DIVERSITY, COMORBIDITY AND THE OPENING OF MUSEUM AND GALLERY SPACES TO VISITORS

Abstract

Museums and galleries represent important cultural, educational and social spaces whose contemporary role extends beyond the preservation and presentation of cultural heritage to the creation of conditions for its accessible, meaningful and participatory mediation. This paper addresses the openness of museum and gallery spaces in relation to visitor diversity, with particular attention to visitors whose needs cannot be reduced to a single characteristic or category of disadvantage. In this context, the concept of comorbidity is used as a conceptual starting point for considering the coexistence of multiple characteristics, needs and barriers that may influence an individual's opportunities to participate in cultural life. Particular attention is paid to the shift from traditionally understood physical accessibility towards a broader concept of linguistic, social, digital, sensory and programmatic accessibility. The paper also highlights the role of museum and gallery education in creating opportunities for participation, communication and interaction. The aim is to theoretically emphasise the need to perceive museum and gallery visitors as complex individuals and cultural institutions as flexible spaces that do not provide only one universal mode of visiting, but enable different pathways to participation, experience, learning and the shared creation of cultural meaning.