Artists Challenge Museum Accessibility Debates Through Practice

Published on June 12, 2022, an essay in ARTMargins examines the tensions in museum accessibility since the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. It contrasts 1990s museum educator manuals with works by New York City artists Carolyn Lazard, Jordan Lord, and Park McArthur, who integrated access into their art during the 2010s. The analysis reveals how these practices move beyond individual attitude shifts to address structural conditions, highlighting the conflict between public expectations and market forces. The piece appears in ARTMargins Volume 11, Issue 1-2, pages 29-49, and is available via MIT Press under subscription-only access. This scholarly contribution critiques the limitations of accessibility reforms, emphasizing bottom-up approaches involving parametric gradients and attitudinal changes.