The Women’s Mobile Museum was created to travel and adapt; to move into neighborhoods underserved by Philadelphia’s arts institutions; and to be accessible in the broadest sense of the word. With help from the Juniata Action Committee of Juniata Park and Diversified Community Services of Point Breeze, WMM traveled to two community centers in the fall of 2018. With training from Sister Elaine George, the head of the Juniata Action Committee and a teacher of students with visual impairments, WMM artists took up the challenge to make their community exhibitions accessible with tactile graphics, audio descriptions, object displays, and live modeling.
WMM’s first public exhibition was shown at the Juniata Park Boys and Girls Club from September 22 – October 13, 2018. The second exhibition was on view in Dixon House in Point Breeze from October 27 – November 17. The exhibition occupied half of Dixon House’s gymnasium, with the other half open for job fairs, baby showers and, in November, voting booths. WMM’s community exhibitions provided a unique chance for people going about their day to encounter transformative art. As one woman who came in to Dixon House to vote and took the time to tour the museum wrote in a visitor survey: “I felt the art touch my soul to look beyond and see.”
