Sarjeant Happenings: Audio describing planned for Sarjeant Gallery

Teresa Cimino (left) and Sarah Bradfield of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery are leading the accessibility project for the gallery.

When Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery reopens its doors to the public on Saturday, November 9, the gallery team wants all communities to have easy access to as much of the gallery’s public programmes as possible.

To this end, eight years ago business operations manager Teresa Cimino, recently joined by gallery assistant Sarah Bradfield, began what has proved to be an ongoing, “mind-expanding” experience in the field of access to the arts, with a recent focus on the art and techniques of audio description.

Audio describing or visual description is a form of narration used to provide information surrounding key visual elements in a work, be it fine art such as painting or sculpture, or a live performance such as theatre.

An estimated quarter of all New Zealanders have accessibility needs, Cimino said.

“That could be blind, low vision. It could be hearing, it could be neurodiverse challenges. It could be someone in a wheelchair, with a walker or someone with a pram – we have been looking at how they can access everything in the world and the challenges that presents.”

The Sarjeant Gallery is a member of Arts Access Aotearoa. The nationwide organisation works to “increase access to the arts for people who experience barriers to participation as artists, performers, audience members, and gallery and museum visitors”. The Sarjeant is working to finalise a policy to guide current and future developments to make the gallery more accessible to all communities.

Initially, Cimino attended seminars, did research and contacted company Be Accessible (now Be. Lab), started in 2011 by Minnie Baragwanath.

“They came and gave us an assessment of the building and how someone with accessibility needs would experience the art gallery. That was my springboard,” Cimino said.

After attending an audio describer training session in New Plymouth with the Govett-Brewster Gallery, she felt that Whanganui would also benefit from this knowledge and training.

Cimino requested expert advice from National Services Te Paerangi, a team based at Te Papa that offers practical and strategic assistance for museums and galleries around the country.

“The expert we applied for and were loaned was Judith Jones, the head audio describer. It’s a very small niche area in New Zealand. There aren’t that many people doing it. But Judith is the go-to. She’s fantastic.”

Cimino invited the Alexander Library, Whanganui Regional Museum and Te Manawa in Palmerston North to attend two days of intensive training, listening and learning about audio describing, also building a network of organisations and people who could put the skills into practice.

“A really good example that Judith gives is imagine you’re holding a mandarin in your hand. The mandarin that I might picture might be one of those really sort of loose-skinned, large, juicy mandarins, but someone else might be imagining a small tight fruit, the size of a tennis ball. It doesn’t resonate the same with everybody,” Cimino said.

There are also many different shades of orange and yellow, different textures, as well as the symbolism and possible meaning of a work.

“And trying to describe the feeling of an artwork. It’s almost poetic,” Bradfield said.

Working at the front of house is a key role for gathering feedback about how visitors are experiencing the gallery.

“If people are happy or grumpy, the front-of-house team tend to get it, and they can see where there might be gaps and what we can give our visitors. So having her insight has been invaluable,” Cimino said.

They intend to apply their learning when the redeveloped gallery is open, initially offering audio describing tours when people could listen to someone describe an artwork for about 20 minutes.

“Eventually we would like to record those and put them on the website through the Vernon system. But once again, it is a matter of time to write out something like that. I think Judith said it can take her four to six hours for one-for-one work so you imagine with 8000-plus items in the gallery collection, that’s a lot of hours. We’d also love to have links on the website so people can listen to the artworks, as does the Tate Gallery in London,” Cimino said.

Audio describing for the Sarjeant is very much a work in progress and may eventually involve seeking and training volunteer help.

“It’s a really interesting journey to look at the world through the accessibility lens and what that means. It also makes me very aware of the language we use and how sometimes the spaces we take for granted are not accessible for everybody and how that needs to change.”