We were lucky to catch up with Cheryl Fogle-hatch recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Cheryl thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.
I founded MuseumSenses to help museums develop exhibits with tactile and audio components. Museums need to become more accessible. Objects that are exhibited at museums are usually presented visually, behind glass, or roped off. This practice excludes visitors who are Blind, and it deprives sighted visitors of the benefits of learning through touch. When exhibits can be touched, they can be experienced by everyone regardless of their visual acuity.
Cheryl, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I founded MuseumSenses drawing on a combination of research skills, past employment in museums, and lived experience as a blind person. I know that tactile media, 2.5-dimensional raised line drawings and 3-dimensional models, are crucial for learning about everything from art to science. Unfortunately, tactile media can be hard to find. This means that blind students often struggle in classes, and blind adults often miss out on crucial experiences. I am striving to make tactile media more common in museums so everyone can learn and fully experience exhibits. I hope this will help sighted people understand the importance of tactile graphics and 3D models, which, I hope will inspire artists and designers to create more tactile media.
I am the co-curator of the Founding Fossils exhibit at the Peale Museum in Baltimore.
The exhibit features 3D-printed replicas of fossils collected by early American leaders like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The exhibit includes framed pictures and tactile objects with both print and braille labels.
Visit https://museumsenses.org to learn about this and other projects.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I didn’t originally plan to start a business. I wanted to get a job in a museum that matched my academic background. People in my professional network would sometimes ask me to give them feedback on how they could improve accessibility of exhibits. One or two paid me. I started marketing myself by word of mouth through my network, but then Covid happened. I was home all the time. That’s when I started writing my blog to establish my expertise, and I began business planning. I did my first onsite visit with a museum client right after the team got our first vaccines.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I’m fortunate that I built my business with my knowledge and experience. I was able to market my expertise and began building business infrastructure with payments from my consulting work.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://museumsenses.org
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/cheryl-fogle-hatch/
Image Credits
Images Courtesy of the Peale Museum in Baltimore