Gallery One at the Cleveland Museum of Art has had great success in its first year of operation. It has received numerous design awards and over 150 museums have visited to learn from its innovative use of technology to enhance the visitor experience. Technology is used to help visitors understand and engage with art in new ways rather than being the primary focus. The space was designed through collaboration between many departments and continues to evaluate and improve based on visitor feedback. Looking ahead, Gallery One 2.0 will further integrate digital strategies museum-wide and continue innovating to provide the best visitor experience.

1. Gallery One,
One Year Later
Cleveland Museum of Art
Jane Alexander, Chief Information Officer
Seema Rao, Director, Intergenerational Learning

2. Gallery One
THE FIRST YEAR

3. The Buzz
•4 Muse awards along with multiple design
awards
•150s museums have sent staff for site visits to
Gallery One
•Articles in the New York Times, Fast Company,
and the Wall Street Journal …and more
•Featured as a Museums & the Web Deep Dive
site for 60 museum professional

4. Gallery One Overview
•Use technology to help visitors see and
understand art in new ways
•Technology is not the art – technology
showcases the art
•Invite visitors of all ages to learn and play in
ways that they enjoy (rather than dictating a
single method of interactivity)
•Attract new visitors and surprise existing
visitors

5. Design Through Collaboration
•Technology, Education & Interpretation, Design,
Curatorial, and Collections Management
departments
•Through this new collaborative development
methodology, the Cleveland Museum of Art is
leading the way not only in the robust blend of art
and technology throughout the gallery experience
but also in museum practice itself.
•

6. Limited opening 12/12/12
• How many people could be in the space?
• Was Wi-Fi working?
• App was on Test flight until January
• Worked out operations & functional space usage
• Open to public on 1/21/13

8. meeting goals
INTERACTIVES
AND SPACE

9. Beacon

10. Beacon Goal
• Create a visual introduction to the space that
draws people in
– Achieved: The Chuck Close in juxtaposition
to the Beacon brings visitors into a new
gallery experience
– Future: Look at adding more dynamic
information–making it a dashboard for
the museum

11. Studio Play Interactives

13. Studio Play Goals
• A place for families to play together while
becoming familiar with the museum and
its collection
• Matching/Sorting:
– Support incipient verbal and visual literacy
• Line and Shape:
– Encourage familiarity with the breadth of the
collection & create a connection between
children’s art-making and the art in the
museum’s collection

14. Lens

15. SLIDE
TITLE
Slide
Subtitle
15

16. 16

17. Lens Goals
• Allow visitors to learn about the art through
multiple access points, from specific
information retrieval in the hotspots to
interactive play in the games
– Challenges of “universal access”
– Encouraging new behaviors
– Challenges of easily posting to Social Media
without “sign-ins”

18. Collection Wall

19. 19

21. Collection Wall Goals
• Allow visitors to see and browse the breadth
of our collection in new and engaging
ways
• Offers a means for visitors to capture
favorites for future exploration of the
galleries
– Coverflow development (took months to discover
code problems)

22. space operations
TECHNIANS AND HOSTS

23. Gallery One is open daily, regular
museum hours and upon request for
special events

24. Server Room for the interactives is
imbedded in Gallery One

25. Hardware and software are reset
on an automated schedule…

26. …but can be reset manually by the
Gallery One Technician

27. Resetting the Collection Wall server

28. Additionally, Gallery One Support Technician
can manage interactives via LogMeIn

29. LogMeIn provides flexibility by allowing
technicians to access the server via multiple
platforms

30. Platforms include: desktop, laptop, mobile
tablets and phones

31. Gallery One Support Technician
cleans all touch screens:

32. …including rented ipads…

33. …lens interactives…

34. …Studio Play touchscreens…

35. Gallery One Support Technician
manages rental and return of ipads

36. Rental requires drivers license (or state ID)
for duration of rental

37. RFID scan automatically updates a custom
Asset Tracking database…

38. …which in turn updates member activity on the Central
Table (custom PostGreSQL database storing all member
and donor activity from multiple databases)

39. RFID tags are provided for visitors
bringing their own Ipads

40. A unique tag (sticker) is permanently assigned to
the visitor, allowing them to save their favorites
and tours for future visits

41. Gallery One technician instructs Visitors on how
ArtLens interacts with the Collections Wall

42. RFID tag communicates wirelessly
with docking station

43. Eight docking stations allow for eight visitors to
interact with their ipads to the Collection Wall
simultaneously

44. Visitors then explore the entire
museum with ArtLens

45. Staff uses Gallery One as a
learning laboratory

46. Specially-trained Gallery Host in Studio
Play engage families & manage space

47. Gallery Host checks for little visitors

48. Gallery Host manage the library

49. Sustainable design/process
MAINTENANCE

50. New operating costs for 2014 –
over 100K
• Staffing (FT and PT)
• Wi-Fi (hosted solution) – now in-house
• Maintenance (equipment and response time )
• Printing
• Misc.

51. Rules
• Easily maintained parts on-site 45 minute
repair window
• Established technologies
• Alternate content during software failure
condition

52. Collection Wall is modular Christie
MicroTiles.

53. Each MicroTile can be trouble-shot,
and repaired or replaced individually.

54. The modular system
accommodates rapid repair cycles.

55. MicroTile can be removed entirely,

56. …without effecting the behavior of
the Interactive on any other tiles.

57. ARTLENS
IS

75. Design a mobile application that will
offer a new level of user engagement
(and do it amazingly well)
JANUARY 2014 (iPHONE)
APRIL 2014 (ANDROID)

77. Gallery One
WAYFINDING

78. Wayfinding

79. Issues: wireless network
• Original wireless network (2003) was intended to
provide access to visitors in seated public spaces
– café and library
• Expansion and renovation project did not plan
strategically for ubiquitous wireless access
• ArtLens (2012) required greater specificity and
accuracy for wayfinding
• Installed as nearly an afterthought; network nodes
could not interfere with aesthetics of new gallery
spaces

80. Wireless Access point installation
Vendor determined the
number of additional
access points
necessary to allow
accurate triangulation
Recommendations
required cutting in
access hatches in the
ceilings and pulling
CAT6 cabling to each
new location
•not feasible

81. Options for retrofitting?
•Navizon (cloud based location services)
•Small form factor wireless devices linked via wireless mesh
•Fit in existing light track fixtures!

82. Options for retrofitting?
• Relays visitor location to a cloud-based system accessed
via Navizon’s API’s by the ArtLens application
•Quickly installed to roll out ArtLens

83. Still not quite enough
• Increased usage volume due to ArtLens in
addition to regular visitors on their own
devices
• Migrated from an autonomous base
wireless network to a centrally-managed
controller-based wireless network

84. Since September 2013
• Upgraded to Cisco 1262 access points
– CMA now provides speeds up to 100mb (802.11n) as
well as using both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency
bandwidths to provide the most optimal performance
to the visitor’s mobile device
• Implemented best practices recommendations
from Apple to help provide the best possible
experience while using an iOS based device
• Created a specific wireless SSID for the ArtLens
application that give those devices connected to it
priority network access

85. Biggest Challenge - Architecture
• Marble, metal plaster, and lath interfere with signals
• Conducted a survey study as to how our current
wireless network infrastructure is seen by the
mobile devices most commonly used today.
• CMA is currently working with our internal design
department to come up with creative solutions

86. Gallery One
EVALUATION PROCESS

87. Evaluation Process
• Literature review conducted
• Iterative process throughout the planning
and development
• User testing (usability, content, tone)
• Observations, surveys, interviews, and
audience panels
• Ultimately realized many different needs
required different approaches
• Will be completed January 2014

88. Mixed-Methods Approach
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•
•
•
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Comprehensive in-depth analysis
Pre- and post-visit interviews
Range of topics explored
Visit videotaped with flip cameras
Usually 2 hours of video was recorded per
visit
• Phone interviews completed 2-3 months
later
• Testing re-use, memory, perception
changes

89. Wayfinding and Wall Labels

90. Art and Interactive placement
• Visitor wayfinding concerns

91. Sneak Peak
• Number of visitors to Gallery One to date? 96,000
• Number of ArtLens apps downloaded? 9,151
• How many images does the average visitor
"favorite“ per session? 5
• On the Lens, between April 1 and October 31, over
5,300 people have struck a pose, 4,800 have made
a face, and 2,500 vases have been made…
• How many visitor-created tours have been
uploaded to ArtLens? Over 1000
• Most favorited artwork: Monet’s Water Lilies

92. Gallery One 2.0
PROCESS

93. Gallery One 2.0: January 2016
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•
•
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Implementing museum-wide digital strategy
Evaluate and sequence artwork rotations
Review evaluations and analytics
Plan and design through collaboration
Add Conservation and Collections to team
Add more analytics to the interactives to refine
feedback
• Beacon: Revisit
• Keep researching and implementing innovative
visitor experience-focused technologies