“Royal Ontario Museum Announces New Accessibility ... - Art Daily” plus 2 more |
- Royal Ontario Museum Announces New Accessibility ... - Art Daily
- Reporter's guide to hikes is free to all - Arizona Daily Star
- Pass some Portland time - Philadelphia Daily News
| Royal Ontario Museum Announces New Accessibility ... - Art Daily Posted: 05 Jun 2010 05:55 PM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.
TORONTO.- During National Access Awareness Week, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) announced new major accessibility initiatives, including the launch of Tactile Tours for visitors who are blind or have vision loss and a partnership with George Brown College's School of Deaf and Deafblind Studies to provide ASL-English Interpreted Tours for visitors who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing. This partnership is the first of its kind Canada. The Museum is pleased to announce a substantial new gift of $1.5 million from an anonymous donor to support these and other accessibility programs.
| "These initiatives demonstrate our dedication and desire to exceed visitor expectations," said William Thorsell, ROM Director and CEO. "Through our new partnership with George Brown College, and the generous support of our donors for these initiatives, the ROM continues to engage audiences who may not have been able to experience the Museum and its collections." The ROM was recently honoured by the Honourable Madeleine Meilleur, Minister of Community and Social Services, for its leading role in the implementation of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) and was identified as being on par with the Ministry's aspirations for a barrier-free Ontario. Minister Meilleur said, "Amazing things can happen when barriers are removed and we welcome people of all abilities into our community. The people at the Royal Ontario Museum know this well. The ROM's new programs will ensure the Museum and its collections can be enjoyed by visitors of all abilities." "As a former Minister responsible for Accessibility, I am very pleased that this generous gift will help us in our efforts to exceed the expectations of the AODA," said Dr. Marie Bountrogianni, President and Executive Director, ROM Governors. This new $1.5 million gift provides far-reaching support for the Museum's Accessibility initiatives, establishing new programs and creating additional materials to engage visitors of all ages and abilities. Tactile Tours
ASL- English Interpreted Tours
As part of the interpreting educational program, third-year students and graduates will work closely with the ROM's Visitor Relations Department to provide ASL English interpretation of the Museum's highlights for those visitors who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing. The free ASL-English Interpreted Tours are offered every first Thursday of the month as part of the general Museum tour. The first will take place on June 3, 2010 at 1pm. A Significant Investment in support of Accessibility
The gift also establishes a new Children's Education and Family Programming Fund, offering thousands of children access to a ROM Summer Camp experience and the ROM's School Visits Program, and interactive programming during ROMkids weekends and March Break. This gift created the recently-launched Tiny Tot Tuesdays, a sensory adventure for parents, caregivers and children five-and -under as they tour the galleries with our Early Childhood Educators. The ROM Education website will also be enhanced to become a comprehensive stop for teachers and students, providing curriculum-focused resources based on the Museum's collections. This gift builds on the generosity of the ongoing support through the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Museum Accessibility Fund to develop large wall mounted tactile maps and guides with Braille and large format map guides (currently available online). Tactile-scaled reproductions on labeled Braille plinths will be introduced into various galleries. Shoppers Home Health Care has also contributed to Accessibility at the ROM through in kind gifts of wheelchairs and first aid equipment, including automated external defibrillators. With these Accessibility goals in mind, the ROM is adding several enhancements to the upcoming The Warrior Emperor and China's Terracotta Army, opening June 26, 2010, making it the most accessible exhibition in the ROM's history. Visitors will encounter captioning on all videos with narration, braille labels to accompany touchable objects, and prominent, large font on numerous graphics. All exhibition texts and labels will also be available in Mandarin." Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Reporter's guide to hikes is free to all - Arizona Daily Star Posted: 30 May 2010 12:02 AM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. We have the perfect companion for your hiking adventures. "Hikes Close to Tucson," by the Star's Doug Kreutz, is a free guide that includes a map of Tucson's surrounding mountains with details about outdoor opportunities in each. The brochure also describes four hikes. The map and mountain descriptions were originally printed in ¡Vamos! Now the presentation is in a convenient format to carry along or to give to visiting friends and family. Kreutz, whose hiking stories appear twice a month in Saturday's Out & About, spends practically every weekend trekking trails in the mountains, canyons and deserts of Southern Arizona. The pocket guide is free at Summit Hut, 5045 E. Speedway and 605 E. Wetmore Road, and at the Arizona Daily Star, 4850 S. Park Ave. For additional information e-mail dmeredith2@tucson.com and include hiking guide in the subject line. You can also find Kreutz's outdoors stories at azstarnet.com/hiking Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Pass some Portland time - Philadelphia Daily News Posted: 05 Jun 2010 11:53 PM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. PORTLAND, Maine - History reigns in Maine's largest city. Often, Portland is just the launching pad for travel adventures along the state's rugged coast or to its beautiful wooded lakes - a stop along the way to tony destinations such as Bar Harbor or eco-wonders such as Acadia National Park. Even cruise ships that dock at the historic port bundle their passengers directly to the L.L. Bean mega-outlet in nearby Freeport. But in a state where tourism is a leading industry (Maine is also the No. 1 exporter of blueberries), Portland might just be its best-kept secret, fully worth a visit all its own and fully worth exploring past the curio shops and tourist-oriented restaurants that line the city's waterfront edge along Commercial Street. Situated on a peninsula that juts into Casco Bay along Maine's southern coast, Portland boasts a historic urban core rich with fascinating architecture. Though English colonists settled the area by the 1630s, much of the city's historic architecture is from the Victorian era. That's because in 1866, while the city was celebrating the second Fourth of July after the Civil War, a raging fire destroyed most of Portland's commercial buildings, many of its churches, and countless homes. Remarkably, only two people died during the blaze that left thousands homeless. One building that did survive the fire was the Portland Observatory. Built in 1807 on Munjoy Hill, east of the city center, by Capt. Lemuel Moody, the octagonal seven-story tower, 86 feet high, served as a communication station for the bustling harbor during the heyday of commercial sailing. With its bird's-eye views of Casco Bay to the east and the White Mountains and Mount Washington to the west, the observatory has been a tourist destination since it opened. Today, it makes a great first stop for a historic crawl through Portland. Catching views as you climb the steep wooden tower floor by floor, you'll get a sense of the city's unusual coastal topography. After getting the lay of the land, head 11/2 miles across town to Portland's West End for a self-guided walking tour of one of the best-preserved Victorian neighborhoods in the country. But first, make sure you've visited the website of the nonprofit organization Greater Portland Landmarks (www.portlandlandmarks.org). The agency offers downloadable maps and guides for four self-guided tours of architectural landmarks, worth collecting before you hit the sidewalks in search of historic buildings. (The group also operates the Portland Observatory.) With its leafy streets and grand homes, the West End - also called Western Promenade for the main boulevard that defines the neighborhood's western edge - reads like a beautifully illustrated textbook on American Victorian architecture. After the 1866 fire, Portland's prosperous citizens - whose fortunes were typically fueled by the shipping industry - began rapidly building homes in the then-underdeveloped section of the city. Almost overnight, some of America's best residential architects designed West End homes. Today, most are private residences (a few bed-and-breakfasts dot the neighborhood) and are not open for tours. But with 37 homes marked on the Portland Landmarks tour map, it's worth taking a leisurely summertime stroll through the reasonably compact neighborhood to see the architectural styles. From dramatic High Victorian Gothic to the eclectic, asymmetrical Queen Anne style; from the nostalgia-fueled Stick Style characterized by simple shingles and shakes to the cubical Italianate villas topped with a central cupola, the houses of the West End are wonderfully preserved examples. Still can't get enough Victorian architecture? In Portland, you can sleep in it. The Inn at St. John, built in 1897 as accommodations for train passengers passing through Union Station (it was demolished in 1964), boasts of being the city's oldest continuously operating Victorian hotel. Steep, narrow staircases - no elevator - demonstrate the lack of modern convenience and erase any fantasies of true Victorian-era living. But the comfortable rooms with period architectural detail are an affordable option in a tourist-oriented city where hotels can get pricey. Yes, it's fun to fantasize about life in Victorian times - especially with the modern comforts of air-conditioning and wireless Internet access.
Exploring Portland, MainePortland Observatory. 138 Congress St. The nation's only known remaining historic maritime signal tower. By guided tour only. Tours last about 45 minutes and start about every 30 minutes. 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily, through Columbus Day. $5-$8. www.portlandlandmarks.org. Historic walking tours. The Greater Portland Landmarks preservation organization offers seasonal guided walking tours of historic architectural sites and neighborhoods and also offers materials for several interesting self-guided tours, including one of the Victorian homes of the West End neighborhood. Maps and guides can be downloaded at www.portlandlandmarks.org. Sleeping Victorian Inn at St. John 939 Congress St. 207-773-6481 This historic Victorian inn offers 39 distinctive guest rooms, some with private bath, some with shared bath. Free breakfast, WiFi and parking, and a quirky sense of history add to its attractiveness as a reasonably priced option. Rates: $55-$199. Good, funky eats Duck Fat 43 Middle St. 207-774-8080 This itty bitty sandwichery with a vibe that's hip yet friendly might just have the best fries in the world. That's because they fix them Belgian style - fried in duck fat and served in a cone. You can order a panini or get the duck confit salad with a side of fries. But why not celebrate saturated fat at its finest and order the poutine, the French Canadian guilty pleasure: a bowl of fries smothered in duck gravy. Information Convention & Visitors Bureau of Greater Portland 207-772-5800 - Jeanne Claire van Ryzin Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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