See the creativity and innovation that ArtLens has to offer. Cleveland Museum of Art boasts an "app, exhibition, studio, and wall" all in one.
While it is clear the Smithsonian Institution is employing effective digital interactives throughout their exhibits, their use cases leave something to be desired when it comes to innovation and creativity. Each museum still has that very classic museum feel which still alienates many visitors.
The Cleveland Museum of Art has worked diligently to use technology to solve this problem. After recieving overwhelming feedback about the barriers to engaging with art and art history, the CMA decided to integrate innovative technology to propel visitors over these real and percieved barriers to engagement.
In 2012, they opened Gallery One, the first iteration of their extremely interactive, digital based art gallery. It debuted the largest MicroTile wall, (now know as the ArtLens Wall) that allows multiple visitors to sift through the museums entire collection and plan their tour through the rest of the museum based on the work they want to see. The gallery also included six interactive stations based on different themes: sculpture, stories, globalism, painting, the 1930s and lions! The tour below shows the breadth of content, movement, and connectivity offered in the original gallery.
In 2017, the gallery rebranded and was renovated, becoming the ARTLENS Gallery. It now offers four different spaces to create, engage, imagine, and connect - "Create your own digital artwork in ArtLens Studio, engage with masterworks of art and touchscreen-free interactives in ArtLens Exhibition, and connect with the museum's world-renowned collection at the ArtLens Wall. Use your ArtLens App to save the artworks you learn about and photos you take during your experience, and then map your visit throughout the museum using the app's responsive wayfinding technology." CIO, Jane Alexander describes ARTLENS as an empowering experience for visitors. The CMA has figured out how to center both the content and the visitor equally within this space, creating a collaborative environment for all people to leave feeling like they learned, contributed, and maybe even played while learning something new!