The conference took place on October 26-28, 2012 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.Conference convenors are Rebecca McGinnis, Nina Levent and Marie Clapot. Conference coordinator: Marie Clapot, 212 334 8723; aeb@artbeyondsight.org.

The conference addresses inclusive and multisensory learning environments and strategies, particularly in relation to the arts and museums. Our discussions will focus on experiences that involve sound, touch, movement, drama, olfactory and modes of proprioceptive learning. Multimodal learning and creative experiences are meaningful to all audiences including people with disabilities and people with different learning preferences.

Since 2005 this conference has become a forum for cross-disciplinary creative thinking and the exchange of ideas. We will continue to foster dialogue between such diverse disciplines as neuroscience, cognitive psychology, education, museum studies, disability and cultural studies, technology, architecture, product design, and media art. Conference participants and organizers aim to define a framework for engaging diverse audiences through multimodal experiences, and identify new trends and innovation in learning and museum practice.

The trademark of this conference has been its diverse cross-disciplinary audience that includes: Museum staff, art educators, teaching artists, special education teachers, therapists, new media artists, researchers, computer engineers and technology specialists, Universal Design advocates, architects, exhibit, and product designers, and graduate students

Optional Events

Mark your calendars for extra events occurring in conjunction with the Multimodal Approaches to Learning Conference, October 26-28, 2012. Reservations are required for most of these events on a first-come, first-served basis. Those interested can register during check-in on Friday, October 26th at 9 a.m. and throughout the conference.

Friday, October 26

Cloud City
12:45-1:45 p.m.
(Tours offered at 12:45 p.m., 1:00 p.m., 1:15 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
If you are interested in exploring this sculpture by Tomás Saraceno, please read the enclosed guidelines to ensure that you meet the criteria for visiting this structure.
*Meet at the registration table 15 minutes before your tour time. We will walk to Cloud City as a group.*

Mindfulness in the Museum
1:00-1:50 p.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Seminar Room
Rikki Asher
Mindfulness can be thought of as a practice that can help reduce stress. It is considered a process of slowing down and paying attention moment to moment. Mindfulness is being present with and to your inner experience and outer environment, including other people, and it is the cultivation of attention and emotional balance.

Met Signs Tour in ASL- Highlights of Tibetan Art
6:15-7:15 p.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Meet in Gallery 534, Vélez Blanco Patio
Guthrie Nutter  
Gain insight into works of art dating from the tenth through eighteenth century that were created to aid in meditation and the attainment of wisdom and enlightenment.
*In American Sign Language only, without voice interpretation. Programs with Sign Language are intended primarily for the Deaf community.
*This is a public event, no registration is required.

Friday, October 26
Fright Night!
6:00-8:30 p.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Join us for a night of dark tales, photography workshops, drawing activities, films, and more, all inspired by the eerie images in the exhibition Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop. All are welcome; best for ages 10 and up.
Altered Visions with Seeing with Photography Collective
6:00–8:30 p.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Art Study Room, Uris Center for Education
Explore the subjectivity of sight and the influence of photography on what and how we see. Make your own manipulated photograph in this drop-in workshop.
Drop-In Drawing
6:30-8:30 p.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Meet in Gallery 305, Medieval Sculpture Hall
Draw inspiration from original works of art. Join talented art instructors in the galleries for informal sketching fun. Materials are provided, but you may bring your own sketchbook; pencils only. Instruction provided every thirty minutes. Come and go as you like between each session. Open to visitors of all ages.

Saturday, October 27
Cloud City
12:15-1:15 p.m.
(Tours offered at 12:15 p.m., 12:30 p.m., 12:45 p.m., and 1:00 p.m.)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
If you are interested in exploring this sculpture by Tomás Saraceno, please read the enclosed guidelines to ensure that you meet the criteria for visiting this structure.
*Meet at the registration table 15 minutes before your tour time. We will walk to Cloud City as a group.

Multisensory Perspectives: A gallery conversation
7:00-8:00 p.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Meet in Gallery 534, Vélez Blanco Patio
Margaret Livingstone, Neurobiologist
Join a neurobiologist to challenge your perceptions of vision and how our experience of art is influenced by the way we see.
*This is a public event, no registration is required.

Sunday, October 28
Verbal Description and Touch Tour
9:45-10:45 a.m.
The Whitney Museum
945 Madison Ave (at 75th Street), New York, NY
Signs and Symbols
Drawn from the Museum’s deep holdings of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, and photographs, Signs & Symbols sheds new light on the development of American abstraction during the critical postwar period of the mid-1940s to the end of the 1950s.

Tour: Hard Times
10:00-11:00 a.m.
Lower East Side Tenement Museum
103 Orchard Street, New York, NY
This tour looks at how immigrants survived economic depressions at 97 Orchard Street between 1863 and 1935. You will visit the restored homes of the German-Jewish Gumpertz family, whose patriarch disappeared during the Panic of 1873, and the Italian-Catholic Baldizzi family, who lived through the Great Depression.
*There is a fee associated with this tour ($12 for students/seniors, $14 for adults). Please pay this fee when you register for the tour.

Sensory Tour: Art and Conversation for Individuals with Visual Impairments
11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
The Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY
The Sensory Tour is an invitation to go beyond the world of sight to encounter works of art through rich verbal descriptions, small tastes, and tactile experiences. Planned for individuals with visual impairments, but all are encouraged to attend. 

Multisensory Perspectives: A gallery conversation
11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Meet in Gallery 534, Vélez Blanco Patio
Carolyn Halpin-Healy and John Bramblitt
Join an artist and a museum educator to challenge your perceptions of vision and how our experience of art is influenced by the way we see.
*This is a public event, no registration is required.

Sunday, October 28
Touch Tour
11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY
Sculpture
Touch select sculptures and objects from the collection.

Multisensory Tour
12:30-2:00 p.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Meet in Carson Family Hall
Embark on a multisensory exploration of the Metropolitan Museum. This tour will uncover different ways in which scent and touch can be incorporated into a museum visit.

Verbal Description and Touch Tour
2:00-3:00 p.m.
The Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street, New York, NY
The Rubin Museum offers verbal description and touch tours for visitors who are blind or partially sighted. Museum guides are specially trained to lead these tours, which allow participants to form visualizations of the art through close, careful descriptions as well as touch objects like sculptures, art materials, woodblocks, and ritual implements.

Studio-based art-making session
2:00-3:30 p.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Meet in the Studio
This session will combine a visit to the galleries with an art-making workshop. 

Walk & Talk Tour
3:30-4:30 p.m.
The Intrepid
700 West 46th Street, New York, NY
Learn about the variety of Access programs that the Intrepid offers. The talk will include information on verbal description, incorporating and using touch objects in a tour, programs for visitors with learning or developmental delays, and programs for visitors with dementia and their caregivers.

Sunday, October 28
Cloud City
3:30-4:30 p.m.
(Tours offered at 3:30 p.m., 3:45 p.m., 4:00 p.m., and 4:15 p.m.)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
If you are interested in exploring this sculpture by Tomás Saraceno, please read the enclosed guidelines to ensure that you meet the criteria for visiting this structure.
*Meet at the registration table 15 minutes before your tour time. We will walk to Cloud City as a group.*
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