Abstract
While the prevalence of ocularcentrism – the prioritization of sight above the other senses – has been addressed by scholars regarding anthropology and history museums, it remains a central issue in many museums of art and similar cultural heritage institutions. Experiencing art with senses other than sight are often discouraged in contemporary exhibition spaces, excluding many different modes of creation and participation for both artists and visitors; often this means excluding artists working in multimedia or non-ocular media, as well as Disabled people and people of less ocularcentric cultures (i.e., communities who prioritize oral traditions). Concurrently, many institutions are trying to improve the range of artists they exhibit and the demographics of visitors who attend their spaces but are facing many barriers. This exploratory research is guided by the hypothesis that there is a correlation between the inclusion of non-normative perspectives in institutions of cultural heritage and the ocularcentric tendencies of those institutions. By surveying and interviewing professionals working in contemporary art institutions in Canada and using grounded theory methods, this research aims to parse out the factors that have led to the positive inclusion of multi-sensory works of art and/or multi-sensory ways of experiencing art, and what barriers there are for inclusion where this is not standard. By analyzing the levels of ocularcentrism of contemporary art institutions, this research can be used to the benefit of cultural heritage professionals to better understand and represent a wider range of demographics in the artists they exhibit and the visitors they attract.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2022 Special Focus—Rethinking the Museum
KEYWORDS
Museums, Visitors, Diversity, Culture, Curators, Exhibitions, Arts, Acquisitions, Access, Accessibility
