From Please Touch to ArtAccess: The Expansion of a Museum-Based Art Therapy Program

Abstract

This brief report describes the growth and expansion of the ArtAccess program at Queens Museum in New York, NY, that is shaped and operated by art therapists and teaching artists. ArtAccess was first piloted in 1983 as Please Touch for individuals who are blind or have low vision. The authors conducted oral history research using interviews, digital documents, and hard-copy documents to report the programmatic expansion of the community-based art therapy program. They describe the rhizomatic growth of ArtAccess and share how a program generated to address museum accessibility for one population is now serving numerous diverse populations in onsite and offsite settings, through the collaborative and cumulative work of several art therapists, educators, and teaching artists.