Towards Equality: Culture and Education in Dialogue

In recent years, accessibility and equal participation in society have become increasingly significant issues worldwide. Despite the evident need, no country has yet achieved full societal inclusion for individuals with disabilities. While mental barriers play a role, the primary challenges lie in the infrastructure, which for centuries has been designed exclusively for people without physical or intellectual disabilities. This reality also affects cultural and educational institutions, where accessibility often remains limited. Even today, accessibility is not a mandatory requirement for building permits.

 Cultural and educational facilities are no exception. With 2-3 wheelchair spaces in the audience, a level entrance and perhaps an accessible bathroom, efforts to provide equal access to culture and education often reach their limits.

Cultural and educational institutions are no exception. Measures such as 2-3 wheelchair spaces in the audience, a level access, and possibly a wheelchair-accessible toilet are often insufficient to achieve true equal access. On and behind the stage, the situation is typically even more challenging. Accessing theatre or music stages, working in libraries or educational institutions is often difficult, if not impossible: accessibility remains a key challenge here too.

However, there are pioneers in this area as well: individuals who advocate for accessibility, form initiatives, launch projects, and implement practical examples of how accessibility can be achieved in cultural and educational institutions. In Germany, due to active awareness and the efforts of many engaged individuals, there is substantial experience, research, and temporary measures available. This is where our project comes in.

We aim to bring together the already established pilot initiatives and experts in accessible culture and education, supplemented by an infrastructural perspective, with people in Armenia who manage cultural and educational institutions and regularly face the issue of accessibility. The goal is to provide inspiration, exchange experiences, and discuss potential solutions.

From October 23 to 26, 2024, the premiere of the performance “Finding a Common Language” will be held in Yerevan. This piece, involving 30 children and teenagers, addresses our diverse society, commonalities and differences, and the exploration of the space we create. Finding a Common Language aims to create a world where, despite language differences, disabilities, war trauma, and other challenges, a common language can be found—a language of accessibility in our minds and our spaces.

In conjunction with the premiere, we want to initiate a dialogue with and between cultural and educational institutions to also provide impulses to those responsible for the possibility of language, striving to find a universally accessible language and structure in culture and education.

Our discussion project “Towards Equality: Culture and Education in Dialogue” aims to overcome accessibility challenges in Armenia’s cultural and educational sectors through dialogue and the exchange of experiences between experts from Germany and Armenia.

Date: The event will take place on October 25, 2024, 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM.

Location: Goethe Center Yerevan (Mher Mkrtchyan 1, 0010 Yerevan)

Program:

• 10:30 – 10:45: Welcome
• 10:45 – 12:30: Keynote lectures by Dr. Christiane Schrübbers, Irmgard Badura, and Dr. Kate Brehme
• 12:30 – 2:00: Interactive discussion
• 2:00 – 3:00: Networking opportunities

 

About the Experts:

Dr. Kate Brehme is a curator and arts educator with a disability. She has worked on various projects, exhibitions, and events in Australia, Scotland, and Germany, including The Space Between (CLB Berlin, 2023), the final exhibition of UNBOUND, Germany’s first transdisciplinary residency program for artists with and without disabilities, Queering the Crip, Cripping the Queer at Schwules Museum (2022-2023), and The Hidden Project, a Goethe-Institut course on accessible curating (2021-22). Since 2017, she has co-directed Berlinklusion, Berlin’s network for accessibility in arts and culture.

Dr. Christiane Schrübbers is a museum educator and consultant for inclusion and accessibility in cultural institutions and museums. Since 1981, she has been involved in training museum guides and developing methods that address the needs of people with disabilities. Her projects include organizing tactile tours, sign language tours, and adapting museum texts into easy-to-read formats. She was also responsible for creating the “Checklist for Accessible Exhibition Design.” In her work, Dr. Schrübbers actively involves people with disabilities as “experts in their own right” in advising and reviewing the accessibility of exhibitions.

 

The project is supported by the German Embassy in Armenia and the Goethe-Center in Yerevan.