Museums were usually the number one destination for school field trips. Growing up in Pune, an annual school visit to the Joshi's Museum of Miniature Railways or the Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum was a must. Entering a museum always felt like stepping into an alternate universe or time period — almost like gaining access to a part of culture or history I had never encountered before. Which is why my first instinct was always to look around in awe and then immediately run around and play.

And while museums do have their own etiquettes and codes of conduct, they often miss the sense of childlike whimsy that comes with allowing play and letting go of some of the stiffness so often associated with institutions like these. This rigidity can also make such spaces inaccessible to certain communities, including differently abled individuals, ultimately limiting who gets to fully experience and enjoy them.

The growing emphasis on accessibility in cultural institutions also raises the question of why it has taken so long. For decades, museums, galleries, and even fashion institutions have operated with an assumed “ideal” visitor in mind and is able to engage with spaces in highly specific ways. It is only recently that large-scale institutions have begun publicly acknowledging the importance of disability inclusion. Earlier this month, even the annual exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute made history by including its first dedicated section, centering disability and adaptive fashion at the accompanying exhibition to the Met Gala, a move that is long overdue.

For this International Museum Day, DAG in Kolkata is returning with its annual programme, 'A Weekend in Museums', with this year’s edition focusing on accessibility and inclusion. The programme aims to encourage play and movement within the museum through archival materials, films, and interactive engagement. This year’s edition asks an important question: ‘Who are museums built for?’ By exploring and researching ways museums can become more accessible to every kind of body, the programme is an attempt to rethink how cultural spaces can be made more inclusive for all.

Throughout the three days — the 16th, 17th, and 18th of May — the programme takes visitors on an illuminating journey through workshops and performances that unpack the nuances of inclusion and accessibility. From a sensory scavenger hunt at the Indian Museum, where the museum transforms into a playground where you'll discover queer stories, to a talk by Nu Misra, founder of Revival Disability India, spotlighting stories that exist at the intersection of queerness and disability, the programme offers multiple ways to engage with ideas of access and belonging. It also includes a performance by river bidur titled LEGS OUT OF COMMISSION [Instructions on How to Walk Normally], which explores the systemic and institutional norms imposed by an able-bodied society on differently abled individuals, followed by a Silent Disco party designed to create a space where 'every body' can have fun.

The programme will also host a workshop titled 'Alt Text as Poetry', which explores the descriptive language that makes images more accessible online. Using the open-access course book by Bojana Coklyat and Finnegan Shannon, the DAG team unpacks the importance of this often-overlooked aspect of digital accessibility.

A Weekend in Museums paints a future of museums that is rooted in in returning to that childlike instinct where these spaces are not approached with rigidity or reverence alone. Because culture feels most alive when it can be touched, experienced, and — most importantly — accessed by everyone. 

Check the DAG website out for more information and follow them on Instagram for updates.

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