Student Events
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.
Competition Process
Timeline
- Applications open: Monday, Feb. 2
- Submission deadline: Monday, March 2
- Winners announced: Monday, March 16
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 Friendly | 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 USF 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 USF 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.
Illustrative Projects
To spark ideas, consider reading Lauren Styx’s 2024 MuseumNext article, “How Are Museums Using Artificial Intelligence?”
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, Dataland is the “world’s first museum of AI arts” 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 an artificial intelligence-driven exhibition created by neurodivergent young people. The free exhibition, titled 'Neurodiverse Futures', is a digital art installation 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.
Learn more about Artful Connections at the Tampa Museum of Art
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."
Learn more about the Design and Disability exhibition on YouTube
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.
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.
Questions and mentorship
Honors students interested in participating in the Honors Grand Challenge can reach out to Honors Grand Challenge coordinator Ulluminair Salim for support and request Grand Challenge–specific guidance from Honors faculty and staff.
Honors Grand Challenge Mentors
Ms. Lauren Chambers | Associate Director USF Office of National Scholars
Email/communication etiquette, grant writing, creating a budget/proposal, developing research posters, creating video content, marketing, communicating research findings, crafting a narrative that inspires action.
Dr. Michael Cross | JGHC Faculty
Email/communication etiquette, grant writing, creating a budget/proposal, developing research posters, creating video content, marketing, communicating research findings, crafting a narrative that inspires action.
Dr. Holly Donahue Singh | JGHC Faculty
Grant writing, creating a budget/proposal, developing research posters, communicating research findings.
Bethany Jowers | JGHC Academic Affairs Graduate Assistant
Poster development, poster presentations, video/voiceover for poster presentations.
Dr. Cayla Lanier | Assistant Dean, St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee
Communication, culture, identity, pop culture, and belonging.
Ms. Lauren Roberts | Assistant Director USF Office of National Scholars
Email/communication etiquette, grant writing, creating a budget/proposal, developing research posters, creating video content, marketing, communicating research findings, crafting a narrative that inspires action.
Contact Lauren Roberts Nardiello
Dr. Ulluminair Salim | JGHC Faculty
All things "Grand Challenge" or "General questions regarding the competition."
Identifying key informants/stakeholders, email/communication etiquette, conducting informational interviews, creating a project proposal, crafting a narrative that inspires action, therapeutic art tours for diverse museum attendees, site knowledge of Tampa Museum of Art.
Alvin Varghese | Salem Scholar & Peer Mentor
Honors Grand Challenge competition advice, identifying a problem space and investigating possible solutions, creating a research poster and companion video/voiceover, and "what happens after the competition?"
Dr. Catherine Wilkins | JGHC Faculty
Museum culture(s) and curatorial practices, museum program development, therapeutic art tours for diverse museum attendees, site knowledge of the James Museum and Tampa Museum of Art.
Additional Resources
- UN Sustainable Development Goals and Disability
- UN Convention on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities
- Common Barriers to Disability
- UN Persons with Disabilities: Breaking Down Barriers
- Economic Security for People with Disabilities
- TED Talk: Reimagining the Experience of Disability
- TED Talk: When We Design for Disability, We All Benefit
- TED Talk: 4 Ways to Design for a Disability-Inclusive Future
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.