Free Museum of Fine Arts Tours for Visually Impaired

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Announces a New Introductory Series of Tours for Blind and Low Vision Visitors

The Accessibility Department of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is offering a series of introductory tours to the Museum and its permanent collections for blind and low vision individuals who want to build a deeper relationship with the MFA beginning on Saturday, 4/5, at 10:30 a.m.

The sessions will be held on the first Saturday of each month with a couple of exceptions. Each session will focus on a different collection of the museum and will include wayfinding and verbal description of spaces. The purpose of the introductory series is to provide the context for further and deeper exploration of the museum. Interested individuals can attend whichever sessions interest them. Individuals can attend one, a few, or all of them!

The first session on April 5th will begin with the Huntington Entrance and will travel the spine of the building so individuals can see the organization of the museum and its collections and spaces. There will be a tactile examination of architecture and other objects without gloves. The focus portion of the tour will be on the mural program on the dome of the rotunda and the murals on the colonnade and barrel vault over the main stairway which were painted in oil on canvas in the London studio of the American artist John Singer Sargent, transported to Boston by ship, and installed under his supervision between 1921 and 1925, making our museum entrance one of the most impressive in America.

The second session will take place on Saturday, May 3, at 10:30 a.m. and will include an introduction to the Asian Collection. This introduction will be done by Access Guide Karen Chang who is from China and has a great way of presenting the objects and the history of Asia and the museum. The schedule for the remainder of the year follows:

• June 14 – Art of the Ancient World (the first Saturday of June is the Vision 5K walk/race)
• July 12 – The new Fenway Entrance will be open and we will again explore the spine of the building from that entrance to the Huntington Avenue Entrance and will see the new Sharf Information Center. The focus portion of the tour hasn’t been set yet but it may be gardens since we have a wonderful Japanese Garden and the Fenway Entrance faces the Kelleher Rose Garden in the Fenway.
• August 2 – European Art
• September 6 – American Art
• October 4 – Art of Africa & Oceania
• November 1 – Musical Instruments Collection
• December 6 – Prints, Drawings & Photographs
• January 3 – Contemporary Art

The series and individual sessions are free for blind and low vision visitors. For more information or to register for one of the sessions, please contact Valarie Burrows, Accessibility Coordinator, 617-369-3302, vburrows@mfa.org.

Valarie Burrows
Accessibility Coordinator
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Avenue of the Arts
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
617-369-3302 Voice
617-267-9703 TTY

vburrows@mfa.org

www.mfa.org

M – W – F
Tu & Th by chance