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Museum Inclusive Project “Lazoriki”

The Museum-Reserve carries out an inclusive project “Lazoriki” aimed at creating an accessible environment, organization of affordable leisure for “special” visitors – children with disabilities. The project was approved and launched half a year ago, but during this time it has already become popular with the audience.

The team of the Museum specialists developed programs for disabled children's stay in the museum space. After a survey of the parents there were included the most interesting and preferable kinds of activities, workshops promoting social adaptation of children and increasing their interest in the cultural environment.

Beginning from October 2018, daily classes take place in one of the sites of the Museum-Reserve of M.A.Sholokhov – in the People’s House, in the pottery workshop, at the Stables, in the Children Museum Centre or in the outbuilding of the Estate of M.A.Sholokhov.

Cooperation and co-creation is the form of the joint activity of the Museum pedagogues with the children and their parents. At the same time, the children develop their communication skills, learn something new and the teachers discover a unique world of the “special” child. The most important goal of each class is to cause approval, smile and interest in each child.

Over 12 interactive classes have been held for the permanent group of children: “Cossacks are Musical People”, “Pottery Trade”, “Hello, Ponies, Hello, Horses!”, “I Draw with My Fingers”, “Let’s Touch the Old Times”, “Miracles of Clay”, “Visiting Mother-Oven”, “We are Going to the Theatre”, “In the Don Country Each Cossack is a Fisher”, and others. Onward, the project participants are to increase their knowledge about the Cossack everyday life, the Don country nature, to visit the Cossack Farmstead in Kruzhilin Village, the Karghin Mill and try forest trails on the territory of the Museum-Reserve of M.A.Sholokhov.

The development and successful functioning of the inclusive activities is significantly contributed by the project “Inclusive Museum” of the Russian Committee of the International Museum Council (ICOM of Russia) aimed at development of the best practices of socialization and creative rehabilitation of disabled people by museum means. Guidelines, training videos and webinars presented by the ICOM project significantly improve the museum work with the

disabled visitors, help to expand the scope of activities and make it possible to use the valuable experience of colleagues from other museums.

Lidiya Slyusarenko