We all come from a wide range of life experiences, and have unique ways of perceiving and interacting with the world. Through the understanding and conversations that can result from museum tours and visits, we can learn from one another and approach things around us with new eyes.

M+ recently held M+ Outreach Access, the museum’s first programme designed principally for students in special education schools. The programme aimed to introduce contemporary visual culture into schools and for learners with different abilities. For each of the twelve participating schools, a workshop was first held for students to introduce them to what visual culture is. Then, a tour of Noguchi for Danh Vo: Counterpoint took place at the M+ Pavilion.

These workshops and tours were designed in collaboration with different teams throughout M+, and with Michele Chung, co-founder of The Human Commons. Below, we chat with Michele about designing accessible museum tours and how tour guides can make them more accessible for everyone.

How do you engage learners with different needs and abilities?

Michele: Everybody needs something different. Everybody learns in their own way. As an educator, you should observe and listen in the beginning, before you actually plan or do anything. Then, you improvise and tweak what you’ve planned, to accommodate the individual situation.

It’s a lot of back and forth; almost like getting to know a new person, learning what they like and what works for them. It’s sort of like dancing.

How did you design the workshops about visual culture and the tours of Noguchi for Danh Vo: Counterpoint?

Michele: It’s a collaborative effort. The team at M+ provided a clear direction of what they wanted to convey. That provided the framework for me to be creative in.

We wanted to introduce the idea of visual culture into schools with the workshops. Then, the tour experimented with the idea of introducing what it means to go to an exhibition, and what you can look for in the exhibition that relates to you.

To determine how to best explain visual culture, I observed how people talk about it in everyday life. I teach people with various types of disabilities, so on a day-to-day basis, I try to pay attention to what kinds of images and visuals they take in, be it consciously or unconsciously.

My takeaway right now, after this workshop, is that visual culture is something we see every day. It conjures up certain values and associations. Often those associations are shared in a certain community, in which everybody recalls similar things about what they saw.

An easy way for me to explain this in the workshops was by using the logos of big corporations and fast-food restaurants. Take the McDonald’s logo, for example—an image with specific shapes and colours that’s ingrained in our minds. And the McDonald’s logo does not just mean McDonald’s. For kids, it can mean their favourite food. For me, it means a big corporation. On a greater scale, it also symbolises fast food in general. You don’t just see the image, you make connections and associations.

What were some specific works that you focused on explaining during the tour?

Michele: I actually saw the whole first floor as one big artwork. That’s why we always started each tour with the gallery space itself. We had a whiteboard with a blank floor plan of the exhibition, and asked the students to place images of the artworks where they thought they should go. Then we compared it to how the curators had placed the objects in the actual space. This introduced the idea of how space plays into the curation of an exhibition.

There are some practical things to take into account as well. I always started tours in the wooden pavilion, where you can sit down. While sitting there, the students could enjoy the space more and look at it properly, as a whole. Sitting in the pavilion was like being outdoors inside. You can imagine that you’re actually in a garden, and that a particular artwork is actually a tree, or some sort of exotic animal.

To explain things like abstract art—and how it lets you create forms in your mind based on your associations—we didn’t really have to say anything overtly. Rather, we could just let the students discover it on their own. For example, when they looked at Noguchi’s Strange Bird, they all saw different things. One student saw a mobile phone in a hand. Most people said it was a giraffe. Somebody did once say a crane, which is quite close to the idea of a strange bird.

We also had a tactile tool, to let the students engage with the different materials and textures of the works. These were materials we had put together that were similar to those of certain artworks. When you can engage with an artwork in such a hands-on way, you get a different take on it.

What are your tips for making a workshop and tour accessible?

Michele: Just be you. Some people think that tour guides—or docents, as they’re sometimes called—have to be sophisticated, knowledgeable, and take on an authoritative role. But you should just be you. Art is fun, and for me, art is a means to open up a conversation.

In the traditional sense, docents build a relationship between the viewer and the artwork, by giving them facts and information. But I think that, in a world in which information is everywhere, we look at a lot of things, but we don't always see them. For me, a museum is a place for us to go deeper within ourselves; to make connections between art and life. We can also share among ourselves to gain a broader view and better understanding of different people and their circumstances. So, the twenty-first-century docent should build a bridge not only between the viewer and the artwork, but also between the viewers and the docents.

When we talk about accessibility, we have to think about a broader interpretation, so that we’re actually including everyone. At the end of the day, if you only think of a certain group of people, you’re making art less accessible. Even within the same sort of group, each individual is different. We all have different needs.

If we want to make tours accessible for everyone, we have to understand that the greatest barrier for all people—not just those with disabilities—to connect with art is that they feel intimidated by it. It’s this idea that you always have to be perfect and know everything before you can understand an artwork. Instead, as a docent, you can share your own experiences and opinions. You can ask visitors what they think. Only through discussion and conversation can we find out what an exhibition or work means to the viewer, or means to us as a group. To make art accessible to everyone, we have to acknowledge that nobody knows everything.