{"id":18244,"date":"2021-02-13T19:08:38","date_gmt":"2021-02-13T18:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/museoomero.it\/?page_id=18244"},"modified":"2021-02-13T19:08:40","modified_gmt":"2021-02-13T18:08:40","slug":"accessibility-empathy-and-inspiration-annalisa-trasatti-interviews-antonio-espinosa-director-of-vilamuseu","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/museoomero.it\/en\/media\/aisthesis-discover-art-through-all-the-senses\/aisthesis-number-14-december-2020\/accessibility-empathy-and-inspiration-annalisa-trasatti-interviews-antonio-espinosa-director-of-vilamuseu\/","title":{"rendered":"Accessibility: empathy and inspiration. Annalisa Trasatti interviews Antonio Espinosa, Director of Vilamuseu"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Dr. Espinosa, could you tell me about your educational background and professional training and when it was that you became interested in the question of accessibility?<\/strong><\/li><li>When I studied archeology at university in the 1980s, I was a bit unusual: what appealed to me was not the excitement of excavating the cultures of the past but the thrill of bringing them to the attention of the public. Since 1995 I\u2019ve been Director of Archeology and Vilajoiosa Museums, now Vilamuseu. In 1997 I was appointed associate professor at the University of Alicante where my teaching has centred on museums and tourism. I\u2019ve also studied museology in depth: I didn\u2019t want to be like those archeologist-directors of Spanish museums, interested solely in their collections and their research, and hardly at all in the public.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>The secret ingredient is empathy, but it\u2019s not enough on its own: you need inspiration, and sometimes it\u2019s nothing out of the ordinary. One day when we were sitting at table, my wife, Paula, came up with the suggestion, \u201cwhy don\u2019t you make the museum accessible?\u201d<\/strong><\/li><li>\u201cGood idea,\u201d I replied, \u201cI\u2019ll give it some thought\u201d. But I was none too convinced; I had enough on my plate as it was. But the very next day I rose to the challenge, and these last 25 years have been enormously rewarding. Which is why I always tell my students that when they have an idea \u2013 or someone suggests one \u2013 it doesn\u2019t matter how ambitious or difficult it may seem, they must never simply discard it out of hand. I urge them to think it through because there are times when those ideas can change your life and even help you to change the world around you.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>How did you come to know the Museo Omero and what struck you about this Italian enterprise?<\/strong><\/li><li>Who doesn\u2019t know the Museo Omero? If you work in the field of museum accessibility, it\u2019s a leading light. I\u2019m always harping on to colleagues about my stay there in 2017, and just how good their tactile displays and online materials are. I\u2019m honoured that the museum periodical, \u201cAisthesis\u201d, should have enlisted me in the cause.<br>My relations with the Museo Omero \u2013 and in particular with Aldo Grassini, Annalisa Trasatti and Andrea Socrati \u2013 are grounded in admiration, but they also allow for an exchange of notes. We call each other, we invite each other to events and we collaborate together on projects. Just recently we\u2019ve taken part in a video conference on the question of touching museum exhibits in a time of Covid, and they made an extremely useful contribution to our Increased Mobility project which is in line for two international prizes.<br>I\u2019ve been struck by the warmth and openness of the Museo Omero staff, as well as by their amazing empathy. Their displays, too, are striking: the ease with which tactile accessibility is the norm throughout. It\u2019s a museum with a soul. And nothing impresses me more.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>For some years now, you have been on the Standing Committee of the Congreso Internacional de Educaci\u00f3n y Accesibilidad en Museos y Patrimonio. What is this body and what are its aims and initiatives?<\/strong><\/li><li>I joined in 2016. At the moment I\u2019m on the committee with Almudena Dom\u00ednguez, Juan Garc\u00eda-Sandoval e Jes\u00fas Pedro Lorente.<br>It began in the Murcia Region in 2010. Every year it addresses a topical issue connected with museum accessibility: social responsibility (Huesca, 2014), tourism (Alicante-Vilajoiosa, 2016), training (Lisbon-Batalha, 2017), planning and content (Barcellona, 2018) or social participation (San Paolo, 2019). In the coming years it will be held in other countries of the world so it can serve as a forum for different approaches and practices.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>As well as being an expert on the subject you are, above all, the Director of a young museum, Vilamuseu, the Vilajoiosa Museum, planned and laid out so as to be completely accessible. Was it important to design it for everyone? Tell us how it went\u2026<\/strong><\/li><li>It was founded in 1973 and transferred to a new location in 2017. We had just drawn up the Manual of Museum Accessibility and Inclusion and we had a Museum Plan which was very demanding in terms of accessibility. The architect, Tom\u00e1s Soriano, focused on usability. Vilamuseu has won international recognition as a model of inclusion from the Design For All Foundation and Ibermuseums. This has acted as a spur to strive for ever greater excellence. Our standard includes sign language, plain language, pictographs, subtitles and audio descriptions; accessible fitments and furnishing, and dozens of scale models, replicas and originals than can be touched. Every year we organize specific training courses.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>What is the current situation as regards the accessibility of museums and art in Spain? Are there partners or particular research work worthy of notice?<\/strong><\/li><li>Juan Garc\u00eda Sandoval and I have just published an article in the records of the 4th Congress on the legislation, standardization and training as regards accessibility in Spanish museums. Considerable progress has been made over the past 30 years but the absence of recognized penalties means that application is left to the good will of the individual museum. I\u2019d want to draw particular attention to the work carried out by the Generalitat of Catalonia, by the Provincial Council and City of Barcellona, with networks like Apropa. Culture or the Grup de Treball Museus i Accessibilitat. Also museums such as the Tiflol\u00f3gico de la ONCE, the Prado or the Thyssen in Madrid; the Mar\u00edtim in Barcellona; the Lugo Provincial Museum Network; the Picasso Museum and others in Malaga; the MURAM of Cartagena and the Museo de Bellas Artes de Murcia; Vilamuseu e the Marq in Vilajoiosa and Alicante; or the Manacor History Museum, among others. In 2015 the Ministry of Culture launched the Museums + Social Plan for the state owned museums. In 2019 the MUSACCES Consortium organized an international conference in Madrid, entitled \u201cMuseums for all: art, accessibility and social inclusion\u201d. The 20th International Conference Galiziano-Portoghese MINOM-ICOM (Lugo, 2020) was a valuable opportunity to reflect on the truth that inclusion isn\u2019t merely a question of disabilities; it\u2019s also a question of culture, gender, sexual diversity; a question, too, of age and sustainability.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Espinosa, could you tell me about your educational background and professional training and when it was that you became interested in the question of accessibility? When I studied archeology at university in the 1980s, I was a bit unusual: what appealed to me was not the excitement of excavating the cultures of the past [&#8230;] <span class=\"sr-only\"><a href=\"https:\/\/museoomero.it\/en\/media\/aisthesis-discover-art-through-all-the-senses\/aisthesis-number-14-december-2020\/accessibility-empathy-and-inspiration-annalisa-trasatti-interviews-antonio-espinosa-director-of-vilamuseu\/\">Continua a leggere: Accessibility: empathy and inspiration. Annalisa Trasatti interviews Antonio Espinosa, Director of Vilamuseu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":18242,"menu_order":116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18244","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Accessibility: empathy and inspiration. 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