimming, or fidgeting, is a way of processing the environment or emotions. While almost everyone stims, it is often more pronounced in autistic and neurodivergent individuals. Spectrum Dynamic takes this motion and celebrates the beauty of it.  

In addition to celebrating our neurodifferences through this exhibition, the Museum wanted to make sure that our neurodiverse guests could enjoy the Museum year-round, not just while Spectrum Dynamic is on display. With that in mind, we reached out to Autism Evansville, a local non-profit organization focused on supporting autistic individuals and their families. One suggestion they had was to create a social story. A social story is a visual tour of what one can expect when going someplace new, such as the Museum. With Autism Evansville’s help, the Museum is pleased to offer this new resource for our community. You can access this social story on the Museum’s “Amenities & Accessibility” page of our website or by clicking HERE!

Autism Evansville next got us in touch with Sensory Inclusion, a local nonprofit organization founded by Tyler Myers. Sensory Inclusion creates sensory kits (pictured). Each kit includes ear defenders to block out excess noise, plus a variety of fidget and stim toys. Thanks to a generous sponsorship by Steve and Susan Worthington, the Museum was able to fund the purchase of five kits. I personally tried out all the fidget toys and they are excellent. To borrow one of these kits, just ask the Museum’s receptionist when you visit. You’ll trade your ID for one of the kits, and at the end of your visit, just bring the kit back to the front desk, and we will return your ID to you. Each kit is sanitized between uses.  

The Museum also made contact with Optimal Rhythms & Access Academy. These organizations work with autistic individuals to provide neurologic music theory and neurologic-based schooling. The Museum was able to provide a field trip experience for these students to see the Spectrum Dynamic exhibition. Students joined in person and virtually from across the country to see the exhibition. It was a wonderful experience for everyone, and I really appreciated hearing their perspectives on the artwork.  

Adrienne Gregurich, a representative from the organization For Evansville, attended the tour and loved the exhibition. She invited Casey DePriest, CEO and founder of Optimal Rhythms, and myself to talk about the exhibition on an episode of For Evansville’s podcast series. That episode will be released soon.  

While the Museum has been hard at work making itself more sensory accessible, this is just the beginning. If you or someone you care about has sensory needs, feel free to reach out to use to share how we can better support you while you engage with the Museum.  My e-mail is Karen@emuseum.org. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy your next visit!  

Karen Malone 

The Ruby C. Strickland Curator of Education