Student Events
Honors Grand Challenge Competition
Established in 2019 through an endowment from Richard and Jule Salem, the Judy Genshaft Honors College Grand Challenge is an annual competition that fosters Honors students’ creativity in developing solutions to real-world challenges faced by people with disabilities.
Night at the Museum: AI, Accessibility, and Art
The 2026 Honors Grand Challenge competition invites Honors students to enter the world of art museums and imagine ways in which AI interactive technologies can expand access, promote inclusion, harness creativity, promote interactivity, and enhance quality of life for museum attendees with disabilities.
Why the Honors Grand Challenge?
Across the globe, one out of six of us lives with a disability that impacts participation in nearly every sphere of life – education, employment, cultural production, social relationships, and technological design. That’s one out of every six of us. The Honors Grand Challenge competition invites students to envision bold new approaches to accessibility.
Why Museums?
“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” – Aristotle
Each year, the Honors Grand Challenge Competition magnifies a particular topic related to accessibility and inclusion, and this year’s focus is on art and cultural production, centered around local Tampa Bay area art museums. Art museums are spaces in which memory, identity, and imagination intersect, and they both create and preserve culture. As such, they provide a prism through which to examine multiple perspectives, inviting museum attendees to see, feel, interpret, and question the world around them.
The Honors Grand Challenge Competition invites you to imagine a “night at the museum” in which exhibitions come to life, considering the ways in which AI interactive technologies might enliven the art museum experience for attendees with disabilities.
Why AI?
AI is not only about automation or assistance — it can generate images, sound, movement, narrative, translation, personalization, and interaction. How might AI help museum visitors with disabilities become interpreters, storytellers, artists, or collaborators rather than passive viewers?
By centering disability as diversity rather than deficit, this competition encourages students to imagine how AI technologies might animate museum experiences, foster creativity, and enable people with disabilities to actively shape cultural production within art and museum spaces.
Competition Process
Spring 2026 Honors Grand Challenge Timeline
- Applications open: Wednesday, Feb. 4
- Submission deadline: Monday, March 9
- Winners announced: Monday, March 23
Students will work in teams of two to envision creative, AI-driven ways to enhance disability inclusion, accessibility, and representation in Tampa Bay area art museums. Teams will receive stipends that cover transportation for hands-on museum visits, enabling first-hand research beyond online sources.
Using the Accessibility Survey of Tampa Bay Museums (below) as a starting point, each team will identify a specific accessibility gap, conduct applied research, and develop an imaginative yet actionable AI-based solution. Their collaborative process will culminate in an innovative proposal at the intersection of museum accessibility and emerging technologies.
|
|
Wheel- chairs |
Service Animals |
Autism |
Low Sensory /Less Noise Hours |
Sensory Items Provided | Audio Guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tampa Museum of Art | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| James Museum | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Ringling Museum | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Sarasota Art Museum | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| St. Pete Children's Museum* | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
|
CARD ͬɫ Museums |
Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| St. Pete Museum of Art | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Tampa Bay History | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| MOSI | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Henry B. Plant | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Dali | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Guided Tours | Large Print |
Assisted Listening Devices |
ASL Guide | Closed Captioning |
AI Inter- |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tampa Museum of Art | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| James Museum | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Ringling Museum | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Sarasota Art Museum | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| St. Pete Children's Museum* | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| CARD ͬɫ Museums | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| St. Pete Museum of Art | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tampa Bay History | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| MOSI | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Henry B. Plant | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Dali | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
*St. Pete Children's Museum has no mention of accessibility on their website.
2026 Honors Grand Challenge Award
This year’s Honors Grand Challenge competition represents the 8th year of an ongoing special program offered by the Judy Genshaft Honors College to advance ideas to enhance social inclusion, civic engagement, and employment among the millions of persons managing life altering disabilities.
In addition to the sponsorships along with the opportunity to present at a national conference, this year’s Salem Scholars will be provided stipends for use on necessary costs expended to pilot their project in partnership with a local Tampa Bay area museum.
Deliverables
Any team of two Honors students may submit a proposal for the Grand Challenge, formatted as a research poster.
Developing Your Proposal
- Conduct research on different disabilities and how they may affect experiences at one of the Tampa Bay area art museums. Then, decide your focus.
- Gather information about the human experience of that disability, focusing on the museum environment. How does the museum accommodate or not accommodate people with that disability? To answer these questions, you may draw from non-academic sources such as social media posts, vlogs, etc. from disabled creators.
- Develop a creative, AI-based solution that will be resource-conscious and effective in lessening or eliminating the museum’s barrier.
- Synthesize all the information you have gathered into a cohesive research narrative which can be presented in a poster format.
Presenting Your Proposal
- Create a well-organized, visually compelling research poster based on your research.
- Record a 5-10 minute voiceover presentation of your poster.
- Practice presenting your poster clearly and concisely before recording.
- Open a Microsoft Teams meeting with yourself and your teammate
- Click the “Share my Screen” button in the upper right corner to display the poster.
- Make sure the poster size fills the screen and is legible.
- Navigate to the “Start Recording” button in the upper right panel. Wait a few seconds before speaking to make sure recording has started.
- Present a voiceover of your poster presentation (camera is not required).
- After you are satisfied with your presentation, click “Stop Recording.” Your recording will automatically save to your Microsoft Teams files.
- Go to Microsoft Teams files, find the recording, and edit if necessary.
- Generate the sharing link for your video by clicking on the three dots to the right of the meeting recording name. Make sure the sharing access is set to “Anyone with the link can view and download.”
- Copy and paste the share link into the 2026 submission form when you are ready to submit.
Submitting Your Proposal
- All submissions will be reviewed and scored by Honors faculty and staff, museum personnel, community members, and AI professionals.
- All 2026 Grand Challenge competitors will be notified of the final competition outcome by March 23, 2026.
Evaluation Criteria
- Identification of accessibility needs
- Disability-informed and inclusive design
- AI literacy and imaginative application
- Knowledge of art museums and incorporation of accessibility survey
- Precedent and comparative analysis
- What currently exists in museums and how is your proposal similar and different?
- What are similar projects currently in practice around the world?
- Feasibility and implementation plan (including cost)
- Poster optics and video presentation
Past Winner Example
Please note: The theme of the Grand Challenge changes every year. 2026 competitors
should not seek to replicate this example, only use it as a reference for the expected
rigor and depth of a competitive submission.
2024 winner Alvin Varghese | Transforming Patient Care: The Calm Retreat Room for
Sensory Relief
Illustrative Projects
To spark ideas, consider reading Lauren Styx’s 2024 MuseumNext article,
Following are examples of museum programs developed to enhance disability inclusion, accessibility, and representation in art spaces. New frontiers also are emerging at the intersection of museums and AI:
Dataland (Los Angeles)
Opening this spring, and digital ecosystem dedicated to data visualization and AI-based creativity. According to its website, “DATALAND welcomes people of all backgrounds with unparalleled experiences utilizing machine learning and the latest sensory and visualization technologies at a scale and quality never before realized. In pursuit of its mission, DATALAND combines online access and learning platforms, acts as a public repository for large-scale, nature-focused data sets, and will build a comprehensive collection of AI art.”
Tempus Projects (Tampa)
From January 15 to March 19, 2026, Tempus Projects runs All I Ever Want Is Just to Fall Into Your Human Hands, “a juried group exhibition that critically engages artificial intelligence and the human condition, reflecting on a cultural moment in which AI is both omnipresent and deeply contested … This is not exclusively an exhibition of AI-generated artwork, instead presenting works in multiple media that are about, inspired by, or made with artificial intelligence.” Tempus Projects is located at 1624 E. 7th Ave, Ybor City.
Mansfield Museum (UK)
The Mansfield Museum in Nottinghamshire is launching created by neurodivergent young people. The free exhibition, titled 'Neurodiverse Futures', is created by autistic and neurodivergent young people using innovative AI tools.
Artful Connections at the Tampa Museum of Art (Tampa)
The Artful Connections program is an art program at the Tampa Museum of Art that focuses on fostering emotional wellness, community engagement, self-expression, and self-reflection. Connections encourages participants to look deeper into art exhibitions, make personal connections with the artwork, and gain new perspectives. The program strives to create a welcoming environment for all participants including but not limited to adults in substance use recovery and behavioral health care, veterans, LGBTQ+ support groups, people with neurological disorders like dementia, and their loved ones. The Connections program offers multiple participation formats, including in-person and virtual options, and seeks to expand the museum experience to diverse attendees.
In collaboration with the Tampa Museum of Art, the Judy Genshaft Honors College offers a Connections capstone course on site at the museum. During the course, JGHC students develop their own research-informed museum activities and train to facilitate therapeutic art tours for Connections participants. For more information about Artful Connections or the companion JGHC capstone course, please contact Dr. Ulluminair Salim.
Victoria & Albert South Kensington Museum (London)
The Design and Disability Exhibition at London-based V&A South Kensington Museum features innovative designs that experiment with access, innovation, and representation: "Both a celebration and a call to action, Design and Disability showcases the radical contributions of Disabled, Deaf, and neurodivergent people … to design history and contemporary culture, from the 1940s to now."
What are the ways in which AI interactive technologies might animate existing programming at art museums? Your task is to disrupt current museum offerings and propose AI innovations that enable participants to fully participate in museum life.
Project Support
Students are encouraged to contact members of the Honors Grand Challenge Mentorship Team for guidance and support during their research journey.
- Dr. Ulluminair Salim, Honors Grand Challenge Director
- Dr. Catherine Wilkins
- Dr. Cayla Lanier
- Dr. Sayan Basu
- Bethany Jowers, Graduate Assistant
- Alvin Varghese, Salem Scholar and Peer Mentor
Additional Resources
Previous Grand Challenge Winners
2024
- Claire Kooy | Caption Action: Addressing Video Accessibility for Deaf Students in Academia
- Alvin Varghese | Transforming Patient Care: The Calm Retreat Room for Sensory Relief
2023
- Reaghan Ard, Kiley Barton, Maria Lares, Adreeja Mukherjee | ARThritis: Create Career Opportunities for People With Arthritis to Earn Money Via Creative Pursuits
2022
- Anna Alieva, Wynter Dean, Kinsley McMillian, Ashley Safransky
2020
- Caitlyn Coleman, Brianna Detamore, Kallen Hager, Dan Nguyen, Nam Nguyen
2019
- Anna Carter, Molly Jones, Caleb Krassner | Peared: An App to Connect People With Hearing Impairment to Social Opportunities
More About the Grand Challenge
Want to learn more about the Judy Genshaft Honors College Grand Challenge competition? Listen to 2023 Grand Challenge winners Reaghan Ard and Maria Lares discuss their experience.