SHAPE 2017 TateExchange Book FINAL Draft - Flipbook - Page 30
Everything is not lost though, and as well as some very negative experiences
I have had some positive ones too. Three stand out in my mind and I will
describe them briefly.
In 2007 I visited Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. I went mainly to
tour the gardens, which I enjoy, but decided to tag along with the rest of
my group and walk round the house. Each room had a volunteer whose job
was to tell you about the contents and history of that room. They were very
knowledgeable people who were more than happy to answer questions.
The real deal breaker for me, though, was the fact that most of the furniture,
and even the tableware and soft furnishings were replicas, which meant that
they could be touched. This meant that I could get a real feel for the size
and splendour of the rooms. There was plenty of written information as well
which was read to me, but along with the experiences I had, this served, as it
would for any other visitor, to teach me more about the house in its heyday
when Queen Victoria lived there.
In the early eighties, I visited the Natural History Museum in London, as they
had an exhibition for blind and partially sighted people. This was excellent
as everything was there to be touched. I left that exhibition with the lasting
memory of what a mole hill is like as they had re-constructed a cross-section
of one, which I found fascinating, even down to the moles that could be
found in its tunnels. I also learnt that day how large a full grown badger is:
they’re a lot bigger than I imagined they would be! I also left, however, with
the knowledge that this exhibition had barely even scratched the surface of
what is available in the museum as a whole.
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