Youth Insights teens meet Danielle Linzer, Director of Access and Community Programs
Jul 14, 2015
Linzer shows YI teens touch objects for Jasper Johns’s Three Flags (1958). Photograph by Hannah Celli
On July 14, Youth Insights Careers participants met with Danielle Linzer, Director of Access and Community Programs. First, Linzer talked to us about access programs at the Whitney. Access programs give visitors of all abilities the opportunity to experience the art on view. Linzer oversees programs such as Verbal Description and Touch Tours for visitors who are blind or have low vision, and Whitney Signs tours for deaf audiences.
YI teens pair off and practice giving and receiving verbal description tours. Photograph by Hannah Celli
Later, Linzer took us to Jasper Johns’s Three Flags (1958) on Floor 6 and taught us how she explains art to people who are blind or have low vision. First, Linzer gave a verbal description of Three Flags and then invited us to feel touch objects which are miniature models of the work made in the same material. We split up into pairs and one participant practiced giving a verbal description tour to their partner who closed their eyes. Hearing Linzer talk about her job was awesome. I never knew that there were jobs like Linzer’s to help people who are blind or partially sighted experience museums. It was also fascinating to learn how a person that is blind experiences art through someone else’s vivid verbal description.
By Liz, YI participant