Wired for Sound

Art can now be heard as well as seen in three U.S. museums:

Baltimore's resourceful Director Leslie Cheek Jr., who has used colored lights and even smell to attract gallerygoers to his Baltimore Museum of Art, was busy last week wiring his shop for sound. Director Cheek's sound equipment will emit both lectures and soft music through the museum's ventilating system. During the local artists' show this month, the microphones will croon such apt items as Maryland! My Maryland. A subsequent exhibition of Russian icons will be set to Russian Orthodox music.

The Saint Paul (Minn.) Gallery & School of Art has equipped its main gallery with a phonograph, on which visitors last week could play a recorded lecture explaining its current exhibition of French war posters. Saint Paul's phonograph not only saved lecturers' fees but has upped attendance 300%.

In the Worcester (Mass.) Art Museum sound was most elaborate. Visitors, ushered in by an attendant, strolled through a labyrinthine gallery designed (by Lee Simonson) like a Coney Island house of mystery. As they paused before each picture, lights flashed on and a concealed sound mechanism honked a short lecture describing its notable points. No money saver, this sound-equipped tour, which ranged from Greek sculpture to Cezanne apples, cost about $14,000 ($10,000 of it a grant from the Carnegie Corp.).

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.