Fifteenth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

We are studying the partnership between museum educator (called mediator in France) and accompanying person for vulnerable publics (weakened by medical, social or medico-social issues). This work is taken from our french PhD on inclusion in fine arts museums in France and North America. We have observed that this co-creation work is developing in many museums in order to integrate small groups of vulnerable publics, but in our opinion this is still only a step towards the inclusion and universality of a mediation. Information and communication sciences allow us to analyze the relationship between these actors in mediation. Qualitative observation and interview methods were used. We observed specific visits and then we spoke with mediators and accompanying persons. We have highlighted two pitfalls: on the museum side, the lack of questioning of the accompanying person’s vision on his group of vulnerable publics; on the accompanying person side, the efforts made to access knowledge located in a single place (not transferable to another museum). Thus, beyond the role of mediator, working in co-creation with accompanying person of vulnerable groups, we are proposing the creation of a new profession: the “remediator”. Inspired by our training as a special educator, we mixed educative mediation with museum mediation, to conceptualize a double mediation called “remediation”. Addressing all the vulnerable public (autonomous or with an accompanying person) and to all, these remediation offers would make it possible to create an inclusion beyond specific reserved reception: we are aiming for the constitution of a “universal public”.