ArtLens Exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art, presented by Jane Alexander at the Premier CIO Forum 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio.

1. 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

2. Jane Alexander
Chief Information/Digital Officer

4. Technology and the Art Museum, 1967

6. Cataloguing in 2010…

7. Audio tours then and now…

8. Gallery One
opened 12/12/12
“People come to museums for
storytelling and engagement…
and technology needs to facilitate that”
The New York Times (2013)

9. The First Iteration of
Gallery One
4 Components:
- Gallery One proper,
- Studio Play,
- Collection Wall,
- ArtLens App

10. • 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

11. Gallery One Proper

12. Studio Play

13. Collection Wall

14. ArtLens App

15. 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)

16. Gallery OneARTLENS Gallery

17. 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

18. 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

19. What Worked…

20. …What
Didn’t Work

21. “[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

22. 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

23. INTRODUCING…
ARTLENS STUDIO

24. Studio Play
Cleveland Museum of Art on YouTube

25. Collage Maker
and Portrait
Maker

26. Memory, Matching and
Sorting Interactives

27. Line and Shape

28. Paint Play

29. Pottery Wheel

30. Reveal

31. Zoom

32. Summative Research on New Studio Play, 2016
Overall Experience: 66% rated excellent (5/5),
87% rated 4/5 or 5/5
Elizabeth Bolander

33. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?:
ARTLENS EXHIBITION (opening June 2017)

34. 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

35. Reversing the Digital Experience
Gallery One
ArtLens Exhibition Rendering

36. 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

37. 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

38. Symbols: Decode
Symbols
Identify what symbol
belongs in the
blurred space and
its meaning

39. Purpose:
What Am I?
Guess the purpose of
an object using
modern clues

40. Gesture and
Emotion: Body
Language
Match the gestures in
an artwork to learn
about the meaning

41. Composition: Become an
Artist
Create original compositions
using the color, pattern, and
rhythm of abstract works in
CMA’s collection

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

43. 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!

44. Join us for the opening of the ArtLens
Exhibition at Solstice, June 2017
Thank You
@janecalexander