What's it all about?
Image by Andy Warner; Sensory Tour at MK Gallery with Project Artworks
Clients include: Kew Gardens, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, National Maritime Museum, MK Gallery, Rose Theatre Kingston, Place Theatre Bedford, Toddington Village. |
Sensory Tours are interactive, multi-sensory and playful experiences that can be used to develop and support new audiences, and/or to create opportunities for early years children and people with complex needs to access culture, heritage, horticulture, and nature through the language of sensory communication.
Sensory Tours can take place in theatres, galleries, museums, gardens, schools...virtually anywhere! Sensory Tours help build visitor confidence, establishing positive and warm relationships and ameliorating some of the practical difficulties that visits can bring. They also support visitors in finding a pathway through complex collections or large sites in ways that are meaningful, that offer structure, and that promote feelings of comfort and safety above all else. From this safe base, tendrils of curiosity begin to grow, encouraging wider exploration and engagement. |
Sensory Tours deepen people's experiences of the visual arts, museum collections, play spaces, gardens...they make the abstract concrete, and enable difficult themes and concepts to be animated through sensory stimulation provided by specially prepared, collected and curated props, resources, and shared experiences.
We produce tours and trails with and for early years children and those with a wide range of needs, from Autistic Spectrum Conditions to PMLD, to those living with anxiety or dementia; we love co-production with our audiences. We also design and provide Audio Described tours for people with visual impairments.
What can a tour or trail include?
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Sensory Tours are bespoke for each venue and for the outcomes the venue is looking to achieve. Here are some case studies:
A family holds the 'anchor' pose, mirroring the line of real, giant ship's anchors in the grounds of the National Maritime Museum. Variations and differentiations provided for wheelchair or buggy users. Photo by National Maritime Museum.
ational Maritime Museum - part of Royal Museums Greenwich, and holds over 2 million objects reflecting maritime history.
Outcome Sought - a reintroduction to the outdoor spaces around the museum following Lockdown for families, including those with complex needs. Provision - two free trails around the site, one linked to the collections and another exploring features of the site's landscape and architecture. Trail 1 was a 'Hide & Seek' bird trail integrating images of birds on ship badges from the museum's collections with opportunities to use imagination and movement relating to the bird. Participants in Trail 1 were encouraged to explore the whole site, and the activities on each trail board provided prompts for physical activities that offered sensory feedback and regulation, as well as encouragement to make noises and take ownership of the grounds. Trail 2 invited families to visit specific elements of the grounds and interact with them through movement, games, or self-created sensory experiences as if training for 'Sailor School'. Trail 2 was tiered to differing needs with pathways suitable for PMLD and wheelchair or buggy users, through to primary aged children, then teens and adults. Trail boards integrated items from the collections with activities relating to maritime training, from using the acoustics of a tunnel to explore Morse Code, to turning the natural and fortuitous placement of trees on the lawn into a giant navigational compass. Results - a range of families accessed the trails, including those with very young children and those with children with autistic spectrum conditions, some returned multiple times to explore both trails, attempt new pathways through Trail 2, or to repeat activities because they then became familiar and just part of the visit. Visitors reported feeling welcome and safe on site, and discovered new features and play possibilities within the grounds as well as increasing their knowledge and applied experience of aspects of maritime history. Visitors appreciated the care and thought given not only to Covid-safer ways to play and the ways the trail carefully considered how to reduce levels of anxiety, but that the specific needs of visitors with complex SEND had been integrated throughout. The trails have since been used multiple times by the museum post-pandemic and continue to prove popular. The National Maritime Museum won Best Family Venue in the 2020 Fantastic For Families awards by the Family Arts Campaign, and part of the nomination included the sensory trails we created for them. The Rose Theatre, Kingston Upon Thames - 899 seat commercial theatre and producing house, presenting a programme of professional touring work, plus international and local festivals. The theatre also hosts 'Let Me In' festival, an annual celebration of theatre for and by people with learning disabilities. Outcome Sought - enhanced provision for young people and adults with learning disabilities accessing 'Let Me In'; also, a showcase opportunity for other theatre venues to see a Sensory Venue Tour in action. Participants have included early years children, adults with profound and multiple learning disabilties (PMLD) and young people with autistic spectrum conditions. Provision - an annual tour as part of the 'Let Me In' inclusive arts festival including the box office, cafe, auditorium, workshop, and stage areas. Use of bespoke sensory installations, sound and light effects, costume and props sourced from the theatre's own stock, items selected from the workshop by the technical team, and opportunities to hear live vocals and theatrical speech on the stage. Results - Now in its second year, participating groups have included adults and children with complex needs in a shared experience alongside their families and/or carers. Activities that created most impact included use of lighting and music to create a sea storm effect throughout the auditorium - lots of requests and indications from participants for repetition; the use of a mirror with one young man to enable him to look at his own reflection, the lighting bars and ceiling above him - his delight, expressed through vocalisations, wide eyes, and an open laughing mouth, was wonderful to witness; use of a stage fan and artificial snow, plus Christmas songs performed live in two-part harmony - this activity went on for around 15 minutes before participants' attention lapsed. The theatre intends to repeat the tour activity each year and we will look to build on offering more opportunities for participants to explore special stage effects through lighting and sound. |
MK Gallery, Milton Keynes- public art gallery in city centre
Outcome Sought - to widen access to the building and its collections for early years children and people of all ages with learning disabilities, PMLD, and a wide range of other complex needs. Provision - A regular programme of Sensory Tours broken down into Toddle Tours, children and young people with complex needs, and adults with complex needs; these take place each school holiday, including half term. Each tour is around 25 minutes long and includes experiences designed to promote feelings of security and belonging in the building; to help individuals and their families to understand what the 'rules' of the building are e.g. that while it's often quiet in the galleries, it's okay to make noise and stim, etc; to offer experiences that help bring different exhibitions to life through all the senses thus promoting deeper engagement with visual arts. Development of a sensory venue map, co-produced with Sensory Consultants with a wide range of ages and needs, to help visitors with sensory sensitivities to navigate the building; the map forewarns of floor textures, colour changes, lighting, and other architectural features that may be useful for people to be aware of. Tours delivered include: Lie Of The Land (multi-artist exhibition); All Done From Nature, George Stubbs; A Panoramic View, Dame Laura Knight; Carbon Slowly Turning, Ingrid Pollard; Vivian Maier: Anthology (coming soon, summer 2022) Results - tours are always fully booked in advance of the day, and many of the families or groups that have experienced a tour have then gone on to join in with some of the other activities offered by the gallery. A group of adults with learning disabilities have received training and support to design and deliver their own sensory tours of the George Stubbs 'All From Nature' exhibition as part of the Explorers Conference about access and inclusion in the arts; this national conference, led by Project Artworks, was held at the gallery during November 2019. The first iteration of the sensory map is available now for visitors to use; the gallery also provides a Sensory Explorers kit with ear defenders, fidget toys, and some other resources that may be useful for some visitors with sensory needs. In Development for 2022 Training volunteers at Kew Gardens to deliver sensory tours in the Mediterranean Garden, plus sensory stories and free-flow play activities to support Quiet Sessions in the Children's Garden across the summer season. Platinum Jubilee Trail for Toddington village, Bedfordshire. Selection of co-produced and community engaged trails for Toddington Village, Bedfordshire, during Lockdown: Find & Keep Trails (seasonal - hiding handcrafted or painted items around the village for people to find on their walks and keep to raise a smile, themed for Christmas Eve, New Year, butterfly and wildflower conservation, Remembrance Sunday); Ad Hoc Snowman Trail to make the most of the weather; Fairy Door Trail - over 80 local families adopted and painted fairy doors that were then hidden and displayed around the village; Sensory Stomp Walk around the local nature reserve exploring flowers and grasses, and turning them into art; Real life Bear Hunt using a digital trail app on a smartphone - at each trail marker, explorers could watch a signed and sung section of the story and then try a real-world experience by really walking through swishy-swashy grass, squelching in mud, crossing a river, etc, culminating in visiting a woven tunnel of branches (the bear's cave) where 7 painted wooden bears were hidden. For more info on trails past and present in Toddington CLICK HERE What do we do?Using our expertise, and our passion for low cost/no cost solutions, we can:
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We are very happy to work in partnership with in-house theatre productions or visiting companies to help develop Relaxed Performances and can place Sensory Venue Tours around these as part of the lead up to opening night. We also love working with your in-house technical teams, your front of house volunteers and staff, or any other key personnel to engage and involve them in the development and delivery of tours.
Don't hesitate to get in touch to discuss your needs and ideas: we are passionate about everyone having calm, safe, and wonderful relationships with art, culture, heritage, horticulture, gardens, and nature.
Don't hesitate to get in touch to discuss your needs and ideas: we are passionate about everyone having calm, safe, and wonderful relationships with art, culture, heritage, horticulture, gardens, and nature.