Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO is an innovative and accessible outdoor sculpture interpretive program for Philadelphia’s preeminent collection of public art. A “multi-platform” interactive audio experience – available for free by cell phone, audio download, or on the web – Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO offers the untold histories that are not typically expressed on outdoor permanent signage.
Unlike 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. Nearly 100 unique voices are featured, including artists, educators, scientists, writers, curators, civic leaders, and historians.
Each Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO program compliments the viewer’s experience of outdoor sculpture with a story that is as unique as the artwork it describes, featuring different voices, themes, and production styles, produced by award-winning public radio producers and journalists. Programs explore personal and cultural connections to the art, while offering insights into the artists and their processes, what the sculptures represent, the history surrounding the works, and why the pieces were commissioned and installed at specific sites in Philadelphia.
Dialing instructions for accessing the program by cell phone are attached to the signage at 35 stops for 51 sculptures along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and Kelly Drive, and a map listing all of the artworks in the program is available at local visitor centers and nearby 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 215.399.9000 and the stop number located 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,
- Scan the QR code (What’s that?) on the map with your smartphone to be taken to the Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO website, or
Take it with you:
- Download the audio to your mobile device before heading out,
- Download and print a sculpture list to take with you,
Listen at home:
- Enjoy the audio program on your computer through the Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO website
Participate:
For more information about Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO, please download a fact sheet or contact Jennifer Richards, Development & Communications Manager at 215.546.7550 or jrichards@fpaa.org.