Neurodivergence and Art Museums
In recent years, art museums have increasingly focused on offering experiences of learning, socialization, and self-determination to all visitors, including those who are neurodivergent. As repositories of the visual arts, art museums have great potential to engage neurodivergent visitors through the richness and complexity of their collections. However, museums often unwittingly maintain barriers to access. Tension continues to exist between the traditional role of museums as institutions dedicated to the preservation of collections and their role as spaces in which that collection is available to a diverse public.
The goal of empowering neurodivergent people to visit museums on their own terms is a multidisciplinary effort, often relying on input from the fields of medicine, public health, architecture, engineering, design, and museum education. This symposium, “Neurodivergence and Art Museums,” brings together voices from these fields to discuss recent developments in the accessibility and ease of experiencing cultural spaces and future possibilities for the inclusion of neurodivergent audiences.
One of the symposium’s guiding questions will be: How can we imagine art museums as public spaces that embrace and engage individuals with a diverse range of neuro-abilities, and create opportunities for dialogue, connection, and innovation? Panelists will address the process of creating neuro-inclusive environments from the experience of neurodivergence; audiences for neuro-inclusive design; and the ways in which neurodivergent visitors can discover, navigate, and make use of these environments. These cross-disciplinary discussions will explore how different fields engage and embrace neurodivergent visitors and consider how art museums can look to interdisciplinary solutions to open their spaces to the neurodivergent community.
In addition to the programming, First Place–Phoenix, a residential community school in Phoenix, AZ, is supporting exhibitions of art by keynote speaker Stuart Neilson at New Alliance Foundation Art Gallery at CT State Gateway and at Chapel Haven Schleifer Center, a residential school in New Haven for adults with social and cognitive disabilities, from October 23 through November 21, 2025.
Register
To join us for this event, please register here. Registration is recommended but not required for this event.