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Earlier in 2016， at the Whitney Museum of American Art， in New York， visitors paraded through the fifth floor to see a retrospective dedicated to the abstract expressionist Frank Stella.1 Although many of the works on display were four or five decades old， in some ways the show felt tailormade for the Instagram age： a riot of vibrant colors and textures， 20-foot-long reliefs， and sculptures as jagged and dynamic as 3-D graffiti.2
Visitors on busy Saturday afternoon stopped in front of artworks， lined up shots on their phones， snapped a few photos， and then moved on to the next piece. Some paused briefly to consider a particular painting； more stared down at their screens， furiously filtering. Few noticed an elderly gentleman sitting on a bench in one of the smaller rooms， watching the crowd engage with his work. The only visitor in the gallery not clutching a phone was Stella himself.
Museum directors are grappling with3 how technology has changed the ways people engage with exhibits. But instead of fighting it， some institutions are using technology to convince the public that， far from becoming obsolete4， museums are more vital than ever before. Here’s what those efforts look like.
1. Curating5 for Instagram
About five years ago， the Metropolitan Museum of Art6 took a small step that has proved monumental： It stopped entreating visitors not to use their cellphones.7 The decision was driven by a recognition that cellphones are omnipresent8 in modern society， and fighting them is a losing battle.“People ask me what our biggest competition is，” says Sree Sreenivasan， until recently the Met’s chief digital officer. （He’s now the chief digital officer for New York City.） “It’s not the Guggenheim9； it’s not the Museum of Natural History. It’s Netflix10. It’s Candy Crush11.”
Accepting that cellphones are here to stay has led museums to think about how they can work with the technology. One way is to design apps that allow visitors to seek out additional information. The Brooklyn Museum， for example， has an app through which visitors can ask curators questions about artworks in real time. Museums including the Guggenheim and the Met have experimented with beacon technology， which uses Bluetooth to track how visitors move through galleries and present them with additional information through an app. Beacons have the potential to offer detailed histories about works， and directions to specific paintings or galleries. Sreenivasan points out that once museum apps incorporate GPS technology， visitors will be able to plot their path through galleries just as they now plan their commute on Google Maps—no more getting lost in the Egyptian wing or staring at a paper map in search of a particular Monet Sunrise.
Embracing cellphones also means that more art galleries will curate immersive12， Instagramfriendly exhibitions. The staggering success of the Museum of Modern Art’s Rain Room， a moody gray space illuminated by falling water， and the Renwick Gallery’s Wonder， a collection of vibrant， room-size installations，13 has shown what an effective marketing tool social media can be. Some museums even arrange art with the amateur photographer in mind. “The ways in which people are interacting with works have changed， and so that changes， a little bit， the way we space the works，” says Dana Miller， the director of the Whitney’s permanent collection.
2. History and Art， Augmented14
In museums， augmented reality might mean an app that brings paintings to life via your phone’s camera， or that encourages visitors to learn about history by competing to “collect” artifacts or experiences. The Royal Ontario Museum15 has experimented with using augmented reality to add flesh and skin to dinosaur bones， and with using a scanner to project images of animated beasts that follow visitors through galleries. A project at the University of Southern California is collecting testimony from Holocaust survivors with the aim of producing interactive 3D holograms that can answer questions from visitors.16
Virtual reality17， too， promises to become part of the museum-going experience. The British Museum has experimented with using virtualreality headsets to let visitors explore a Bronze Age home， or see what the Parthenon might have looked like thousands of years ago.18 At the Smithsonian’s19 new National Museum of African American History and Culture， visitors can use virtual reality to feel what it was like to be a diver who helped recover a slave ship. “It’s about helping people remember that what they’re experiencing was actually real，” says Lonnie Bunch， the museum’s director. “What we really want to do is humanize history.”
3. Museums in Your Pocket
Some museums are putting the entirety of their collections online. The Whitney’s Dana Miller says museum directors initially feared that doing so might deter20 people from visiting， but in fact they’ve found that it can lead to an increase in visitors. The Rijksmuseum21， in Amsterdam， has gone one step further by making its collection available as open data， so people can reproduce， edit， and play around with works. Institutions such as the Met， the British Museum， and the Smithsonian are encouraging people to download specifications so that they can 3D-print replicas22 of artifacts in the museums’ collections. The point isn’t just to get more people through the museum doors， but also to reach those who can’t visit in person. In 2011， the Google Art Project launched， putting works at many of the world’s biggest institutions online in super-high resolution. The project currently features works by more than 6，000 artists in more than 250 museums. Last July， Google updated its Arts
Visitors on busy Saturday afternoon stopped in front of artworks， lined up shots on their phones， snapped a few photos， and then moved on to the next piece. Some paused briefly to consider a particular painting； more stared down at their screens， furiously filtering. Few noticed an elderly gentleman sitting on a bench in one of the smaller rooms， watching the crowd engage with his work. The only visitor in the gallery not clutching a phone was Stella himself.
Museum directors are grappling with3 how technology has changed the ways people engage with exhibits. But instead of fighting it， some institutions are using technology to convince the public that， far from becoming obsolete4， museums are more vital than ever before. Here’s what those efforts look like.
1. Curating5 for Instagram
About five years ago， the Metropolitan Museum of Art6 took a small step that has proved monumental： It stopped entreating visitors not to use their cellphones.7 The decision was driven by a recognition that cellphones are omnipresent8 in modern society， and fighting them is a losing battle.“People ask me what our biggest competition is，” says Sree Sreenivasan， until recently the Met’s chief digital officer. （He’s now the chief digital officer for New York City.） “It’s not the Guggenheim9； it’s not the Museum of Natural History. It’s Netflix10. It’s Candy Crush11.”
Accepting that cellphones are here to stay has led museums to think about how they can work with the technology. One way is to design apps that allow visitors to seek out additional information. The Brooklyn Museum， for example， has an app through which visitors can ask curators questions about artworks in real time. Museums including the Guggenheim and the Met have experimented with beacon technology， which uses Bluetooth to track how visitors move through galleries and present them with additional information through an app. Beacons have the potential to offer detailed histories about works， and directions to specific paintings or galleries. Sreenivasan points out that once museum apps incorporate GPS technology， visitors will be able to plot their path through galleries just as they now plan their commute on Google Maps—no more getting lost in the Egyptian wing or staring at a paper map in search of a particular Monet Sunrise.
Embracing cellphones also means that more art galleries will curate immersive12， Instagramfriendly exhibitions. The staggering success of the Museum of Modern Art’s Rain Room， a moody gray space illuminated by falling water， and the Renwick Gallery’s Wonder， a collection of vibrant， room-size installations，13 has shown what an effective marketing tool social media can be. Some museums even arrange art with the amateur photographer in mind. “The ways in which people are interacting with works have changed， and so that changes， a little bit， the way we space the works，” says Dana Miller， the director of the Whitney’s permanent collection.
2. History and Art， Augmented14
In museums， augmented reality might mean an app that brings paintings to life via your phone’s camera， or that encourages visitors to learn about history by competing to “collect” artifacts or experiences. The Royal Ontario Museum15 has experimented with using augmented reality to add flesh and skin to dinosaur bones， and with using a scanner to project images of animated beasts that follow visitors through galleries. A project at the University of Southern California is collecting testimony from Holocaust survivors with the aim of producing interactive 3D holograms that can answer questions from visitors.16
Virtual reality17， too， promises to become part of the museum-going experience. The British Museum has experimented with using virtualreality headsets to let visitors explore a Bronze Age home， or see what the Parthenon might have looked like thousands of years ago.18 At the Smithsonian’s19 new National Museum of African American History and Culture， visitors can use virtual reality to feel what it was like to be a diver who helped recover a slave ship. “It’s about helping people remember that what they’re experiencing was actually real，” says Lonnie Bunch， the museum’s director. “What we really want to do is humanize history.”
3. Museums in Your Pocket
Some museums are putting the entirety of their collections online. The Whitney’s Dana Miller says museum directors initially feared that doing so might deter20 people from visiting， but in fact they’ve found that it can lead to an increase in visitors. The Rijksmuseum21， in Amsterdam， has gone one step further by making its collection available as open data， so people can reproduce， edit， and play around with works. Institutions such as the Met， the British Museum， and the Smithsonian are encouraging people to download specifications so that they can 3D-print replicas22 of artifacts in the museums’ collections. The point isn’t just to get more people through the museum doors， but also to reach those who can’t visit in person. In 2011， the Google Art Project launched， putting works at many of the world’s biggest institutions online in super-high resolution. The project currently features works by more than 6，000 artists in more than 250 museums. Last July， Google updated its Arts