Uncover the essence of culture through a phone conversation - "Museum Exploration at Home" - Diving into Art and History from the Comfort of Your Couch
Title: Cozy Culture Connection - Exploring Museums on Your Couch
- Hey there!
It's time for a virtual museum tour. Today, we've got 15 participants tuning in, waiting for our guide, Corinna Fehrenbach. But she's all alone at the Museum of Applied Art in Cologne (MAKK), wearing a headset and dialing a number. She's hosting a phone tour - remember those?
"Greetings from the spacious foyer of the museum, and the Cologne Cathedral is just a couple minutes away," she cheerfully explains, discussing the current design exhibition. Fehrenbach delivers an approximately one-hour phone tour - it's an offer from the innovative project "Call for Culture" based in Hamburg.
Over 100 German museums are now part of this movement, with the Hamburger Kunsthalle joining in on June 15th. Expect discussions on artworks by Édouard Manet, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Berlinde De Bruyckere.
These phone tours take inclusivity to a whole new level, taking art and culture straight to the living rooms of enthusiasts. Blind, visually impaired, mobility-restricted, budget-conscious, or simply not comfortable in large crowds - this project aims to cater to a diverse audience who can’t access museums the traditional way.
Launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, the project was a lifeline for cultural exploration in the comfort of one's home. Today, even though the pandemic is over, the project remains and continues to grow - with currently 111 cultural institutions offering or planning to offer phone tours.
The audiotours are free, being supported by Aktion Mensch and the Hamburg Cultural Authority - approximately 105,000 euros a year. However, this only covers half the costs, roughly 200,000 euros, leaving the team to search for additional funding via donations - not just from individual donors but also foundations and corporations.
Gertrud Feld, a 61-year-old from Saarbrücken who's been blind since birth, wholeheartedly supports the audio tours. She's been a faithful "Call for Culture" participant for over a year, exploring various museums such as the Helmut-Schmidt-Haus in Hamburg, Museum Island in Berlin, and Herzogin-Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek in Weimar.
“I'm really grateful for the chance to hear and experience so much from home. It always leaves me discovering something beautiful, new, and exciting I never knew before,” shares Feld. She learned about the audio tours through the Saarland Association for the Blind.
The guides are trained to verbally describe exhibits in a way that one can visualize shapes, colors, textures, and even scents while no information overwhelms the mind. For instance, the guides often draw comparisons with familiar objects or scenes.
“Guiding tours by phone requires immense concentration from me,” admits Fehrenbach. “As a guide, I don't get any facial feedback like smiles, frowns, or reactions." She has, however, noticed that she uses more hand gestures when speaking on the phone.
Despite the challenges, the audio tours successfully bring museums to life for people like Feld. "You always leave feeling smarter than when you came in," she says.
- Hamburg
- Cologne
- Berlin
- Museum Island
- Cologne Cathedral
- Saarbrücken
- Hamburger Kunsthalle
- Audio Tours
- Call for Culture
- Cultural Accessibility
- The innovative project "Call for Culture", based in Hamburg, is part of an effort that now includes over 100 German museums.
- Participants can explore museums like the Helmut-Schmidt-Haus in Hamburg, Museum Island in Berlin, and Herzogin-Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek in Weimar through free audiotours supported by Aktion Mensch and the Hamburg Cultural Authority.
- Despite the pandemic being over, the project remains and continues to grow, with currently 111 cultural institutions offering or planning to offer phone tours.
- Corinna Fehrenbach, a guide for the project, conducts phone tours for the Museum of Applied Art in Cologne (MAKK), taking art and culture straight to the living rooms of enthusiasts.
- Audio tours cater to a diverse audience who may have difficulties attending museums traditionally, such as those who are blind, visually impaired, mobility-restricted, budget-conscious, or uncomfortable in large crowds.
