Author: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Publication Year: 1978

Media Type: Pamphlet

Summary:

The project Museum Education for retarded Adults grew out of the conviction that museums should be a resource for the broadest possible range of people. This booklet is designed to share the experience we have gained at the Metropolitan with other museums who wish to focus on the mentally retarded audience. Like all how-to manuals; it runs the risk of being dogmatic as well as too simplified. Readers should use it as a point of departure, adjusting its guidelines to suit the particular needs of their own institutions and bearing in mind that, in this field of museum education, much remains to be learned.

Abstract:

The project Museum Education for retarded Adults grew out of the conviction that museums should be a resource for the broadest possible range of people. Because they cannot speak for themselves, the mentally retarded have been traditionally neglected by museums. To complicate matters, most museum professionals have had little or no contact with retarded people. They may not fully understand what retarded means; they may think that the retarded adult has to be treated as a child; some may even believe that the retarded should spend their lives confined to an institution. The Smithsonian Institution has found that of special education teachers who use museums, the largest percentage consists of teachers of the mentally retarded. The present project; therefore, does not necessarily deal with a new audience so much as it formally recognizes and seeks to develop one that is already to some extent in existence.

This booklet is designed to share the experience we have gained at the Metropolitan with other museums who wish to focus on the mentally retarded audience . Like all how-to manuals; it runs the risk of being dogmatic as well as too simplified. Readers should use it as a point of departure, adjusting its guidelines to suit the particular needs of their own institutions and bearing in mind that, in this field of museum education, much remains to be learned.

The practical side of the project - planning, organization, implementation - is dealt with in the first part of the booklet .In the second, material from two reports to the project, one by Carol Moon Cardon, Humanities Consultant and the other by the Special Education Consultant, Bluma B. Weiner, is included so that readers can assess the Museum's experience from first-hand testimony and benefit from the writers' conclusions and recommendations.

CONTENTS
Foreword by Phillippe de Montebello.
Acknowledgments.
Preface.
Introduction: some facts about mental retardation.

Part 1. Organization.

1. Objectives.
2. Definitions and job descriptions.
3. Physical plant requirements.
4. Recruitment of the retarded audience.
5. Workshops for attendant staff.
6. The program for the mentally retarded.
7. Educating museum staff, volunteers, and the general public.
8. Special education.
9. Principles and practices.

Part 2. Evaluation.

1. A tour given to mentally retarded adults by Carol Moon Cardon. 
2. Evaluating the museum experience of mentally retarded adult visitors,
    by Bluma B. Weiner.
3. Selected bibliography.
4. Sample forms. 
    a. Recruitment flyer. 
    b. Appointments form. 
    c. Evaluation form. 
    d. Getting together: how important is it? 
    e. Readiness of retarded adult visitors.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Accessibility