Open Doors DVD published

Open Doors DVD is an international guide to improve access to culture

 

The DVD guide Open Doors - Making Cultural Heritage Sites and Exhibitions Accessible has been produced by the Art Museum Development Department of the Finnish National Gallery in collaboration with the MediaLab from the University of Art and Design Helsinki. The DVD had its premier on Wednesday the 31 st of January 2007. The DVD guide is produced within a wider international cultural heritage project called ACCU. Access to Cultural Heritage: Policies of Presentation and Use 2004-2007 project is led by the Finnish National Board of Antiquities. The project is supported by the Culture 2000 Programme of the European Union and has partners from Finland, United Kingdom, Germany and Greece.

The Open Doors DVD is intended for cultural service providers. The DVD guide is an inspiring and illustrative tool to improve the accessibility and user friendliness of cultural heritage sites. The extensive audio visual guide includes an introduction film and eight short films (113 minutes in total). Each short film addresses one section of accessibility. The sections are familiarizing oneself with the needs of diverse audiences, creating policies and action plans, making access surveys, improving communication, the barrierfree built environment, facilitating understanding, taking into account diverse cultural backgrounds and encouraging learning.

The examples in the guide have been collected from different development projects of museums and other cultural heritage sites. Finnish musician Riikka Hänninen gives her own subjective view on experiencing and enjoying culture on the DVD.

The DVD offers five subtitle options, and the introduction film can also be viewed by utilizing international sign language or audio description in English.

 

The DVD is free of charge. Subscriptions from Finland: shop(at)fng.fi (delivering costs will be charged) or The Finnish National Board of Antiquities, Development Unit, P.O. Box 913, 00101 Helsinki, Finland (mark down in the envelope: "Open Doors DVD"). Subscriptions from outside Finland to tapani.sainio(at)nba.fi or to the postal address of the Finnish National Board of Antiquities.

More Information:
Director Helena Hyvärinen, Finnish National Gallery, tel. +358 (0)44 587 2077, helena.hyvarinen@fng.fi
project manager Sari Salovaara, Finnish National Gallery, tel. +358 (0)40 5078660, sari.salovaara@fng.fi 
cordinator Tapani Sainio, Finnish National Board of Antiquities, tel. +358 (0)9 4050 9371, tapani.sainio@nba.fi

 

More information on the ACCU project: www.accessculture.org.