Infinity Rooms. Tate Modern/Yayoi Kusama
Today, the sector is fully embracing tech-driven experiences, while staying true to its roots and immersing guests through location, interpretation, and authentic engagement.
We examine some great examples from the wide range of immersive experiences in the museum and heritage sector.
Open-air and living museums
The open-air museum format is well-established, with a lineage dating back to the 1800s. And today, this quintessential immersive experience continues to thrive, win awards and remain deeply relevant.
A trailblazing example of an open-air museum is the Sámi Museum Siida in Finland. Here, visitors can explore the beautiful, protected landscape on a trail that takes in historic buildings and structures, and in the summer, they can access an authentic Koltta homestead.
In addition to its open-air experiences, the attraction also includes traditional gallery spaces. Exhibitions explore Sámi culture through both historic artefacts and contemporary work. The permanent exhibition focuses on the connection between Sámi culture and the natural environment.
In the UK, Beamish, The Living Museum of the North, was named Art Fund Museum of the Year 2025. This open-air museum transports visitors to various periods, from life in the Georgian era to the rugged existence of a 1950s farm.
To fully immerse its visitors, Beamish uses authentic objects and buildings, some recreated and others relocated. The museum is also brought to life with costumed interpreters and even livestock, such as traditional breed pigs.
Recent additions include the recreation of The Grand Cinema, a 1950s cinema from Ryhope in Sunderland. Faithfully recreated to include elements and features of the original building, this shows period films, newsreels, and adverts.
Visitors can also stay overnight at Beamish in Georgian workers’ cottages. This unique self-catering experience is set in the museum site’s original farm buildings.
AlUla, the world's biggest living museum
In Saudi Arabia, the AlUla project promises to be the world’s largest living museum when completed in 2035.
The $15 billion investment is developed by French government agency Afalula together with the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU). It will include five unique districts, with five heritage sites and 15 cultural venues and museums. Its 10 million square metres of green space will be accompanied by 5,000 hotel rooms. This will all be located close to Hegra, Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Visitors will encounter a uniquely ‘living’ museum that offers connections to the deep past through contemporary experiences, and invites guests to experience its verdant oasis and vast night skies.
AlUla
Venues such as Madrasat Addeera will offer a vibrant blend of traditional and contemporary arts programmes. Additionally, 65 square kilometres of ancient desert at Wadi AlFann will offer a canvas for contemporary land art. Visitors will see work from artists such as Agnes Denes, Manal AlDowayan, Michael Heizer, Ahmed Mater, and James Turrell.
The unique archaeological landscape has offered finds dating back to the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic periods, and tells stories ranging from prehistoric civilisations to ancient kingdoms. In addition, the development will also tell the stories of the communities that live among its heritage sites today.
New stories
By embracing immersive approaches, institutions can share different perspectives and tell lesser-known stories.
See also: Top 11 immersive trends in the attractions industry for 2025
At Hagia Sophia History and Experience Museum in Istanbul, visitors enjoy an immersive journey that brings the 1700-year history of the UNESCO World Heritage Site to life in a unique historical and cultural experience.
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One of the world’s most significant architectural masterpieces, the Hagia Sophia symbolises the fusion of Christian and Islamic cultures. The museum explores its history in three acts: its construction in the Byzantine period, its transformation in the Ottoman era, and a survey of Hagia Sophia’s architectural evolution and innovations, including its iconic dome.
The 30-minute visitor experience extends across 3200 square metres and 13 different halls. High-end technologies, including 3D modelling, projection mapping, and 2.5D animations, uncover the Hagia Sophia’s rich heritage. The experience is accompanied by audio guides in 23 languages and period-style music composed for the attraction.
The International African American Museum
In the US, the International African American Museum creates a richly layered telling of the African American experience using technology, traditional artefacts, art, films, and digital interactive experiences.
The museum is located at the historically significant Gadsden’s Wharf, said to have been the biggest slave wharf in North America. The design of the building and its African Ancestors Memorial Garden honour this history. Its carefully considered details each tell their own story.
A key exhibit is Tide Tribute. Here, a slave ship diagram is presented on the ground in a shallow pool at the harbour edge. Its form is revealed and covered with the swell of the tide. This work invites visitors to consider the ‘fluidity of the past, present, and future.’
Inside, nine core exhibitions explore African American History.
“They are as immersive as they are interactive as they lean into and pull on traditional material culture, artefacts, papers, letters, and images,” said Malika Pryor, chief learning and engagement officer. “Contemporary and historic art travels through all of our core exhibitions.”
In both of these projects, place connects with emerging technologies and contemporary artworks to offer new narrative approaches.
Digital art museums
Digital art is becoming a key feature within institutions’ immersive exhibitions. And, the medium is increasingly the subject of new museums and gallery spaces in its own right.
Venues range from gallery spaces dedicated to the work of established and emerging experiential and digital artists, such as Artechouse in Washington, DC, to those that reimagine the works of the masters through a digital lens, like Frameless in London.
Upcoming is the UBS Digital Art Museum, which is slated to open in Germany next year. Set to be the largest museum in Europe dedicated to digital art, the attraction will feature work by a range of leading artists with an installation by teamLab at its core.
Image credit: Thorsten Bauer
Others, such as the artist collective Meow Wolf, create spaces that are part art installation and part fantastical landscape. These use digital art, set design and storytelling to immerse the audience.
Immersive approaches in exhibit design
Whilst these new institutions have embraced immersive approaches from the outset, long-established institutions are also developing immersive experiences within their exhibition programmes.
For example, the British Museum has been collaborating with global design and innovation studio Journey and Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA), a specialist in planning and design for museums, exhibits, educational environments, and visitor attractions, to reimagine two of its exhibits as part of a pilot project.
The updated Vindolanda Tablets exhibit invites visitors of all ages to engage with the ancient inscriptions. Immersive elements include a captivating opening presentation, a whispered soundscape, and the voice of a Roman wife reading Britain’s earliest example of female handwriting
The Assyrian reliefs at the British Museum. Exhibition Design by RAA Immersive exhibits by Journey. Photography courtesy of Journey Photographer Alberto Romano.
The 2,500-year-old Lion Hunt Reliefs come to life with sound and light. Spotlights highlight different areas of the relief, while the booming sound of chariot wheels and the growls of lions envelop visitors.
Stuart Frost, head of interpretation at The British Museum, said: “It is clear that the digital projection animating the Lion Hunt Reliefs – and the accompanying soundscape – has transformed the way visitors engage with the sculptures in this part of the Assyrian Galleries. The projection has significantly increased the attracting and holding power of the displays.
“We often see visitors filming the projection on their phones, and on one occasion, I’ve even observed everyone watching the animation spontaneously applaud at the end of the sequence.”
Journey of the Pioneers
Another new exhibition to set a benchmark for immersion is Journey of the Pioneers at Dubai’s Museum of the Future.
This presents an interactive, narrative-driven journey through a future world. These include a mission to collect solar energy from the moon, a stunning exploration of the complexity of bioengineering, and spa-like immersive therapies.
Visitors are invited to become active participants in the rich story-driven environment. Here, technologies such as high-speed simulations and interactive genetic archives combine with sensory and architectural design to create a deeply resonant experience. Rather than consuming information, visitors are invited to engage, reflect, and consider their part in shaping the future.
Travelling exhibitions
Many museums are leveraging the popularity and potential of immersive experiences to develop touring exhibitions. These can be powerful tools in engaging new audiences and boosting profile, while raising income.
Liverpool Museums' exhibition Bees: a story of survival, is a collaboration with artist and sculptor Wolfgang Buttress. The show examines the creatures’ relationship with humans and the wider natural world.
Combining scientific and artistic insight, the exhibition includes video and audio experiences, with visual mapping and zoned multi-channel soundscapes authored in real-time by a connected bee colony’s behaviour.
After its Liverpool debut, the exhibition will tour internationally. Each venue will have a ‘Hive Monitor’ unit that contains a range of integrated sensors. These produce live data for the exhibition audio and video processing systems.
“The technology should enhance the experience of visitors,” says Buttress. “It opens their eyes to the beauty of nature around them and evokes an emotional response. Imagine being immersed in a vibrant multi-layered sea of projected flowers where you are completely overwhelmed by the colourful images and sounds around you.”
Also in the UK, the Barbican’s experiential department, Barbican Immersive, has recently launched Feel the Sound. This exhibition promises to transform how visitors think about sound. 11 interactive installations include a car-park dance party, participatory digital choir, and music without sound. Additionally, the installations are accompanied by two experiential ‘playgrounds’ which invite visitors to explore the exhibition concepts.
Immersive shows and experiences
Beyond the exhibit, some museums are developing new immersive shows and experiences.
Prado National Museum in Spain has been working with ACCIONA Living & Culture to take key works from its collection to global audiences. With ART MASTERS: A Virtual Reality Experience, visitors can don virtual reality headsets and explore five iconic works displayed in an imaginary museum.
The exhibition’s meticulous academic curation combines with three-dimensional environments and an engaging narrative. This animates the paintings and figures, encouraging a deeper connection with their symbolism and significance.
Visitors can explore The Sense of Sight (Jan Brueghel and Rubens, 1617), Las Meninas (Velázquez, 1656), Venus and Adonis (Veronese, c. 1580), El Aquelarre (Goya, 1820-23), and The Garden of Earthly Delights (Bosch, 1490-1500).
The Freedom Theater
At the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, the Freedom Theater offers an immersive projection-mapped environment. Jagged projection surfaces represent the shattered state of the world leading up to World War II, and media monitors fly up and down on trusses during the show. Additionally, three enormous high-resolution LED screens move in sync with the production.
Other elements include a faux flame made of water vapour and lighting effects, which signifies the Torch of Freedom passed on from generation to generation, and a score and soundtrack recorded with a live orchestra.
Developed by THG Creative, the show explores the four universal freedoms laid out by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt; Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. It also examines the US’s expanding global role in the post-WWII era. The experience offers both a narrative arc and emotional punch for the audience, and academic rigour for professors and historians.
Layered experiences
Other approaches to layering in immersive approaches offer play and adventure.
Gamification offers great opportunities to engage visitors and keep them coming back. At the International Spy Museum, gritty topics, exhibits and an extensive collection are accompanied by a mission-based STEM learning experience complete with cover identities, code-breaking, and a cyberspace mirror maze.
At the National Trust, visitors can use the HistoryScapes storytelling app to explore history through the lives of ordinary people. Visitors at three of its properties can follow the footsteps of a carpenter, a mill worker or a broom maker.
GPS triggers trails that seek to connect visitors to landscape heritage. Each is led by a different character, inspired by historical research.
Another approach to adding immersive adventure is overnight events, and the popularity of Night at the Museum events endures.
Some museums are now extending this approach with exclusive overnight stays. Examples include A Night with Mona Lisa at the Louvre. In this unique experience, guests could enjoy a private tour of the museum and sleep under the iconic pyramid. Meanwhile, Musée d’Orsay converted its clock room into luxury accommodation for one night only, to coincide with the opening of the 2024 Olympics.
Immersive to elevate and engage
The museum sector is rooted in knowledge and authenticity, and great examples of immersive approaches in the sector enhance these qualities.
They tell a breadth of stories, whether jaw-dropping, world-shaping narratives or intimate tales of human experience. These impressive projects are backed by solid curatorship and research.
These projects seek to elevate objects, deepen emotional connection, and reach new audiences both onsite and beyond the gallery walls.
Infinity Rooms. Tate Modern/Yayoi Kusama 
AlUla 
Image credit: Thorsten Bauer 
The Assyrian reliefs at the British Museum. Exhibition Design by RAA Immersive exhibits by Journey. Photography courtesy of Journey Photographer Alberto Romano. 
Smithsonian's National Zoo - Washington D.C. 
