Abigail Hirsch - Honorary Lecturer

Since completing her Fine Art studies in Goldsmiths, University of London, Abigail Hirsch has followed the path of socially engaged practice. She has gained a track record in creating work in collaboration with diverse marginalized communities, and supported artists with disabilities (Action Space), providing access to fully enable participation in the arts. She has curated several exhibitions promoting inclusive art practice.

Abigail works as a freelance. She has been a key person in the development and delivery of the SEN access program at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. She has completed several commissions creating multi-sensory access resources for museums and heritage, notably Victoria and Albert Museum's first sensory backpack for visitors with sensory impairments and their families.

Her professional experience includes partnerships with Sparwasser HQ an exhibition space and project based in Berlin, House der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin, The Old Royal Naval College (ORNC), London, Alexandra Palace, London, and The Council for Conservation of Heritage Sites in Israel.

Abigail lectures on accessibility in museums and heritage within the Museum Studies MA course.

Research Interests

• Inclusive museum
• Widening access to heritage and museums
• Socially engaged practice in museums
• Visitors engagement with heritage
• Visitors experience
• Museums and heritage interpretation
• Sensory museology
• The impact of diversity in museum visitors on audience's learning experience
• Museum learning

Selected recent publications

• Access to art: Different ways of looking, Multisensory Research, Volume 26, 2013, pp. 144.
• Sound in Relation to Image, NOISEGATE, Issue 12, Summer, 2004, pp. 33-44.