Dea Birkett, director of Kids in Museums, gives
THE OTHER POINT OF VIEW

I became quite excited recently when a press release landed in my email inbox. ‘National Gallery lowers paintings for those with specific needs,’ read the subject line. Great! Here, at last, a major museum seemed to be taking this issue seriously and making their collection available to disabled people.

But then I read further. Only three iconic paintings – Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Constable’s The Hay Wain and Monet’s The Gare St-Lazare – were being lowered ‘enabling visitors in wheelchairs to examine the paintings at close distance.’ Well, I thought, three’s better than nothing. Then I read still further. The paintings were being lowered on one evening, for just two and a half hours. By the following morning, they’ll be hung at their full height again.

Surely this quick fix can’t be good for the paintings nor good for the walls. But more importantly, this short-term concession to access is only acceptable if it’s the first step on a roadmap to creating an inclusive institution. I was curious to discover if this were the case, so contacted the National’s Head of Education, Colin Wiggins. He said the evening was an experiment, ‘to see what the reaction is and learn what the needs are.’

But I wanted to know why this wasn’t the first step in a programme of developing an inclusive approach to hanging work – all of the work? And why just these three paintings at least couldn’t be left at the new, accessible height? Wiggins was adamant. ‘If we left them at that height, we’d have to employ someone to answer all the complaints from people who came in and would have to stoop and bend double and have slipped discs to look at the paintings.’ And how many paintings are on display in the National? ‘Around 2300.’ There would still, therefore, be 2297 left for non-disabled visitors to enjoy without having to bend in the slightest bit. I suggested that over two thousand works of art is surely quite enough for anyone – disabled or non-disabled – to take in on a visit.

But slipped disks aren’t the only perceived (and unproven, unless the museum has conducted medical research in the area) risks the National have associated with allowing disabled visitors access to even this tiny percentage of their collection. The notice about the access night advises that ‘booking is essential’. This would, I pointed out, inevitably exclude those who might just want to drop in. The Head of Education explained that the gallery had to restrict the evening to bookings-only, so not too many attended. ‘If we were to be swamped with thousands of wheelchair users, we’d be in trouble,’ he explained. Trouble! What kind of trouble? The answer was, predictably, ‘security and evacuation procedures’. But surely if the collection were accessible every day, not just on one night, there would probably never be more than a handful of wheelchair users in the building at one time. It’s only because the National had set up an exclusive evening, that they were in danger of being, in their words, ‘swamped’.

This evening is being specially hosted by the National Gallery’s new-ish Director Nick Penny, in conjunction with an organisation called Access to Art. Access to Art admirably works mainly with older people in London, enabling them to visit museums and galleries by providing transport and volunteer support. They have a more pragmatic approach to the one-off event.

‘On the whole, paintings are there for the standing public,’ says Jane Turner of Access to Art. ‘This is a start. It’s never been done before. I hope this is going to happen in other galleries.’

But other galleries have other hopes, which involve not more one-off events but long-term commitment to inclusive practices. ‘At times there’s the impression that the nationals, in an act of largesse, put on an event or an exhibition for the benefit of that section of the masses which they have identified as being deserving of their favour,’ says Tim Desmond, Director of the Galleries of Justice in Nottingham. ‘In the 21st century, galleries and museums should have a social agenda which runs through all their work, where accessibility is the right of all and is not limited to one evening, for which you need to apply.’

Will one night with a lower Hay Wain make any difference to anyone, except those few who are lucky enough to attend? I don’t believe so. I don’t believe that a few dozen people being able to see a few works of art for two hours can count as access. What will make a difference is if institutions work towards being inclusive – for everyone, for always. Young and old, disabled and non-disabled. So we can all enjoy the opportunity to admire the great works that belong to us.

www.kidsinmuseums.org.uk