“The Audio Tour That Captures Listeners Who Would Otherwise Not Go to Museums”
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“The Audio Tour That Captures Listeners Who Would Otherwise Not Go to Museums”

Drexel Cultural Passport (5/9/2013)

Photo Johanna Austin © 2013 for Association for Public Art
Photo Johanna Austin © 2013 for Association for Public Art

After interviewing aPA Development and Communications Manager Jennifer Richards, Drexel University student Jeana Mobley writes about how Museum Without Walls: AUDIO – the aPA’s outdoor sculpture audio program – is “reengaging people with Philadelphia’s sculpture in exciting new ways.” Mobley focuses on the program’s authentic voice model, interpretive nature, and goal to attract spontaneous users:

“Two or three people closely related to the work, such as experts, family members, or the artists themselves, tell a story about the sculpture in a way that someone would the news. The Association for Public Art brought together public radio, folklore, and technology experts to ‘follow a story line instead of telling everything there is to know about a sculpture,’ says Richards. They wanted to keep the audio interpretive, so that people can relate to it according to their own personalities and interests. In this way, the tours tell listeners more about how to look at a work of art, but still let people bring themselves into the experience.”

A woman listens to the Museum Without Walls: AUDIO program for “Deinonychus” (stop #11) on her cell phone in front of the Academy of Natural Sciences.
A woman listens to the Museum Without Walls: AUDIO program for “Deinonychus” (stop #11) on her cell phone in front of the Academy of Natural Sciences. Photo Caitlin Martin © 2012 for Association for Public Art

Related Artworks

Artwork

Deinonychus

(1987)

by Kent Ullberg (b. 1945)

The Academy of Natural Sciences, 19th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway

This sculpture is the first full-size reconstruction of the 100-million-year-old dinosaur, Deinonychus

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