You might encounter various aromas when walking around the U-M Museum of Art: fresh coffee wafting from the UMMA Cafe, paint drying as UMMA’s technicians install a new exhibition, a cloud of perfume worn by another visitor. 

But if you’ve ever wondered what the art itself might smell like, we have good news for you. 

This fall, UMMA is excited to launch a new, self-guided, scratch-and-sniff scent tour of the ongoing You Are Here exhibition in the Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Apse. The tour takes the form of a printed card of color blocks visitors can scratch, and then sniff, to take in the art on the walls in a whole new way. Chosen by curator Jennifer Friess, the five scents on these cards correspond with five different artworks on display, including Kehinde Wiley’s painting Saint Francis of Assisi and Louise Nevelson’s sculpture Black Excursion No. 13. “My hope is that these scent cards open up a conversation about all of the many senses involved in how we experience visual art in the Museum space,” Friess says.

Thematically, You Are Here invites visitors in for a sensory experience that can only take place in person. Friess intentionally chose works with surfaces, textures, sizes, and colors that are best seen up-close. The scratch-and-sniff tour adds another way for visitors to feel grounded in the present, in the gallery, which already features sound (in the form of Musical Labels), sight, and, in one case, an artwork visitors can touch. 

Each scent relates to a color or texture of an artwork–but, Friess says, “There is no right or wrong pair—what scents do you experience when looking at these works? Did we get it right? Would you have chosen differently? That consideration is part of what makes this tour so fun.” 

To find out what the five scents are, though, you’ll have to come smell for yourself.