Earlier this month, I visited the Grand Rapids Public
Museum. The first thing that I noticed was that there were a lot of tables set
up that lined the entire hallway underneath the whale skeleton. The themes of
all the tables were about different countries, and at each table there were
people in traditional cultural clothing and information about their countries and
some sort of activity related to that culture such as origami, henna tattoos
and different types of music and dancing. I noticed that many local businesses
were involved in this such as a Mexican restaurant that had different samples
of food and drinks for people to try. The event also involved local schools by
having foreign exchange students there talking about their countries with the
community. I thought this was a very cool idea that incorporated community
outreach and I felt like it created a very welcoming and accepting environment
for everyone. This was further echoed by the many staff members and volunteers,
who were all very friendly and informative.
Another thing that I noticed about this museum was its
accessibility. There were plenty of parking options, and many handicapped
parking spaces, both by the museum and in the parking garage. There was also a
designated covered drop off location for buses for visiting groups at the front
of the museum. In the museum, the aisles were spacious and I noticed multiple
people in wheelchairs navigate around without any apparent difficulty. There
was plenty of seating throughout the museum where people could rest if needed. Free
wheelchair rentals were located at the front desk. There was also an elevator
that reached all of the floors of the museum. The planetarium inside of the
museum offered shows in Spanish as well as English. Additionally, I also noticed
Braille on some exhibits.
