Art history graduate students co-curate Winterthur Museum disability exhibit

In March 2026, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library launched a digital exhibit, Reframing, Refocusing, Reimagining Disability, co-curated by University of Delaware graduate students.

This online exhibition shares stories about disabled people and experiences through select artifacts from the Winterthur collection. It prioritizes access and inclusion through visual description, audio recordings and alt-text about objects created by disabled makers, for disabled users or about disabled people.

From silver mugs to Shaker walkers, miniature watercolors and eyeglasses, disability stories are everywhere in Winterthur’s collection and beyond. Reframing, Refocusing, Reimagining Disability fosters conversations about how access, inclusion and disability histories are fundamental to the study of art and material culture. In three thematic sections, the exhibit shares stories about caretaking, aging and disability education with artifacts that date from the 18th and 19th centuries.

The project began over the course of the 2025 fall semester with a graduate seminar in the Department of Art History at the University of Delaware taught by Professor Jennifer Van Horn. “It is our hope that visitors find the exhibit both sensorially engaging and intellectually stimulating, even as a virtual experience. That is the true meaning of access, making experiences enjoyable for everyone whether they identify as disabled or not,” said exhibit co-curator and Art History doctoral student Gabrielle Clement.

Throughout the semester, students welcomed guest speakers, worked closely with Winterthur Museum & Library staff and collaborated with an advisory council that lent expertise and graciously shared their insights at multiple stages. Philly Touch Tours led a workshop that taught the students best practices for guiding blind and low vision visitors in museum settings.

These academic and life lessons informed by scholars, disability activists and the field of critical disability studies will continue to impact the students’ work in the years to come. This exhibition project was made possible thanks to a grant from the Interdisciplinary Humanities Research Center at the University of Delaware and undertaken in collaboration with Catharine Dann Roeber of Winterthur Academic Programs.