Multilingual Gallery Drop-In Talks

Role: Evaluation Manager

Type: Multilingual Drop-In Program

Objective: Produce and evaluate a multilingual gallery experience to foster inclusive engagement through language accessibility and informal learning.

✨ Project Overview Set in the Thornton Portrait Gallery, this drop-in series invited visitors to explore the unexpected dialogue between The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough and A Portrait of a Young Gentleman by Kehinde Wiley. Framed through multilingual storytelling, the program made space for connection, curiosity, and cultural resonance—reimagining the traditional docent talk as a low-barrier, high-impact experience.

💡 Experience Design Goals

• • Offer inclusive entry points through English, Spanish, and Mandarin talks • Build connections across time and identity through comparative interpretation
• • Design for pacing, clarity, and spatial awareness within an active gallery
• • Coordinate live delivery across languages while preserving tone and cohesion
• • Evaluate real-time visitor engagement and impact

✍🏼 Curatorial & Interpretive Approach

Layered Portraiture & Cultural Reflection

Positioned in proximity, Gainsborough’s 18th-century icon and Wiley’s contemporary commission sparked powerful reflection on identity, representation, and historical dialogue. Talks emphasized these contrasts and convergences, inviting visitors to interpret meaning through the lens of time, style, and social context.

Language as Access

Timed presentations (1:30pm English, 2:00pm Spanish, 2:30pm Mandarin) offered guests opportunities to engage in their preferred language—creating a rhythm of multilingual storytelling that echoed the diversity of our audience.

🌀 Production Challenges

1. • Live Language Flow: Ensured seamless transitions between talks with minimal disruption to gallery traffic
2. • Cultural Sensitivity: Adapted interpretive content across languages without losing nuance or emotional weight
3. • Evaluation On-the-Go: Designed unobtrusive feedback methods to capture in-gallery insights from multilingual audiences

🎯 Visitor Experience Goals

• 1. Increase accessibility and engagement through language inclusion
• 2. Encourage spontaneous, reflective learning
• 3. Highlight intergenerational and cross-cultural connections through art
• 4. Transform passive viewing into active dialogue

📸 Visual Assets

• • Bilingual handouts and gallery signage
• • Photos documenting participation and spatial layout
• • Feedback forms and summary reports

🪞 Reflection

This project reaffirmed my commitment to designing for access, empathy, and flow. Through language, movement, and co-created meaning, even brief moments in a gallery can spark connection and transformation. I believe in the power of space, story, and strategy to make art feel personal—and to make cultural institutions feel open, alive, and welcoming to all.

💼 Tools Used: Qualtrics, Vea Analytics