Wisconsin art museum aims for accessibility

From The Herald Times Reporter in Manitowoc, Wis.:

August Krieser remembers the Rahr-West Art Museum as another world.

"I used to visit it twice a week as a child, and even as an adult I enjoyed getting into that 19th-century frame of mind and to go back in time," he said.

But Krieser, a 63-year-old Manitowoc native, hasn't been inside of the mansion in nearly 20 years. The former Manitowoc Fire Department emergency medical technician, training officer and motor fuel pump operator was involved in a motorcycle accident that paralyzed him from the waist down when he was 34.

Because Krieser is confined to a wheelchair, he cannot navigate any of the historic mansion's four levels that are open to the public.

Krieser said that for the last couple of decades, his passion has been to spark interest in renovations that would make the structure compatible with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

While the museum had gallery space additions in 1974 and 1986 that are ADA accessible, the mansion itself is out of reach to people who are wheelchair bound, physically disabled, people who may have difficulty walking due to old age and to those who suffer from breathing problems, said Barb Bundy-Jost, director of the museum.

However, Krieser, and others who were unable to visit the mansion, should be able to reminisce and admire its beauty soon.

In late December, Krieser, Jim Muenzenmeyer, director of building inspection, and Bundy-Jost asked the Rahr-West board for permission to form a building committee that will strive to make the mansion ADA accessible. In addition to the board approving a building committee for renovations, $13,000 of the museum's reserve funds will be used to hire architects to draft building plans, Bundy-Jost said.

While the project is still in the "dreaming stage," a five-stop elevator will be installed within the next five-years that will give disabled people access to every level of the structure, Muenzenmeyer said.

The price tag for the renovations is still unknown, but it shouldn't cost taxpayers a dime, Bundy-Jost said. The renovations will be completely paid for by fundraising.