Tactile panels for the visually impaired visitors in three Romanian museums of ethnographic profile

The Museum of Wood Art in Câmpulung Moldovenesc was selected as associated partner of ”Moldova” National Museum Complex of Iași, Romania, official partner in the REACT Project, already in the application writing phase. Later on, during the project implementation, two other museums of ethnographic profile answered positively to our invitation of becoming associated partners: the Princely Inn in Suceava, which is part of the ”Bucovina” National Museum Complex in Suceava, and the Ethnographic Museum of Botoșani, which is a branch of the Botoșani County Museum.

The Museum of Wood Art in Câmpulung Moldovenesc, Suceava County

The Museum of Wood Art in Câmpulung Moldovenesc aims at providing the visitor with a trip into deep forest, where trees are cut to be then processed for utilitarian or artistic purposes.

In 1935 a committee was established by the local authorities of the time who made the decision of founding a museum, by inviting local people to donate items of ethnographic importance for the purpose. This is how the official opening of the museum could take place on 1 June 1936, based on the joint efforts of intellectuals, professors, decision-makers and the entire local community.

The initial name was the County Museum of Ethnography and Natural Sciences, operating within the School of Arts and Crafts. It was reorganized during 1964-1968 and named The Traditional Wood Culture Museum, the only one in Romania dedicated to the wood civilization. In 1970, the museum was assigned new premises, the building of the former Prefecture of the Câmpulung County (nowadays part of the Suceava County). The edifice is a historical monument, built at the beginning of the 20th century.

Tools, weapons, implements, household objects, musical instruments, wooden chariots (among which one 400 years old), dowry chests (over 250-350 years old), pillars and doors of houses handcrafted with flowers.

The museum has 19 exhibition halls and an open-air section. The open-air section includes two traditional houses, one dated in the seventeenth century and the other from the middle of the eighteenth century.

The Princely Inn in Suceava, Suceava County

The ”Princely Inn” Ethnographic Museum, part of the ”Bucovina” National Museum Complex of Suceava, Suceava County, operates in a building first documented in 1627, which was the house of Miron Barnovschi, the ruler of Moldavia, who donated it to the Metropolitan Church of Suceava to be transformed into an inn, and the income obtained to be used for “lighting the holy relics”. The construction was later recorded in the register of properties in 1786, as a home for the members of the Habsburg imperial family when they came to hunt. Towards the end of the eighteenth century the building was bought by Baron Kapri, and in 1856 it appeared in the plan of the city of Suceava under the name of the Princely Inn, on Kaprigasse Street. After 1918, the Princely Inn became private property, and in 1962 it was passed into the property of the state. The building was fully restored between 1962-1966 and since 1968 it has been used as ethnographic museum.

The Ethnographic Museum in Botoșani, Botoșani County

The Etnographic Museum of Botoșani is based in an 18th century building, when it belonged to Manolache Iorga, grandparent of famous Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga; in the first half of the 20th century, the edifice was owned by the architect in chief of the city of Botoșani, being known as the Saint Georges House. The first acquisitions for the Ethnographic Museum of Botoșani were made in 1957-1958. Later on, in 1967, an important donation came from priest Dumitru Grigoraş from Oraşeni-Deal. A major collection worth mentioning is the one of Maria and Nicolae Zahacinschi, counting more than 1100 items.

The initial assumption was that accessibility of the exhibition for all visitors was a topic to investigate, inviting to identifying solutions for making it more accessible to people with special needs.

From the preliminary discussions with representatives of each of the associated museums it has become clear that there is place for improvement for increasing the accessibility of the museum experience for the visually impaired persons.

The main objectives of the created tools were:

• to facilitate the visit of the museum for people with visual impairments
• to ensure their engagement and interaction in the museum explanations
• to provide a tactile panel that would help them feel the traditional world, so to improve their understanding of the natural and cultural heritage

The content for the tactile panel has been designed and developed by the team of the ”Moldova” National Museum Complex of Iași (CMNM), based on the previously acquired experience, both in the framework of the REACT Project and from direct observation of other museum contexts.

CMNM has experience in:

• audience development
• designing and implementing cultural mediation tours
• creating and editing accessible materials, taking into account the specific needs of the target groups

Based on the initial discussions with the associated partners, the team of CMNM proposed to create an onsite tool for the visually impaired persons, consisting in a stand on which these visitors can feel samples of wood essences, accompanied by the leaf contour of the respective trees, as well as samples of various textile threads. Each such sample is accompanied by a label containing the explanation in Braille and also as protruded text, which becomes more and more popular among this target group.

The text on the labels is in Romanian only.

The rows with the labels are intercalated by the rows with the samples.

For the tactile panels, two types were designed and delivered: a stand, with a total height of 1.4 m, inclined in the upper part to 45o, so to ensure the easy access of the persons with visual impairments to the selected wood essences and their corresponding leaves, and to the textile threads respectively.

The selected wood essences are: nut, beech, cherry, oak and linden.

The selected textile threads are: wool, cotton, raw silk and hemp.

In both situations, the selection was guided by the usage frequency of the respective wooden and textile materials in the traditional life.

Above, initial layout as designed by a local workshop in Iași.

Below, the final layout as delivered by the local workshop.

Due to the specific texture of the plywood, the decision was taken to paint it dark grey, so to ensure a nice aspect in the long run

Above and below the labels, just before being printed in a specialized workshop, using white acrylic as background and black for the text.

• technical limitations related to the space existing in the museum for placing the tactile panels

• the panels were prepared by CMNM and delivered ready-made to the associated museum, which took over the task of deciding the best location within the museum premises

Visitors rated the tools very positively. Particularly the tactile panels are attractive for all visitors, not only for the visually impaired ones.

The cooperation of CMNM as project partner with the Wood Art Museum as associated partner determined the development of new professional relations, enabling the passing over of knowledge acquired during the REACT project so that accessibility becomes gradually a norm in all museums, irrespective of their size and location.