welcome to Inside Louisville, where we introduce you to the people, places and things that make up Kentucky's largest city.

This week, we take a closer look at accessible art in Louisville.

The Dot experience will open next year at the American Printing House for the blind.

APH is the world's largest nonprofit organization that creates educational materials and workplace tools for people who are blind or visually impaired.

When it opens, the Dot experience will be the most accessible museum in the world, taking visitors through the history of the American printing house and introducing them to prominent blind people in their contributions to society.

This is designed to be fully immersive for all visitors, focusing on tactile experiences, textures, soundscapes, and multi-sensory exhibits, making it a global model for inclusivity in the museum industry.

Here's a look inside the Dot experience.

>> This is the new front door.

The Dot experience is a brand new attraction on Lower Frankfort Avenue.

New front door to American printing house focused on blindness and the human experience.

So authentic first person stories of individuals who are blind and low vision and disabled.

Designed to be the most inclusive museum in the world to change perspectives about blindness and disability and encourage people to act in in new ways to make the world more welcoming for everyone.

Some of the storyline.

Power of Braille.

Power of Touch, Power of People introduces you to the themes of access, warrior, Barrier Breaker, Daydream Believer, and Change Maker, and the qualities and attributes of those kind of people who make change in the world and who do brave and bold things through their lives.

And then you'll be introduced to those same themes throughout the rest of the gallery, first of its kind, in terms of both the content.

So the elevating the lived experiences of individuals who are blind and low vision, really to showcase that, that those individuals have the same kinds of potential and possibilities that that all of us have.

And to really surface the the idea that there are still barriers and biases that exist in the world and that all of us visitors to the Dot experience and and people in our communities have a responsibility to change that and to make changes in the world that welcome everyone.

Also innovative and first of its kind in the world in terms of its comprehensive set of inclusive design standards.

So we are taking into consideration all kinds of individuals and ensuring that everyone who walks through the door of the Dot experience can have a autonomous, empowered, individual experience without relying on someone else who they might be visiting with.

Louisville has so many crown jewels, right?

Whether it's the Derby, Muhammad Ali, the, you know, the Bourbon Trail, I we think that that this dot experience at AFF is going to, you know, take a seat alongside of those really unique and spectacular things in Louisville.

And so I think that it will bring people here.

One of the things that we have as part of the Dot experience is Helen Keller's personal archive.

And so there are Helen Keller fans and fanatics all over the world.

So we think we're going to be a destination for world travelers.

And and, you know, the idea that we are surfacing something about disability and inclusion and really human kindness and openness and humanity in a way that no one else has, I think puts us in a really unique place.

>> Solid light is a local company that was chosen for the planning, design, media and fabrication of the Dot experience.

And Cynthia Thorpe is the founder of Solid Light, a nationally recognized firm, and you've probably seen their work in other places too.

So thanks so much for being here.

This is the type of immersive art that you all are known for.

Tell us a little bit about Solid Light and what it is you all do.

>> Well, we create visitor experiences and storytelling spaces for museums and corporations and cultural centers and venues all across the country.

And and particularly we focus on storytelling.

So that's our expertise.

And and I am really fortunate to have a fantastic team.

All right here in Louisville that it takes a ton of different kinds of talent to do these things.

And people don't always know or think about what it takes to do.

But I have on on staff, we have two and 3D designers, we have architects, we have design detailers, we have content developers and researchers and media people.

We have media designers and editors and animators and fabricators who can just build almost anything.

So it is a wonderful team and it's and it's great fun to do.

>> Yeah.

It's amazing some of the projects that you all have done, and I want to talk about that in a minute.

But first let's talk about the dot experience and being chosen to be a part of this here in Louisville.

And this is supposed to be the most inclusive and accessible museum in the world.

And so what are you thinking when they tell you that?

Is it a daunting task to to put something like that together?

>> Absolutely.

In in this field, in the field we're in and in museums, but in public venues in general, we have just done the bare minimum to accommodate people who are blind or low vision or even other kinds of abilities, people of abilities across the spectrum.

And and so this idea came because the AHF recognized that gap and wanted to create an example for the world of how to do this better.

And so we were honored that they chose us to be their partner.

But the first thing we had to do was figure out how to do it, because nobody had figured out how to do it.

>> First of its kind.

>> Yes, but our goal is welcome, everyone.

It is.

It is our mantra and how we're doing it.

And so we've had to figure it out together.

>> Yeah, it is sort of a trend though when it comes to museums and art.

You know, you're not so much seeing museums with paintings on the walls that you walk through anymore.

A lot of these things, and this is what you all do, are create an experience where people are able to immerse themselves in the art and touch it and be a part of it, right?

>> Right.

And and that has to do a lot with just our changing industry, the changing way.

People actually get their information and take information in.

It has also to do with the different ways we all learn.

But in this particular case, this is a this is a little different.

We're trying to change people's hearts and minds about people who are blind and understand and understand in a whole new way.

And and so for us, we we actually had to develop the story first.

We decided what that framework would be and how we'd how we'd unfold this story within this museum experience.

And then we we engaged a prototyping group that we call the Inclusive Prototyping focus group, which included people of all different kinds of of skills and abilities, people who were blind from birth, people who became blind later in life, people with guide dogs, people in wheelchairs, people who are deaf, people of varying abilities were all part of this focus group.

And so as we began our design process, we would build prototypes and bring this group of people in to test for us.

And that's been the process for how we've been developing it.

>> Yeah, because you got to hear what the people who are accessing it need and want.

And it's it's not only these experiences for people with specific disabilities either.

I mean, this is making it accessible to everyone, right?

Even people who, you know, may not be interested in a museum.

Otherwise they want to have an experience.

And I know you guys have done projects like this all over the country.

And some of these are just incredible.

Tell us about some of the if you've ever been to the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, that's that's yours.

So tell us about some of those that you've created.

>> Well, that's right across the street from where we are right now on Main Street in Louisville.

And in that case, we worked with one of the owners of Heaven Hill Distilleries.

He wanted to tell the story of Louisville and its inception that so many people just don't know.

And and so he wanted to recreate the history of Louisville.

And we did it in a very experiential way.

Nobody really knew what Main Street looked like then.

And so we had to go back to letters and drawings and, and different and work with historians to recreate it, which we have done in this space.

We also created a town meeting, an early town meeting, which we use the actual minutes from the meeting to do that.

So it really was real, but we recreated it so people could experience it and get a different kind of understanding.

The other part to that is it's multimodal.

And when I say that people are different kinds of learners, some people are visual learners, some are tactile, some are audio.

They're just all different kinds of ways that we learn and to connect with people emotionally.

You really do need to appeal to a lot of different senses.

And so that's just one particular example of that.

And the way we we get our information today too.

>> Yeah.

Tell me about some of the other projects that are around the country.

The the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is one.

Right.

And the Susan B Anthony Mount Vernon, I mean, it's it's incredible some of the things.

>> Right, right.

Well at the the National Baseball Hall of Fame, we just opened a project just very recently in conjunction with the announcement of the first Japanese baseball player to be named to the Hall of Fame.

So the exhibit was particularly about Japanese baseball, which is called yakyu.

And and so very, very experiential, very tactile, really an exciting project to work on with the Susan B Anthony Museum in Rochester, New York.

It's been a really exciting project to work on because the home where she that was Command Central during her her decades long crusade to get the right for women to vote, that's been open to the public for many, many years.

But they can't accommodate all the guests.

And so they're expanding the campus and creating a museum.

And we've been fortunate to work with them on that story.

And it's just it's been so great to be able to tell that story through a lot of different perspectives, and to put it in the context of the times that you can understand how really radical of an idea this was, and how brave the people who worked on the movement were, and all the different contemporary people who were actually part of the movement.

So that's been a very exciting project to work on it.

It is right now, we're also working on George Washington's Mount Vernon, that this was his home and the museum there.

We're working on the renovation of that museum, which will open in time for the two 50th.

And we're we're doing that same thing we're creating a lot of multi-modal experiences, a lot of different ways to access the material, but also to see George Washington, the man.

And we're emphasizing his leadership traits.

But but also to have his story told through all the different kinds of people who were around him.

We don't often really realize how multicultural America was at that time.

And and so here is the person who helped develop the American presidency.

But we learn about it in a lot of different ways.

And so it's very exciting to work on, on projects of stories that are that important to our culture.

>> What was it like to going back to the Dot experience, being a local firm that's born and bred here in Louisville, started in your attic, is that right?

>> In the Highlands?

>> In the Highlands.

And and to be a part of this experience, that's going to be the dot experience, which is such an incredible thing for Louisville to have here.

>> It truly is a thrill.

It's a thrill.

After working in this industry for 26 years, I just am so happy to be working on on something that's so groundbreaking.

We just don't even think about in our daily lives.

When you're going into a museum, how does someone who is blind or have low vision experience an artifact that's behind glass, right?

How does someone experience a computer interactive or a video?

How does someone navigate through the museum itself?

And so what's been really, really exciting is to find ways for that to be an equally delightful experience for everyone.

And what we've learned in the process.

It's been fun working with this prototyping group because it's not a monolith.

They don't even agree.

And so it's been fun watching them hash through different kinds of of the communication challenges that museums do have.

Right.

It's been interesting watching them come up with solutions together.

And they have fortunately been very honest and told us when they thought we were wrong or didn't have it yet.

So we'd go back to the drawing board and recreate new prototypes and bring it back to the group.

And and so it's been a really exciting thing.

And so we've been speaking about this a around the country at different conferences in our industry.

And we're hoping this really will be a groundbreaking thing for the rest of the industry so that more and more this can be mainstream.

>> Well, thank you so much for being here.

We appreciate it.

The idea of immersive art, by the way, is spreading outside the museum just across the street.

In fact, a new mural created by Louisville Visual Art and the Kentucky School for the Blind Charitable Foundation depicts the history of the Clifton neighborhood in another multi-sensory experience.

Take a look.

>> Okay.

Oh my gosh, so beautiful.

>> It is Kentucky's first multi-sensory public art mural, and it's in Louisville's Clifton neighborhood.

>> We tied it into a lot of the local history and the lore of the neighborhood, and so we took those large scale illustrations that I had drawn, and we printed them and then translated that to flat slabs of clay, which were hand cut and hand carved.

So every piece on here was completely made by hand.

>> The anchor of this neighborhood is the American Printing House for the blind and the Kentucky School for the blind, a large part of the inspiration for public art right across the street.

>> Raise your hand.

Feel that side.

>> This was a learning experience for me.

It came just through being at the school and working with the students at the school for the blind, and realizing that there was a disconnect between my practice as a visual artist and what they were able to experience.

And I wanted to I wanted to design something that appealed to the low vision person, and then also the person who maybe didn't have vision.

And so it was just taking the idea of art, you know, and the principles of design, elements of design and taking all of those ideas and trying to make something that was enjoyable in multiple sensory experiences.

>> Whoa.

>> The 58 foot curved wall is covered in more than 4000 handmade ceramic tiles, all meant to be touched.

To feel your way through the history of this historic neighborhood.

>> It's important because we all really experience things with our five senses simultaneously.

And so if we can, if we can tap into that, then really it's creating a sense of empathy and understanding to those of those of us who may not have full accessibility of all five senses.

>> Are you taking in all those colors?

>> I think in a digital age where we're seeing so much just on a screen visually, that we're looking for experiences that we can be in the world and touch grass and, and experience things in a way that are the exact opposite of that.

And so, you know, something that's truly handmade and something that has time and effort into it and that has all of that energy stored up in the piece.

I think that it's been very relatable.

It's been interesting to see the wide variety of people who have found a lot of enjoyment out of that.

>> Angela Hagen is the executive director of Louisville Visual Art, the sort of mastermind behind that mural.

How cool was it to see that revealed?

It was just amazing to see that in the neighborhood.

What what what was your experience being involved in this project?

>> Sure.

Well, I wouldn't want to call myself or LVA in particular, the mastermind.

Really.

We are partners in this with Liz Richter, who's the lead artist.

And it was it was her vision as she was teaching classes, teaching art classes at the Kentucky School for the blind and living in that neighborhood and walking around and and thinking, couldn't we do something more for art with with the people, for the people who live in this neighborhood and the and the people who are here experiencing it, walking around with different abilities and said, what could we do?

LVA and it sketched out some some ideas on a napkin as Lindy Casebier, the secretary of the tourism, Art and heritage cabinet who was a former director of LVA, had said.

And they started working on this idea years ago.

I I've been here a little over a year and got to really put the resources together to, to get this stuff moving in, in motion and wrapped up in partnership with Liz and the other artists, the community, the Clifton community, our many donors, our staff.

It's a project undertaking like this is really it's really big.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

And we spoke to Liz about that and her vision and bringing it to life and, and how this is sort of a trend of people not going into a museum and seeing art and don't touch.

It's more of an immersive experience across the board.

This type of accessible art, >> Right, art form, what we like to say is more art for more people in more places.

At LVA, we want to bring that to everyone in all communities.

And yes, it's I love to go to museums and I love to look at art.

I think that we need more art in public places, public spaces, and so that people can engage with it.

And it's part of tourism, it's part of economic development.

It's part of a sense of pride and belonging in a community.

I'm sure we've all traveled to places like Chicago or Philadelphia, where we see public art out on the streets, sculptural elements, things like that.

Or even we have gallop Appaloosa horses around town.

Although you're not supposed to touch or sit on those, this is definitely something that people can interact with.

People, you know, children, right?

People with small children.

Can I touch this?

Can I engage with this for this project in particular?

What's exciting for me is that this was designed from the ground up conceptually, with accessibility for more people in mind, for people with different abilities from from the tactile nature of it and engagement to the website that we have that allows people who can't physically be there to learn more about it, to even the the landscaping around it, the design friendliness of that, so that people who are low vision can use a cane and know that they're entering a space, right.

So and that it's paved in, in the ground is even because this is in the middle of a park, right, right.

That people can, can who are using a chair can get up to it and the ground is even and safe for them.

So I really love that it's that it's meant for everybody.

>> Yeah.

And you mentioned some of those, the public art, which is what Elva and your mission has been, is to create this type of public art, a new one that just has, has gone up.

Is that the Humana building?

>> Yes, yes.

And so that is more of a traditional mural.

LV has been involved in mural projects for several years now.

This is the biggest one though.

So Jalen Stewart is a local artist and muralist who we engaged.

He has a large crew who's been working on this.

It's an 8000 square foot parking garage that is is spiral.

So I'm drawing this out in my mind.

Right.

It's four tiers of parking garage, ramp going up.

It's so beautiful and colorful.

Right across from Waterfront Park on Humana's campus downtown.

And it's really going to change.

It is changing the skyline of Louisville.

So when you when you're looking at Louisville from across the river in southern Indiana, it's it's it's a big feature, kind of like the Colgate clock that we're all familiar with.

You can see it that far, or when you're flying your plane, flying into town on a plane, you will will see this bright, colorful mural.

I mean, it's blues and greens and plums and all kinds of colors that really pop out.

>> Yeah.

What?

Why is that so important to the community aspect of Louisville?

>> I believe that public art and local art creates a real sense of space and place and uniqueness.

Right?

It's not a cookie cutter, the same.

The same logos, buildings, things in each town.

It creates something that people want to be a part of.

You go to Chicago and you see the bean, right?

You don't have a bean in every city, right?

And you, you feel like, oh, I'm in a new a different backdrop.

And and sometimes public art will reflect the communities in particular or have a local aspect that references the community, like the like the project in Clifton.

Right.

This this tactile mural is literally showing the history of the Clifton neighborhood and present day with historic landmark buildings.

Right.

So it's these historical references and present day, and I'm hoping that people will come from out of town, as well as people from around Louisville and within the neighborhood there to say, gosh, this is really cool.

This is something I couldn't find anywhere else.

>> You can watch and stream this episode anytime online at Ket.org Louisville, and be sure to follow us on social media for more behind the scenes of the experience and more, you can find us on Instagram at KET.

Lou, thanks for spending a little time getting to know Louisville.

I hope we'll see you here next time.

Until then, make it a great week!