Pera Museum offers guide for disabled visitors

The Pera Museum continues to improve its programs geared for disabled visitors as part of the Dec. 3 International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD). The Pera Education and Dem Foundation's social initiative "Demgoodcoffee" is offering a free museum tour for hearing-impaired and mentally challenged visitors. The exclusive tour takes place on the last Friday of every month. During the tour, hearing-impaired and mentally challenged visitors have a chance to observe the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation's collections with the guidance of a museum guide.

The hearing-impaired visitors will have a chance to experience their museum tour with an interactive project while they experience the artworks at the exhibition. The feature exhibitions included in the tour are: "Intersecting Worlds: Ambassadors and Painters," a selection of works composed of Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation's Orientalist Painting Collection and focuses on the ambassadors and painters of the 18th and 19th centuries, "Coffee Break: The Adventure of Coffee in Kütahya Tiles and Ceramics," which follows the journey of coffee through Kütahya ceramics, and "Anatolian Weight and Measures," which sheds light on 4,000 years of trade and science.

The programs geared for mentally challenged visitors are suitable for elementary, middle and high school students who receive special education. As a part of the integration program, mentally challenged children are brought together with their peers with the aim of improving awareness for each other. Following the audio tour, the students will attend the "Clay Boats Workshop" and design 3D sails or boats in clay after being inspired by French artist Felix Ziem's artwork "Istanbul, A Sunset in the Bosporus." The attendees of "The Game of Colorful Ropes" workshop will create paintings by using ropes to make small models of the artworks that are displayed at the museum. During the "Tree in My Landscape Workshop," students will paint colorful trees after being inspired by Ziem's painting "Toulon, A Market Palace on Lafayette Avenue." The workshops which take place on Tuesday and Wednesday every week throughout the year with the goal of helping children improve their motor, design and creative-thinking skills.