Experience Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO

In June 2010, the Fairmount Park Art Association launched Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO, an innovative and accessible outdoor sculpture interpretive program for Philadelphia’s preeminent collection of public art. Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO is a “multi-platform” interactive audio experience – available for free by cell phone, audio download, or on the web – that expands upon traditional narratives by expressing the untold histories inherently unavailable on outdoor permanent signage.

Unlike traditional audio tours that have a single authoritative guide or narrator, each speaker featured in Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO is an “authentic voice” – someone who is connected to the sculpture by knowledge or experience. Over 100 unique voices are featured, and include Sister Mary Scullion on Jesus Breaking Bread, The Franklin Institute’s Chief Astronomer Derrick Pitts commenting on the monument to Kopernik, and artist Robert Indiana speaking about his iconic LOVE sculpture.

Dialing instructions for accessing the program by cell phone are attached to the signage for 35 sculptures along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and Kelly Drive, and rack cards listing all of the artworks in the program are available at local visitor centers and cultural institutions or can be downloaded from the website. Visitors to the Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO website can also listen to the audio programs online and submit their own sculpture stories and personal photos of Philadelphia’s public artworks.

HOW TO Experience Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO

On the Street:

• Use your cell phone to dial the number on the sign in front of the sculpture,
• Pick up a free Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO map from the Fairmount Park Welcome Center in LOVE Park or any of the Parkway institutions, or

Be Prepared:

• Download the audio to your mobile device before heading out,
• Download the FREE mobile app to your smartphone (search MWW AUDIO in the iPhone app store),
• Download and print a sculpture list to take with you, or

Listen at Home:

• Enjoy the audio program on your computer through the Museum Without  Walls™: AUDIO website, or
  

Participate:

• Submit your own sculpture story,
• Submit your personal public art photos via Flickr.

Visit Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO to listen now

Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO has been made possible by a generous grant from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage through the Heritage Philadelphia Program and by the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more information about the program, please  contact Jennifer Richards, Development & Communications Manager at 214.546.7550 or jrichards@fpaa.org.