Museums around the world today have reached something of an impasse when it comes bringing in new and younger audiences to appreciate all of the works that they display. While the big shows with famous of works of art on display for particular visits still draw good crowds, the regular patronage of museums has seen a decline in attendance and revenue, particularly among the younger age brackets. This has caused museums to re-think strategy in attracting new patrons to make art fit into the world they live in today. Museums all over have begun to integrate different forms of technology to help draw and reach a wider audience than in the past.
Using Bluetooth Technology to Enhance the Experience
Many museums today are now incorporating Bluetooth technology and the use of applications to enhance the museum experience. Patrons can download the appropriate application for a particular museum and while they are in attendance there use the application. The application works on Bluetooth and GPS technology to detect where you are in the museum to see which works you may be looking at. You can then see instantly more information about the work, the artist and related works in the museum that you might want to view. Patrons can then text or email the images to others or share them on social media to get more people interested in the work. This technology helps to bring another layer of enjoyment and understanding to the art world as the museum experience can be enhanced.
Using Technology to Navigate Museums
One thing many younger patrons do often complain about with museums is that some of them are so large it is difficult to find the exhibits they are most interested in seeing. Technology can help correct that as well by providing GPS technology through the application and allowing patrons to see just where particular works are located in the museum. You can then directions directly to what you want to see much in the way you might get directions from a program like Google Maps. The applications also allow for reviews and input from visitors so people can speak about the works they see and like and interact with others via social media about the works. The entire museum experience then becomes one that becomes shared, which is what the hope of the art world has been all along.
While there are only some museums currently actively using this technology, many have undertaken testing of it and getting it up and running. There is an expense involved for the museums but the hope is that this use of technology will be able to bridge the gap that currently exists between the regular patron that is typically of an older set to the younger patron that may be more technologically savvy and needs to be embraced in a different way. This certainly opens up the door to more possibilities of changing the museum experience for more audiences down the road.