Association for Heritage Interpretation
2006 Awards
Commendation and Special Commendation
Look, Touch, Listen, Smell
Tyne and Wear Museums
Tyne & Wear Museums have created a range of new media for five of its eleven museums and galleries, to increase access to its sites and collections for visitors of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. The organisation has consulted comprehensively on how best to engage visitors with particular needs, including the blind and partially sited and those for whom English is not their first language.
We would like to award TWM a Commendation for these engaging new initiatives and for the provision of comprehensive information and interpretation before, during and after a visit. Particular highlights include the entertaining new children’s tour of Segedunum Roman Fort, the thought-provoking tactile interpretations of artworks at the Laing Art Gallery and the robust tactile trail and wind up sound stores at Arbeia. These and the other initiatives have received very positive feedback from visitors, staff and volunteers to date and the service plans to continue adding new media to the benefit of all visitors.
However, the scheme misses out on achieving an Award for several reasons – while the provision is very good in itself, we felt that there was insufficient promotion at the sites for these valuable new elements (and this is also reflected in the evaluation). It was easy to miss such things as Arbeia’s Snifferama and the paid-for audio tours at Segedunum. This seems to be compounded by a lack of awareness amongst some of the staff and volunteers and/or a limited desire to promote them. Indeed, on a busy weekday afternoon at Discovery the welcome desk was unmanned throughout the duration of our visit and we had to help ourselves to the audio tour.
We would therefore urge TWM to address these issues as they continue to increase access provision, as it is a real pity that some visitors are missing out on exciting opportunities to engage more effectively with the sites and collections.
Special Commendation
TWM has worked closely with users groups to establish how best to engage with visitors with special needs. The works judged here are the first phase of initiatives to enhance the experience for visitors of all ages, abilities and backgrounds and we applaud the service for the positive response its initiatives have received from visitors so far.
We wish to recognise this project with a special commendation, to acknowledge the work undertaken to date and in recognition of the fact that future works are planned to maintain this positive momentum. We would however strongly urge TWM to continue its programme of staff and volunteer training, and to work towards ensuring that the new media are promoted better in future, as these aspects weakened the overall scheme and prevented it from achieving a special award. However, it is worthy of a Special Commendation.
We would like to award TWM a Commendation for these engaging new initiatives and for the provision of comprehensive information and interpretation before, during and after a visit. Particular highlights include the entertaining new children’s tour of Segedunum Roman Fort, the thought-provoking tactile interpretations of artworks at the Laing Art Gallery and the robust tactile trail and wind up sound stores at Arbeia. These and the other initiatives have received very positive feedback from visitors, staff and volunteers to date and the service plans to continue adding new media to the benefit of all visitors.
However, the scheme misses out on achieving an Award for several reasons – while the provision is very good in itself, we felt that there was insufficient promotion at the sites for these valuable new elements (and this is also reflected in the evaluation). It was easy to miss such things as Arbeia’s Snifferama and the paid-for audio tours at Segedunum. This seems to be compounded by a lack of awareness amongst some of the staff and volunteers and/or a limited desire to promote them. Indeed, on a busy weekday afternoon at Discovery the welcome desk was unmanned throughout the duration of our visit and we had to help ourselves to the audio tour.
We would therefore urge TWM to address these issues as they continue to increase access provision, as it is a real pity that some visitors are missing out on exciting opportunities to engage more effectively with the sites and collections.
Special Commendation
TWM has worked closely with users groups to establish how best to engage with visitors with special needs. The works judged here are the first phase of initiatives to enhance the experience for visitors of all ages, abilities and backgrounds and we applaud the service for the positive response its initiatives have received from visitors so far.
We wish to recognise this project with a special commendation, to acknowledge the work undertaken to date and in recognition of the fact that future works are planned to maintain this positive momentum. We would however strongly urge TWM to continue its programme of staff and volunteer training, and to work towards ensuring that the new media are promoted better in future, as these aspects weakened the overall scheme and prevented it from achieving a special award. However, it is worthy of a Special Commendation.
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Children's tours are a special feature of the project