Category: Education

We all need assistance at some point in our everyday life, no matter the range of our abilities. Often, these needs ultimately put us in a position of relying on the consideration and preparation of others, usually strangers.

Some examples where there could be a need for assistance are minor injuries like a sprained ankle, maybe something like an eye procedure that causes temporary sight issues, or even accommodations for a small child. These types of things are situations that we all encounter at least at some point in our lives. But there are other members of our community who need accommodations that may not always come to mind when we are planning events, experiences, or programs – for instance, individuals with seeing, hearing, or mobility challenges. However, don’t let the word challenges misguide you – these fellow citizens are very motivated and as “able” as most of us. They enjoy the same things, and with the same small amounts of consideration, they can take part in all that the world has to offer.

I have always thought myself to be sensitive to those who are considered to be dis- or differently abled, and I guess this is most likely a result of minor physical birth defects that I have and the over-reactions to these that I have experienced throughout my life. Even though I had my own experiences, I recently learned a lot and gained some valuable insights from working with a couple of local agencies who serve these community members and from some of their individual clients as well. These relationships and exercises came about as part of the museum’s recent completion of the Museum Assessment Program, or MAP, through the American Alliance of Museums.

When our museum first opened in 2014, I assisted with some of the efforts in making sure that we are ADA compliant in the area of mobility, and as part of my graduate studies, I also researched the areas of visual and hearing compliance. Therefore, I was happy to take the lead on the accessibility learning and activity that was part of our MAP experience. Part of this activity was to reach out to members of the community to come in to the museum as visitors and give us feedback on their experiences. I was able to recruit two area organizations – the Appalachian Independence Center (AIC) in Abingdon, Virginia, and the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired (DBVI) here in Bristol. Both agencies were very gracious in bringing multiple staff members and clients who provided us with extremely valuable information regarding accessibility elements that were already in place in the museum as well as candid suggestions for things that needed improvement.

One conversation between Museum Director Jessica Turner, myself, and a DVBI employee named Debbie Able packed a particularly powerful punch. Debbie, who happens to be blind, told us that she had visited the museum previously with a companion to assist her and that she joined as a member at the same time. I asked her about her overall experience in her previous visits to the museum – she obviously enjoyed the museum but I was surprised to hear her say that she felt like she had missed out and express a wish that she could have experienced more during those visits.

I remember looking at Jessica, and we both had the same expression of concern on our faces. This was a big deal – and something that we both agreed needed immediate attention – and so we asked for more feedback on ways to improve a museum visit for someone who might need to approach our content in a different manner than we had planned for within the exhibit layout or format. The first things that we talked about were ways to address interpretation of our content for those with visual and aural challenges. This led us to discuss technology-based solutions like audio tours, Braille captioning, and large-text labeling and gallery guides. From our conversation, it also became apparent that even when people with disabilities visit a museum with a companion who we may think will assist them, we should not assume that their companion has the knowledge or even intent to help with interpreting our exhibits and content. With the depth of time and energy that we can provide in a scheduled guided tour that addresses our visitors’ needs, we can assure that they have the best experience possible.

Since these initial visits during the MAP exercise, we have held training classes for museum staff and docents conducted by the AIC and DBVI, and these have provided invaluable information and perspectives for us to use in preparing solutions for making our museum accessible and enjoyable for everyone. During these trainings, museum staff and docents were given the opportunity to experience the museum in the same way a disabled visitor might.

Docent Mary Geiger was especially moved by the experience, saying: “The instructors were informative on how to approach a visually impaired visitor, how to physically contact them, how to lead, and why various movements and verbiage were necessary.  Additionally, I found invaluable the experience with the blindfold, learning the feel of degrees of darkness and to trust a person leading. Coupled with this was the exercise of actually leading an 11-year-old visually impaired visitor. This visitor was mature and articulate regarding what I was doing correctly or not (I flunked “doors,” which gave us both a good laugh!). All in all, I will feel more comfortable leading such visitors now.” Docent Barbara Smith agreed, saying: “Touring with a visually impaired person changed my perspective. I noticed things I had not seen before, I was asked about things I took for granted, and I needed to explain things for which I had no words. After this tour I had an even better understanding of the museum’s content.”

To follow up on this training – and in line with October being Disability Employment Awareness Month – the museum also held an event on October 6 to encourage our community to view their everyday surroundings and experiences through the eyes of a differently abled person. Various agencies set up tables with information to share with interested parties, enabling us to make important contacts with these agencies and for them to talk to each other about possible ways to work together in the future.

All of these activities and training sessions have helped us to see our museum in a new light, to look at different ways to approach our content, and to begin working on solutions that take us beyond simple ADA compliance to providing a museum experience that brings enjoyment to all!

Scotty Almany is the Digital Resources Manager & Catalog Associate for the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. He would like to thank all of the nonprofit agencies who donated their time to attend the event on October 6 with special appreciation to the DBVI and AIC, who have given so freely and generously of their time. For more information on accessibility tours, please contact the Birthplace of Country Music Museum at (423) 573-1927 or info@birthplaceofcountrymusic.org. And if you have any suggestions or ideas for how our museum can become a more inclusive environment for those with different abilities, please feel free to contact us!

At the end of the day this past Saturday we found nine marbles in the museum vault area, locked to the public, inaccessible to all but the few of us who have a key. How on earth did those marbles get there?

It sounds like a mystery or a riddle – you know like the one where you find a body in a pool of water in a locked room with a cat in the window and you have to figure out what happened.* Our story is much simpler, the result of having around 150 children and adults in the museum for our Family Fun Day maker event, held on Saturday as complementary programming to Things Come Apart, our current special exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES).

We have worked hard to find cool ways to engage the public with this SITES traveling exhibit, and one of our earlier blog posts went into more detail about the planning that went into this exhibit and the related programming. Our biggest event during the exhibit has been Family Fun Day – filled to the brim with a variety of maker-type activities. Check out the pictures and videos below to get a real sense of the fun, invention, and sheer enthusiasm that kids of all ages, from 2 to 92, brought to the event – and to find out how those marbles got in the vault!

The Bristol Public Library brought their 3D printer to the museum, giving kids and adults the chance to explore the software used to create 3D designs and then see the printer in action. To illustrate the printer’s capabilities, they had a variety of printed objects on display from small hearts to a flower in a vase to a megalodon tooth – and even a prosthetic hand, made for the charity Prosthetic Kids Hand Challenge. Individual guitar picks embellished with text chosen by each person were also designed, printed, and given out – perhaps inspiration for future engineers AND musicians!

Upcycling is cool these days; all you have to do is hit Pinterest to find hundreds of craft ideas to make from common recyclables. Our Bristol Rhythm & Roots Green Team is always looking for new ways to be crafty with kids, and they brought out the washi tape, stickers galore, pom poms, and cloth flowers – plus a 5-pound bag of rice and a box of dry macaroni (because it’s never a real craft project until you use dry macaroni…) – to make old plastic bottles into maracas. There was a whole lot of shaking going on throughout the day!

Wood and metal worker extraordinaire Terry Clark, along with his wife Deb, brought items big and small with them to show our visiting families the cool and functional art you can make from a host of “found” objects. From the dragon weather vane to the lamp made from World War I helmets, the creativity on display was fantastic. And while kids got the chance to take away colorful iron spigots, I got the chance to see a steampunk spinning wheel in action.

A “take apart” table proved to be one of our most popular activities. We had kids clustered round the table for the entire event, brows wrinkled, tongues sticking out, intense concentration on display as they unscrewed, pried open, pulled off layers, and took every single electronic completely and totally apart. At hour three of the day, I had to run to the local thrift store and buy some more items. Several of the kids took home bits and bobs from their taken apart objects, excited to show other members of their families and their classmates at school what they got up to at the museum over the weekend. It was wonderful to watch the excitement the kids felt as they examined the innards of all these common, everyday objects. And just in case that excitement carried over to home, we put up a sign saying “KIDS: Don’t try this at home. Your parents will get upset!”

The Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation’s Spark!Lab provided three activity kits with the Things Come Apart exhibit. One of these is focused on creating soundscapes by sending marbles along a variety of wooden pathways that have different methods of producing sound. This soundscape activity has proved hugely popular with all ages, from toddlers to teachers. For Family Fun Day we set up the soundscape activity kit in the gallery, not too far from where the locked doors to our vault are found. Long pathways, tall pathways, curving around on themselves pathways were built; marbles were launched; bells rang, xylophones clanged, metal clinked, and wood knocked – and marbles went absolutely everywhere. Despite our eagle eyes and unbeknownst to us, quite a few escaped, shooting through the small crack under the vault door, only to be found later by Emily, our collections manager. We might still be finding marbles for days to come.

Families also got the chance to take a maker project home with them – we had a take-home instructable on how to create your own “wrenchophone,” generously shared with us by Maker Media from the book Make: Musical Inventions, DIY Instruments to Toot, Tap, Crank, Strum, Pluck and Switch On by Kathy Ceceri. This project showed kids how to make their own musical instrument at home – in the instructions, wrenches were used, but our museum director’s son Ian got creative, making his own version with butter knives and rubber spatulas. Apparently the spatulas helped to make the knives really ring out!

While all of the activities held on Family Fun Day were great, and the enthusiasm and engagement from the participants was especially wonderful, it was also really satisfying to see the other ways that kids were inspired to create and make in the museum. One of our visitors bought a small Lego kit from The Museum Store and built a small ukulele. But being in a museum meant that he didn’t stop there – he then used the plastic packaging (upcycling!) from the washi tape to create a display case for his ukulele, and wrote out his very own museum label for it to be on display during the event. A future curator perhaps!

Finally, to cap it all off and to really underline that music is the center of all that we do, a family of five musicians stopped in and asked if they could share some of their tunes with our visitors. With songs from the 1927 Bristol Sessions and The Carter Family in their repertoire, it was a spontaneous and perfect end to a fun day!

René Rodgers is the Curator of Exhibits & Publications at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.*And by the way, the answer is that the body is that of a goldfish…

At the Birthplace of Country Music (BCM), we believe that engaged learning in museums should be a component of every child’s experience, and those museums should be welcoming, accessible, and relevant. Whether with a school group, as individuals, or with their families, inviting young people to interact with the arts and history in museums and through outreach programs gives us opportunities to teach elements of these subjects through broad lenses in the humanities – and this in turn helps children to understand the world around them. These hands-on learning experiences give students the chance to explore and connect history to their own lives. We offer a variety of youth programs at BCM in an ongoing effort to serve the region – our school group programs, youth summer camps, free Family Fun Days, the Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion Children’s Day, and a variety of outreach programs at schools or area agencies provide opportunities for arts education that is an important component in a well-rounded education. And research into visitor engagement at cultural organizations suggests that children who visit museums or other cultural events are TWICE AS LIKELY to visit them as adults. (So take your children to experience the arts and culture at the museums, festivals, and art galleries all around us!)

Planning educational and outreach programs takes enormous amounts of time. Museum staff members develop programming for each new exhibit so that groups visiting the museum have the opportunity for a variety of experiences and so that schools can link to state standards as they plan their visit – because Bristol is located on the state lines of Virginia and Tennessee, we include two different state standards in our planning. Talented volunteer docents are trained in museum content and are ready to provide a tailored and engaging group tour for area students; our docents often gain as much from the students as the students do from their visit!

Our Pick Along Summer Camp coordinators and instructors spend numerous hours developing curriculum and activities so that summer camps provide not only a really engaging and enjoyable week, but they also nurture and develop skills in instrument playing and performance competence. These summer camp sessions are a fantastic way to introduce kids to string band music through individual and group instruction, museum-focused activities, songwriting, and arts and crafts. Campers get a chance to perform live on Radio Bristol in the museum, and some have also had the chance to produce their own short programs for broadcast. Scholarships for campers who need financial assistance are always available (we eagerly accept donations for these scholarships and to help with bus transport!) so that we are able to serve our entire community regardless of income level. By offering instrument instruction in a camp format, we have the ability to integrate learning experiences with museum exhibits and radio, facilitate lessons in history and social context for the music they are playing, and give students the opportunity to develop a social network of young musicians interested in regional string music. And, of course, the Pick Along camps are also lots of fun and filled with laughter!

Family Fun Days provide hands-on activities for kids of all ages and encourage families to bring children to the museum. These events give free entry to our Special Exhibits Gallery and often include programming that goes along with the particular exhibit that is featured in that space – from songwriting Mad Libs to a chance to play real instruments to coloring sheets. Our Family Fun Day visitors also get to create entertaining craft takeaways from various activities (and sometimes even prizes, especially after a rousing game of Banjo Bingo!).

Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion’s Children’s Day is another space for engaging families and features a variety of hands-on music-related and arts-focused activities for kids. Participants at this free event get the chance to dance and sing, play instruments, create take-home crafts, and learn about BCM and other nonprofits in the community. It’s also a chance for them to enjoy the feel of a mini-festival with some kid-focused music.

Many of our educational programs and events are geared towards giving students a short learning experience that might shape their understanding and create a desire to dig deeper, while others delve further into museum content through a longer program that helps students gain skills in history, music, writing, and critical thinking. One particularly successful program was an outreach project that museum staff provided for a youth group at the YWCA Bristol. It was developed in response to a special Museum Day Live! event on March 12, 2016, which focused on encouraging all people – and particularly women and girls of color – to explore our nation’s museums and cultural institutions. After thinking carefully about programs that fit in with this theme, we approached the YWCA Bristol TechGYRLS, a local after-school program based on a STEM-focused curriculum and geared towards supporting girls aged 9—15 who would otherwise have limited access to and experience with technology. The goal of the partnership was to give the TechGYRLS access to a new technology and the opportunity to explore the music history of their hometown in a meaningful way – this project provided an innovative STEAM educational program that connected our museum to our community by empowering the TechGYRLS to create a special radio program on Radio Bristol, our in-house working radio station. The program took a creative approach to our museum content and gave the participants a learning experience that has resulted in a strong and continuing partnership with the YWCA, enabling the museum to share its mission with a much wider audience and to engage students in an interesting way.

This project introduced the students to the museum, gave them opportunities to engage directly with radio technology and to learn more about how a radio station works, and helped them to research, write and produce a special radio program that highlighted the importance of the TechGYRLS program to them, their experiences in the museum, and the content that inspired them from our exhibits. The TechGYRLS visited the museum four times for a museum tour, to work on their radio script, to record the program, and as participants in Museum Day Live! We also went to the YWCA Bristol to give them additional coaching on their script and being “on air.” The half-hour radio program they created was played during the Museum Day Live! event at the museum, both on air and in the museum’s Performance Theater (attended by several girls and family members, along with museum visitors). For museum staff, it was a wonderful experience to work with these girls, and it was really gratifying to see them explore the museum and share their enthusiasm and learning on air.

Our goal with this program was to create a new opportunity for an underserved group in our community, while also sharing an enjoyable learning experience that would tie into that group’s needs. Not only did this partnership accomplish that, it also resulted in many of the TechGYRLS becoming advocates for our museum and for the musical heritage of our area – we have seen them as school group visitors sharing the things they learned with their friends, at our summer camp, and at special events. This program is also now saved in our archive collection for future use. By exploring our museum’s content in a new way through the TechGYRLS radio program, we were able to share our mission with a wider audience – across the radio airwaves and within our community – in an engaging way, and more importantly, provide an opportunity for tangible and creative learning to underserved local children, really highlighting the role of our museum as a community resource.

At the risk of sounding overly romantic, I’ll finish by saying that the responses of students when they engage in our programs can be rewarding and overwhelming. We see students whose first-ever visits to a museum are on a school visit to our museum, and we’ve heard local students remark about how the Birthplace of Country Music Museum makes them proud to be from somewhere “important.” That’s a significant gift to give, along with inquisitiveness, a general appreciation of the music all around us, and an understanding that history matters now and shapes how we think and live our lives. Those concepts, along with the music history of the region’s rich traditions, are some of the core values driving our educational mission – and these are the things that make our day-to-day jobs so rewarding.

Jessica Turner is the Director of the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.