Research/Practice Blog Post

The Butler Institute of American Art is the first museum in the country to house American artwork and is traditionally referred to as “America’s Museum.” A typical day at the museum varies from day to day. Sometimes, it’s bursting with students during the school year as they walk through various galleries examining the paintings, prints, etc. Ages of students range from elementary age to college and beyond. A large number of visitors are senior citizens from the surrounding Youngstown area. Some individuals take the gem that The Butler is for granted: a massive collection of more than 22,000 works in our collection. On the other hand, some visitors from the Youngstown area aren’t familiar with The Butler, but when they travel to the museum, they are in awe of what there is to offer. The Mahoning County, Trumbull County, and Columbiana County areas surrounding The Butler are comprised largely of a high white population. However, there are also pockets of Hispanics, Asians, and African Americans as well.

            During the school year, one of the largest initiatives The Butler hosts is the Good Neighbor program. This is comprised of various school districts from Mahoning and Trumbull County for students who don’t receive the opportunity to experience art as often in a museum setting, and docents also visit each school several times a year to describe basic art concepts to students. This is comprised of a workbook, along with a docent presentation, so when students visit The Butler, they will be able to locate various genres as well as elements of art and principles of design.

There are two buildings owned by the museum; the main building is the museum itself, while the other is the education wing directly behind The Butler. The education wing consists of various offices, art classrooms, and storage. The Butler’s main building offers a wide array of gallery space, a library, gift shop, and also, a café.

Over the past decades, The Butler has experienced growth with numerous changes along the way. After the museum’s founding, visitors would arrive to see works in the collection, but in the early 1900s, there were few works and very little educational programming for the general public. Artists in The Butler’s collection at that time were predominantly male. One aspect, however, which has remained constant, is that it is free admission for anyone who enters. The founding of this museum began with a wealthy Youngstown native, Joseph Butler, who had a passion for collecting works of art and wished to create a space to display them. The Butler’s collection first began with paintings of Native Americans, as well as the most famous painting, Homer’s “Snap The Whip”. It wasn’t until the 1960s that an Education Department was established, and a greater focus was placed on bringing a larger percentage of visitors. Programs initially began with only a few docents taking children and adults around the museum, but the docent’s sole focus at that time was giving a history of each of the works, rather than using the Socratic Method of Questioning.

The museum itself, on the other hand, offers educational opportunities including docent training, tours for students, adults, and senior citizens. Beecher Court, which is a wide-open space dedicated in the 1980s and is used for special events including artist receptions and much more. The white walls lining the gallery contain signage, names of the galleries, and a placard next to each of the works. However, the signage, at this time is solely available in print, not Braille or through digital files, therefore limiting accessibility and diversity, equity, and inclusion for all visitors. The accessibility story goes back much earlier to a time when there wasn’t an elevator whatsoever and generally, persons with disabilities didn’t have the opportunity to enter. Upon entering the museum, there are several wide steps someone must climb in order to enter, and to make matters worse, no elevator or ramp existed. Wheelchair users and other individuals with mobility challenges couldn’t enter America’s Museum. Currently, we have an accessible entrance for any disabled visitor to enter the museum. However, instead of going directly in the front of the building where there are several steps with railing, visitors must walk a short distance to ascend the ramp leading up to the museum's front doors.

In my previous blog post, the Butler environment has remained the same as we continue to expand the possibilities of new events/exhibits. This year alone has brought about significant exhibitions, including two concurrent George Washington exhibits. The first exhibit relates specifically to a tactile experience for the blind and low vision community and also other disabled and non-disabled individuals as well. 3D Photoworks is a New York Based company that provides audio, large print, braille, and tactile representations of each work on a tabletop. Since this exhibit began in February, hundreds of visitors have flocked to the Butler to see this unique type of experience, since this is the first time the museum has ever offered anything like this previously. To compliment the tactile George Washington Exhibit, another exhibit from the Virginia Museum of History and Culture that detail specific events that relate to George Washington's Presidency and his time as a General in the Revolutionary War. This exhibit was extremely unique, since I had the opportunity to work with the Butler Ethics Committee regarding signage and documentation. For example, we compiled a document relating to visitors writing or recording videos of their perspectives on the exhibit including George Washington, slavery, their background and their career, which has been well received. When I reflect back on my Hmm Collection blog post, I distinctly remember mentioning the significance of Artography within the art education field. Artography relates to the combination of providing inclusive and accessible experiences for everyone as an artist, researcher, and teacher. In that post, I discussed the significance of receiving an Artography background in the future, but I never thought that I would be successful within all three areas as a museum educator. I have always been passionate as I continue to expand my research interests within the accessibility, Assistive Technology, and museum field, but I never imagined that I could ever become a successful emerging blind visual artist. In December 2023, I decided to enter a statewide art show for disabled artists entitled "Accessible Expressions Ohio", I was deeply humbled and privileged when I found out I was one of fifty disabled artists selected. I decided to enter two of my Ohio state art pieces for the show, and one of them was accepted. As I mentioned in my updated teaching identity blog post, my research interests include: Disability studies, disability justice, museum trends, and Assistive Technology/accessibility trends. I compile my research through a combination of reading and exploring academic articles, books, websites, blogs, and also reading about disabled and non-disabled artists. My greatest interest involves learning more about the blind and low vision community and how the visual arts have impacted their experiences. Persons who are either low vision or are totally blind will experience the visual arts in different ways including audio, tactile, touch tours or docent tours, and even using AIRA to navigate museum spaces.

As a museum educator and researcher, I have had the opportunity to expand my research interests and passions as I combine my interest in viewing new exhibitions to learn about artistic expressions. For numerous Ohio State assignments, I have relied on a combination of docent assignments, learning from visitors, and other individuals attending specific programs. As I come to understand a new exhibit as well as the artist, I first read about the artist statement and the specific interests that the artist has used in their work. Some key examples where I have been able to positively use The Butler space and interact with the museum community includes when I wrote a research paper discussing the similarities and differences surrounding the blind and sighted community as a whole. I interviewed blind adults, docents, parents, and families for this project. Also, I took pictures of some of the artwork that was incorporated in my research.

For some of my other research projects, I have asked docents to create artwork and interview them for specific assignments. Last semester, I completed a project involving someone providing feedback to me through my everyday museum research. She asked me about my key goals that I have accomplished throughout my position at The Butler thus far, and I discussed the significance of accessibility projects. Also, I discussed the challenges and museum trends that were working well. Besides this, I had to teach a specific lesson to several Butler employees during last semester, and this was the first time I had accomplished anything like this previously. I was slightly apprehensive about this experience, but it ended up working out extremely well. I was able to combine and interpret the specific artwork into my research interests and accessibility interests.

Also, I have been able to enhance my research interests through my Ohio State cohort to discover incorporating new possibilities of exhibitions. For example, one student asked in a reply to my post if I was familiar with the artist Michael Naranjo who is a blind Korean war veteran. I told her I was familiar with him but had never seen his work. She told me that I should one day travel to a museum to see some of his pottery. After this online conversation, I asked The Butler Executive Director if it would be possible for Michael Naranjo to one day have an exhibit at The Butler, and he said that he would check into this. I told him about some of the research that I was currently working on, and he decided to soon after seeing that his exhibit would be implemented in November.

One major research interest that has been profoundly impacted from The Butler space is the connection between the disability community and other minority groups. In other words, when I first began working at the museum, accessibility wasn't fully integrated into visitor experience. The ADA was always a standard that had to be followed, but aside from this, very few staff members were familiar with specific accessibility practices in museum trends. When I began my Ohio State program and decided that I wanted to focus on the disability community and also other minority communities, various projects evolved. The greatest challenge proved providing key staff members a brief understanding of accessibility. This really didn't involve any formal training, it was basically explaining to the security team and key staff members that it was okay for me, especially at first, to get lost and find my own way. Prior to me being hired, very few members of Butler key staff were familiar with how a blind person navigates a space, and if it is an extremely large area like the Butler is, it can be somewhat overwhelming and take time to get acclimated to the location. Luckily, with having Aira, we would be able to figure out the appropriate direction to navigate in a specific gallery or also explore a new exhibit.

When I began my job at the Butler and later was accepted into Ohio State’s Master’s Program, I became extremely interested in learning more about DEAI principles and perspectives. For example, the ideology surrounding racism and whiteness is apparent in every community, and the Youngstown community population is approximately 40% black. I knew that this census data was integral to provide the black community with a positive understanding of the visual arts and being represented in the collection. This past February, the Butler hosted a one-of-a-kind black history month exhibit, which combined local artists as well as national black artists. One such artist was a Youngstown State University professor who specialized in paintings, and prior to this exhibit, his work really hadn’t been displayed within the museum. For this initiative, I created braille in large print brochures of all the artworks, which combines a visual description n of each work and also a photo of the work (the photos were only incorporated in the large print brochure). Also, I provided a summary of each artist that appeared on the label text next to each artwork. This was extremely helpful for other visitors and docents. If it wasn’t for enrolling in Ohio State classes, I wouldn’t have become familiar with all of the challenges surrounding race, class, and ethnicity. As I’ve realized, these issues not only surround the disability community, but also, other minority communities as well.