The Brick Store Museum has embarked on a drive to raise $4,000 to purchase a robot similar to the above, to improve accessibility during the pandemic and beyond. Brick Store Museum photo

KENNEBUNK – When you can’t get there from here literally, you’ll be able to get to the Brick Store Museum virtually, pending the success of a fundraising effort to buy a robot that visitors can use from home to guide them through museum exhibits.

A robot inside the museum, driven by instructions keyed in remotely, can provide an up-close and personal visit, proponents say.

The robot will be used in the museum’s first-floor galleries so virtual visitors can self-drive the machine around the galleries from home, zoom in on artifacts, and even read text labels, as if they were standing inside the museum, said Executive Director Cynthia Walker.

“A robot that can help visitors access the museum during the pandemic – and after – is a huge help to our small staff,” Walker said. “Even after the pandemic has passed, we always have a great need for technology to help homebound community members access the museum’s resources.”

Accessibility means everything to the successful operation of a museum – it can be a tool of inclusion, or a barrier to attendance., she pointed out.

Brick Store Museum Executive Director Cynthia Walker said telepresence visits to exhibitions and outdoor walking tours would be offered throughout the year to those who are homebound. Donations to the fundraising effort may be made online at http://www.brickstoremuseum.org/support, by calling 985-4802, or via mail to 117 Main St., Kennebunk, ME 04043. Dan King photo

“When visitors do not have access, whether it’s because of a pandemic, a handicap, lack of transportation, lack of time, distance, or other issues, that means that the museum cannot reach its community members,” she said. “There are a variety of ways to fix these issues – some are long-term structural goals; while others simply take a bit of Yankee ingenuity.”

With exhibitions such as the feature on Cape Porpoise archaeology and The Art of Mending, the latter coming this summer, the museum found a way to provide access through smart technology – the robot.

Now there’s a drive to raise $4,000 to buy one. Museum officials are asking for donations from community members to help it become one of the first small museums in the nation to offer visits by robot.

Some museums, like the Hastings Contemporary Art Museum in England, began using robots to offer museum visits a year ago, according to an April 15, 2020, story in the New York Times. In the article, reporter Andrew Dickson, explained that operating the robot used at the museum in Hastings is simple.

“Using a web browser linking the robot’s camera and your own, you pilot it with the arrow keys on your keyboard,” he wrote.

Closer to home, the Springvale-based Grahamtastic Connection began offering the robots a few years ago so that critically ill children could attend classes remotely, to keep up with their school work in as close to an in-person experience as possible.

Walker said telepresence visits to exhibitions and outdoor walking tours would be offered throughout the year to those who are homebound – expanding the museum’s ability to reach new audiences while addressing a longtime issue of access for those who cannot physically step inside.

Donations may be made online at http://www.brickstoremuseum.org/support, by calling 985-4802, or via mail to 117 Main St., Kennebunk, ME 04043.