On Tuesday 23 July I was delighted to join a SCAN members visit to the exhibition Neuk Perspectives at Patriothall Gallery in Edinburgh. And what a great double opportunity; not just to learn about the processes and materials put in place to make the exhibition more accessible to neurodiverse visitors, but also to spend some quality time with work produced by the 43 members of Neuk Collective in the exhibition.
If you’re new to their work, Neuk Collective is a group of neurodivergent artists whose work advocates for better access for neurodivergent people as active participants in the arts. They have published a Manifesto available in several accessible formats from their website. Their website also explains what neurodiversity means and how it affects artists and audiences.
This blog is a summary of a few of the lasting thoughts and ideas that have stuck in my mind, a week after visiting the exhibition. There were so many interesting ideas to take away, and Fife Contemporary will be seeking to embed as many of these as we have capacity for in our future programme. I’ve selected some of the more affordable and straightforward ideas to highlight here. If you are an artist who is organising your own exhibition, you might also be interested in adding some of these measures as well – or learning more about Neuk and their work.
Showing and Telling
Particularly useful to gallery visitors who have ADHD or Autism, or anyone with anxiety about getting to new places, the Neuk Perspectives website has a visual story which explains how to find the exhibition and acts a preview of what to expect at the entrance once you arrive. This can also be helpful for people with physical impairments to plan their visit and where access, although possible, might not be as totally straightforward as an able-bodied person might assume.
Flexibility and Choice
One of the big challenges for exhibition designers and curators is how to make exhibitions widely accessible across the huge variety of barriers that visitors may face – some of which completely contradict each other. For example: Should labels be low enough to be visible to seated or shorter visitors, or high enough so that tall people with mobility or sight impairments don’t have to bend too far down to see clearly? Where high contrast, bright lights and louder audio can help people with vision and auditory impairments, these can be overwhelming and highly stressful to many neurodiverse audiences. Curators and artists often like spaces which are clean and minimal, with small labelling and signage that doesn’t interfere with the appearance of the work. This can sometime mean a clear explanation of how to access and view a work is not included as part of the interpretation. Navigating all these various, complex and competing needs can feel overwhelming and a bit of a nightmare!
So, it was great to hear how Neuk Collective’s exhibition address this head on. It reassures that artistic integrity does not need to be sacrificed for access. My main ‘take-away’ was that the best way to address competing concerns is to bring choice back to the visitor. These can be simple and free, or at least very cost effective. For example:
- Providing remote controls or access to switches so that visitors can adjust TV volumes themselves.
- Offering times of day with lower light levels, or adjustable light levels across an exhibition space
- Providing labels on the wall and in handheld formats, and sound recordings of labels via QR code.
Easy Reading
It was interesting to learn that of all the different formats that Neuk Collective provide, their Manifesto in the Easy Read format was the most popular. This is probably because simple text format helps those with many and varied impairments – sight, neurodiversity, cognitive impairments and language barriers. This means providing this kind of text support in exhibitions is an area that we can focus our attention on that will have the most impact.
Comfort and Support
The quietness and calmness of many gallery spaces can already make them welcoming spaces to neurodiverse visitors – however anxiety and overstimulation, as well as just being in a new space can still be hard work. The Neuk Perspectives exhibition had easy to find fidget toys, noise reduction ear guards and sunglasses to lend to all visitors at the entrance. The great thing is that Neuk Collective are starting to provide a backpack with these kinds of support materials that is available for smaller organisations and individual artists to borrow to reduce waste and costs in the sector and make them more widely available. It was great to hear that they were being borrowed for the Pittenweem Arts Festival and I have also seen them in use at exhibitions at Glisk Gallery – wonderful to see Fife-based organisations and artists leading the way in borrowing this great resource.
Another key part of providing support, and a well-used resource was a quiet space at the side of the gallery, clearly signed and with reduced lighting and sound muffling furniture and fixtures. It was good to see that these spaces do not need to be whole separate rooms to be of use.
Stand Out Works
These were just a very small number of ideas and examples shared during our visit. As ever, the best thing about visiting an exhibition is the work available, and Neuk Perspectives did not disappoint! Here are a few quick snap shots, visit their artists directory to see more.
Works by Tzipporah Johnston, Iona Zawinski, Rachel Nelson, and Marzena Ostromecka. Photos badly taken by me during the visit, better images can be found by following links to the artists’ sites.
Kate Grenyer, August 2024
