Take me back to the origins of Climate Changing and where the idea came from. The seed of it started in thinking about the slot the exhibition was to occupy. It was supposed to open May 29 of 2020 and was to be the final exhibition in the Wexner Center’s 30th anniversary year. I wanted to use that position to think about the past as much as the present and future of the institution and to introduce some self-reflexivity by asking, “What are museums for? Whom are museums for?” How did you arrive at the title Climate Changing? We wanted a name that was active, a call to arms that would speak to not only the urgent issue of climate change but also to the need to create a climate for change. The title is an acknowledgment that the world is changing fast, and we have a role to play in that. One of the major components of the exhibition is the restaging of Chris Burden’s Wexner Castle (1990). Why resurrect that work now? The piece was originally created for the final exhibition of the Wexner Center’s inaugural year. Burden transformed the south facade of the museum into a castle by crenellating the smoothed-over brick sections of Peter Eisenman’s deconstructivist architectural design. The decision to mount the work 30 years later was very measured. My intent was to use it as a launchpad to ask a series of questions, like whether the museum is a fortress or castle to protect cultural objects or a platform for producing new ones. Was Burden asking those questions 30 years ago? He was really framing that work more as a beef with Eisenman and his architectural design for the Wex, which was pretty daring because it was a formidable building. A New York Times critic called it “the museum that theory built.” Burden said in an interview at the time, “I can’t believe they’re letting me do this.” Burden was taking issue with Eisenman, but do you think he was also making a statement about the “museum as fortress”? I can’t help but think that by calling it “Wexner Castle,” he was leveling a critique. If you look back at his previous works, you’ll see a trajectory that deals with institutional critique. With Exposing the Foundation of the Museum (1986–88) at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles’ Temporary Contemporary, he dug into the ground around the building to expose its foundation and what’s holding the museum up. With Samson (1985), installed at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, he employed a 100-ton jack attached to a turnstile that pushed on the walls of the museum. Every time someone entered the museum, it threatened to bring the building down. I imagine the Wexner Center itself is not exempt from this critique. Are we boldly taking on our own institution here as well? I did want to take on the Wex itself and institutions more broadly in the way that a lot of museums have been doing in the past five
Margaret Price on Accessibility MELISSA STARKER CREATIVE CONTENT AND PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER Ask Margaret Price the question, What is accessibility? and you’ll get an answer that goes beyond neat definitions. “Access is not something you achieve and then say, ‘Look! I made an accessible space; there’s the interpreter, there’s the ramp, we’re good to go,’” she says. “Access is unfolding, it’s situational, it’s not something you finish—it’s very much a practice.”
Margaret Price, photo © Sandra Costello.
Margaret Price: Transforming Access
MARY Professor ABOWD,ofASSOCIATE EDITOR An Associate English and the Director of Disability Studies at Ohio State, Price served on Climate Changing’s faculty advisory Askcommittee, Ohio State’saMargaret group ofPrice five professors the question, (including “What isDan accessibility?” DiPiero, andErica you’llLevin, get an Maurice answerStevens, that goesand beyond Lucille neat Toth) definitions. from a “Access rangeisacademic not something disciplines youwhose achieve creative and then thinking say, ‘Look! on themes I made an of accessibility, accessible shared space; there’s space, and the interpreter, the future of there’s institutions the ramp, likewe’re museums goodinformed to go,’” she the says. exhibition “Accessand is unfolding, its related it’s programming relational, it’sinnot profound something ways. you finish—it’s very much a practice.” Since An coming to Ohio State inin2014, Price has worked with and the associate professor the Department of English colleagues on of the Access Project, initiative that director itsTransformative Disability Studies Program, Pricean served on Climate reimagines access as a advisory collective process centered ethnicity, Changing’s faculty committee, a group in of race, five professors gender, sexuality, anddisciplines class. “Transformative access is from a rangedisability, of academic whose creative thinking more on than who can get in the door safelyspace, and comfortably,” she themes of accessibility, shared and the future of says. “To quote [leading disability theorist] Titchkosky, it’s ‘an institutions like museums informed theTanya exhibition and its related interpretive relationin between bodies.’” programming profound ways. Price’sSince forthcoming Crip Spacetime, grew out of awith coming book, to Ohio State in 2016,which Price has worked studycolleagues of disabledon university faculty, incorporates principles of the Transformative Access Project, an initiative that transformative on quantum physicson to race, forgeethnicity, a reimaginesaccess accessand as adraws collective process focusing new theory accessibility in higher education. gender,about sexuality, disability, and class. “Transformative access is Though more her than findings whotarget can get university in the door campuses, safely and they comfortably,” also apply she to museums. says. Quoting So what, leading to Price, disability makes theorist a museum Tanyaaccessible? Titchkosky, she adds, “The absolute it’s “an interpretive number one, relation nonnegotiable betweenthing bodies.” is to have an engaged group of users/designers who are constantly practicing Price’s forthcoming book Crip Spacetime, which grew out of a transformative access for and around that space,” Price says. “The study of disabled university faculty, incorporates principles of museum could have 20 steps up to the front door, and I would transformative access and draws on rhetorical theory, critical still think that the users/designers who are engaged in a constant geography, and architecture to forge a new theory about practice of access would be more important.” accessibility in higher education. Read more by and about Margaret Price on our blog at wexarts.org.
Though her findings target university campuses, they also apply to museums. So what, to Price, makes a museum accessible? “The absolute number one, nonnegotiable thing is to have an engaged group of users/designers who are constantly practicing transformative access for and around that space,” Price says. “The museum could have 20 steps up to the front door, and I would still think that the users/designers who are engaged in a constant practice of access would be more important.” Read more by and about Margaret Price at wexarts.org/blog.
