Chris Michaels is the inaugural director of the Reel Store, the UK’s first permanent immersive art gallery. In this role, he is responsible for the museum’s strategic direction and curatorial leadership. Michaels said he is “incredibly excited” to join the Reel Store “at this pivotal time”. The gallery is “leading the way in a new generation of museums and galleries that are built on the possibilities of digital”, he added.
He most recently served as the director of digital, communications and technology at the National Gallery in London. He sat on the institution’s executive committee and his directorate were responsible for digital services, membership and ticketing, creative, IT and marketing, press and public affairs. He is also a visiting senior research fellow at King’s College London, and has a PhD from the University of Bristol.
Before he joined the National Gallery, Michaels worked at the British Museum as head of digital and publishing. During this time, he founded the museum’s digital department, as well as creating its digital strategy. He is currently acting as an advisor to the Humboldt Forum in Berlin and has previously provided advice to institutions in Qatar and Singapore. Prior to his museum career, he was CEO of the educational start-up Mindshapes.
Michaels is a firm believer in the fact that technology has the potential to help us find solutions to the climate crisis. He says that technology can help museums to find ways to communicate with the world, and can also offer new ways to solve our own challenges. He spoke at greenloop 2022 about the rewards and risks of the new technologies for museums and art galleries, exploring the relationship between sustainability and technology.
“As the growth of that avalanche of digital data continues to increase in the next couple of years, the risks of digital, and the relationship between museum digital and the climate crisis, is very plain to us,” he said in a discussion with blooloop. “Suddenly, the cultural sector finds itself in the middle of this argument in a place it hasn’t been before.
“These are tough times, with tough thinking and tough decisions to be made. But I am positive because I can see it happening in the National Gallery; I see it happening elsewhere, that we can and will change behaviours.”