When most of us think of art museums we think of stuffy, formal places that are populated by stuffy and formal people. These places are often in big population centers and not everyone can have access to them. This is simply not the case any more. Today, museums are wonderful places to see and interact with art without ever leaving home. Art museums have come into the digital age some in a very big way.
Museums have been on the internet for a long time but it was not until 2009 that they began to truly use other social media to reach their audiences. In fact through means such as Facebook and Twitter some museums such as The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) opened their virtual doors to a whole new group of people who traditionally would have never been able to be influenced by the art within their collections and exhibits.
With MOMA and other museums like it, you can get texts and tweets giving you up to the minute updates about what is happening at the museums themselves. This is a great way for these institutions to get people to just drop by for weekend events or to notify them of new exhibits and attractions.
The mobile device is a staple of our everyday life; our lives are stored on these machines. Knowing this, museums have also tapped into a fresh idea by allowing the use of these devices to help the patron enjoy and enhance their experience. For example QR codes are becoming more common. You simply scan these little code blocks with your device, and you can access information that normally would not be available about that particular piece of art work.
In fact some museums make this a part of the museum experience it’s self. The Smithsonian using an application called SCVNGR, a mobile based gaming platform that companies or groups can use to set up interactive challenges, hosted a SCVNGR hunt in nine of their museums.
The museum of today makes it possible for an individual in very isolated areas, as long as they have a mobile device or computer, able to truly enjoy and interact with art as never before. This is truly digital art for the masses!