Jane Alexander

Chief Information/Digital Officer

The Cleveland Museum of Art

June 8, 2017

Premier CIO Forum

Free to Move, Create, Engage:

Designing Meaningful, Barrier-Free Digital

Experiences with Museum Collections

Jane AlexanderChief Information/Digital Officer

Technology and the Art Museum, 1967

Cataloguing in 2010…

Audio tours then and now…

Gallery Oneopened 12/12/12

“People come to museums for

storytelling and engagement…

and technology needs to facilitate that”The New York Times (2013)

The First Iteration of

Gallery One

4 Components:

- Gallery One proper,

- Studio Play,

- Collection Wall,

- ArtLens App

• Build audiences

• Provide a fun and engaging

environment for visitors with all levels

of knowledge about art

• Highlight featured artworks

• Propel visitors into the galleries with

greater enthusiasm, understanding,

and excitement about the collection

• Develop and galvanize visitor interest,

bringing visitors back to the museum

again and again

Original Goals for Gallery One

Gallery One Proper

Studio Play

Collection Wall

ArtLens App

Why Are We Changing Gallery One? • The museum considered the original Gallery One to a

“proof of concept” rather than endpoint

• The last four years have provided an excellent opportunity

to gather information: to interview visitors, track usage

and evaluate the effectiveness of each component

• Using that feedback, successful new redesigns have

already been completed for the ArtLens Studio (opened

June 2016) and the ArtLens App (launched September

2016)

• The next step is to launch ArtLens Exhibition (June 21,

2017)

Gallery OneARTLENS Gallery

ArtLens App (September 2016)

• Downloads in less than a minute, takes up less memory than the Facebook app, available on Android and iOS devices

• Improved and responsive wayfinding map with iBeacons throughout the museum

• Save artworks on the app or at the ArtLens Wall

• Search any object on view in the museum and map your way there

• Scan select objects using augmented reality technology to access additional information

• Go on museum-created tours or create your own

• Content updates automatically from the backend

Initial Goals for Studio Play

• Build a space for families and children

• Facilitate creative interaction with art

• Propel visitors into the rest of Gallery One and the permanent galleries

• Encourage repeat family visitors

STUDIO PLAY: IN THE BEGINNING

What Worked…

…What

Didn’t Work

“[CMA Visitors] have high expectations of what

the museum will offer them… and want an

experience that they cannot find elsewhere” Elizabeth Bolander, CMA Director of Research and Evaluation

New Goals for ArtLens Studio • Barrier-free technology

that allows for virtually touch-free interaction

• A space for intergenerational learning, ages 5 and up rather than 5 and below

• Inspire gallery exploration with greater understanding and enthusiasm

• Connect what visitors do in Studio Play with what they see in the museum

INTRODUCING…

ARTLENS STUDIO

Studio Play Cleveland Museum of Art on YouTube

Collage Maker

and Portrait

Maker

Memory, Matching and

Sorting Interactives

Line and Shape

Paint Play

Pottery Wheel

Reveal

Zoom

Summative Research on New Studio Play, 2016

Overall Experience: 66% rated excellent (5/5),

87% rated 4/5 or 5/5Elizabeth Bolander

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?:

ARTLENS EXHIBITION (opening June 2017)

Audience Goals

• Each component of the ARTLENS

Gallery (Studio, App, Wall, and

Exhibition) serves as a launching

point for visitors, to engage with art

and connect with the collection

• The ArtLens Exhibition will attract

non-traditional museum visitors by

taking away the intimidation of the art

museum and giving visitors the

toolset to look closer, dive deeper,

and begin a relationship with the

collection

Reversing the Digital Experience

Gallery One

ArtLens Exhibition Rendering

Intertwining Art and Technology

• Art in the Foreground: Instead of touchscreens positioned in front of the artwork, artworks are positioned in the foreground

• Featuring a new group of 20 artworks, including masterworks by Edgar Degas and Frank Stella

• Barrier-free: building on the success of the barrier-free ArtLens Studio interactives, projections that respond seamlessly to body movement will replace touchscreens

Pedagogy and Games • The projection interactive

games are centered around

themes of: composition,

symbols, gestures and emotion,

and purpose, developed by a

cross-collaborative museum

team

• 16 new games, including an

innovative eye-tracking

interactive that will reveal the

visitor’s areas of focus on an

artwork and compare their view

to the artistic intention

Symbols: Decode

SymbolsIdentify what symbol

belongs in the

blurred space and

its meaning

Purpose:

What Am I?Guess the purpose of

an object using

modern clues

Gesture and

Emotion: Body

LanguageMatch the gestures in

an artwork to learn

about the meaning

Composition: Become an

ArtistCreate original compositions

using the color, pattern, and

rhythm of abstract works in

CMA’s collection

Express Yourself: Happy, Sad, Surprise, Confusion, Fear, Distaste

ArtLens App Integration

ArtLens is the Glue:

visitors will be able to

dock their device at

each interactive and

save all artworks they

interact with to then find

in the galleries, as well

as save their user-

generated images—no

more typing in your

email address!

Join us for the opening of the ArtLens

Exhibition at Solstice, June 2017 Thank You

@janecalexander