Web boost for museums
2008-03-28 18:45
San Francisco - Paintings and
sculptures long stored away are finding a new audience as
museums strive for mass appeal with high-tech websites packed
with video, podcasts and interactive elements.
Moreover, these institutions are finding that rather than
diminishing the number of museum visits, the web is actually
boosting in-person attendance.
"All museums, especially art museums, realise the internet
is a way to drive visits," said Ford Bell, chief executive
officer of the 6 500-member American Association of Museums.
"Some museums now let people go online and download tours
ahead of time on their iPods," he said.
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art offers a podcast
series (http://www.sfmoma.org/education/edu_podcasts.html) that
includes audio and video interviews with artists, curators and
visitors as they explain or react to works on display there.
Save on admission
Visitors can also save $2 on admission if they present
their MP3 player loaded with the current podcast of Scottish
video artist Douglas Gordon describing how he filmed an
elephant in the middle of the night for his work "Play Dead:
Real Time," which was recently featured at the museum.
The Chicago History Museum allows visitors to download
three tours, including two of permanent exhibits and one of a
special exhibition.
A recent national survey by the Institute of Museum and
Library Services (IMLS) found that website visitors were
inclined to more than double their frequency of museum visits.
"Internet users visit museums in person 2.6 times more often
than non-internet users," said Mamie Bittner, deputy director
for the IMLS.
"Of the adults interviewed, 45% visited both
in-person and remotely, while five percent visited only remotely
and 50% visited only in-person," she said.
The number of in-person visits by adults reached 701
million in 2006, the first year the Institute tracked national
museum attendance, while 524 million adult remote visits were
logged.
Content resource
In total, there were 1.2 billion visits to museums.
Following two years of market research and hours upon hours
of manpower, the Indianapolis Museum of Art last autumn launched
a fully loaded website featuring links to Flickr, YouTube and
Facebook. The site puts around 65 000 pieces of its collection online for public access.
"We'd done a good job historically of using the web to tell
people where we are and where to park. But now we're focusing
on being a content resource," said Robert Stein, chief
information officer of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
"There's a whole new realm of social networking and
interaction online and we'd like to engage people in this kind
of sharing related to art," he said.
Stein also noted that the web site allows people who
otherwise may not be able to visit the museum to still see its
treasures. "People who may never come to Indianapolis can
experience some of the works of art we have here," he said.
Additionally, it is a great way for people to see art that
is not readily viewable at the museum.
"There are about 65 000 objects in our collection but only
a small percentage of those are displayed at any time. The Web
is a great way for people to see what we have to experience,"
he said.