Museum technology stories

Museum technology underpins many activities at museums, art galleries, and science centres, whether visitor-facing or back-of-house. Many off-the-shelf products are available to support museums, and a wide range of suppliers offer bespoke solutions.

Many museum visitors will have experienced technology used for interpretation, for example in an audio tour or digital museum guide. In addition, some museums have used digital technologies to create interactive and immersive experiences at their attractions. For instance, touch screens, projections and augmented reality (AR). This might help place an exhibit in context, such as AR describing the size of a dinosaur or a musical score which evokes an artist’s personality.

Technology not only enriches museum visitors’ experiences but also allows organisations to extend their reach. The British Museum‘s partnership with Samsung, for example, facilitates virtual learning for school children across the UK. Meanwhile, the Prado Museum‘s engaging social media campaigns have amassed over 380,000 TikTok followers.

The digitisation of collections offers a further way of engaging audiences as artworks and artefacts can be viewed online – often in extraordinary detail. For example, The Rijksmuseum has partnered with Dell Technologies to digitise its entire collection of 1.1 million items. These projects also create rich data sets for curators and researchers that can be shared through an application programming interface (API).

Technology also supports the operation of museums. Improved ticketing systems help to manage visitor flow and low-energy products, such as solar panels and LED lighting, support sustainability strategies.