Access curation

Any form of access used to widen or deepen engagement with an artwork should be well thought out in order to minimise segregation of your audience, which can have the counterproductive impact of making people feel uninvolved or excluded.

All forms of access can be thought of as an element of the overall curation that works to enhance the artistic experience from the viewpoint of its audience. 

In practice, we know this is not usually the case. However, in galleries in particular, the access and public facing teams are often left to work out how to manage accessibility for an event or exhibition because those responsible for the planning - curators or production teams - might not have considered it in advance. This can worsen the experience for both audiences who feel disregarded and staff who aren't confident in how best to support visitors. 

The process of embedding access does not assume that a venue has sole responsibility over ensuring events are accessible for audiences. Instead, embedded access might be the result of collaboration, co-production, or commission which involves extensive consideration of the audience experience as well as the aesthetic and artistic intentions of the artist.

As more and more creative projects blur the lines between making and consuming art and cultural experiences, using access as a creative tool can allow artists and practitioners to combine what makes certain works accessible and what defines them as creative experiences.