Art interactively for visitors with special needs
Address
Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace
Karlova 189/2
110 00 Prague 1
Map
Entrance from the passageway.
Education Center of Prague City Gallery
T (+420) 725 811 936, (+420) 606 612 987
E vzdelavani@ghmp.cz, edukace@ghmp.cz
CZK 0 to the exhibition + CZK 20 for the educational program
GHMP also welcomes visitors with special needs. We organize tours for visitors with mental and physical disabilities, activities for visitors with mental illnesses, tactile activities for sight-impaired visitors, events for children from orphanages or socially disadvantaged families, projects aimed at promoting the integration of foreigners, activities for various communities and minorities, and events for children from conflict regions. All art activities are properly adapted for each particular group.
The education department works together with experts from leading institutions, and our team includes a special education teacher. Our internal instructors have been trained by the Hapestetika and Tyflocentrum associations to work with sight-impaired visitors, and have completed a course on integrating foreigners and minorities organized by the Counselling Centre for Integration. The education department also collaborates with the Prague Integration Center and the Division of National Minorities and Foreigners of the City of Prague’s Department of Culture and Tourism.
GHMP’s instructors were also involved in the Chamber of Education Workers of the Czech Council of Galleries’ working group on the subject of working with visitors with special needs at museum institutions. This research project produced a publication containing a typology of special needs groups, terminology, a study of the professional literature, and examples of best practice at Czech galleries.
Special events organized for visitors with special needs include two exhibitions of works by children from orphanages (held in cooperation with the Letní Dům and Audabiac organizations); Inside-Outside, a three-month exhibition of works by visitors from organizations for mentally ill and mentally handicapped people (one of the events offered in conjunction with an exhibition of art brut); a Dyslexia Day; and the tactile exhibition and tactile educational activities for sight-impaired visitors organized in conjunction with an exhibition by Jindřich Horejc (with support from the State Culture Fund). Our permanent program for sight-impaired visitors also includes three tactile tour options (at Troja Château, the Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace, and Villa Bílek).
The eco-studio at Troja Château features a small tactile exhibition for sight-impaired visitors consisting of fragments of works from the gallery’s public sculptures, representing a variety of materials.
In line with our objective of eliminating barriers and being as open to and accessible for all visitors as possible, the two main studios were designed and built to be barrier-free. We plan to continue developing and expanding our activities for these groups of visitors, and to work together with more and different organizations, institutions, and experts in this field.
