VISUAL DESCRIPTION PROJECT: HIRSHHORN MUSEUM, 2020

In the spring of 2020, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden set out on the mission to describe every image of artwork in our collection. There are over 12,000 works of art to describe. Though this number is daunting, we formed a group of colleagues interested in accessibility, inclusion, and learning how to write visual descriptions together. It is an open-ended process that is based on collaboration and a belief that art should be accessible to all. For open access, I am sharing the resources and training materials we pulled together for the project.

I want to highlight the great work of Ruth Starr at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum and Shannon Finnegan and Bojana Coklyat who co-created the Alt-Text as Poetry workshop. Additionally, I would like to thank my colleagues Ashley Meadows, Jacob Kim, Julia Murphy, Rebecca Regan, and Maddy Feller for helping to spearhead this initiative.

Visual Description Training (Narrative)

Visual Description Training (Presentation)

Helpful Resources:

Cooper Hewitt Guidelines for Image Description

Mika Rottenberg: Easy Pieces Exhibition Described Media at The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Accessibility In the Arts: A Promise and A Practice by Carolyn Lazard, commissioned by Recess

Alt-Text as Poetry Resources via workshop led by Shannon Finnegan on May 7, 2020

How Museums Are Making Artworks Accessible to Blind People Online by Emily Watlington for Art in America February 12, 2020

The World Wide Web Consortium’s (WC3) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

Smithsonian Standards and Guidelines on Accessibility

The Museum Accessibility Toolkit

How to Put On an Accessible Exhibition via Shape Arts