Guide-ID, the audio tour specialist, has once again partnered with the PinchukArtCentre, a major contemporary art museum in Kyiv, Ukraine.
The two organisations first collaborated in 2023 for the Flying Trajectories and Inside Out exhibitions. Guide-ID helped the PinchukArtCentre team to share the stories behind the art with visitors from throughout Ukraine. One in every five visitors used a Podcatcher, which enabled visitors to connect more deeply with the exhibits.
This year, the PinchukArtCentre has developed From Ukraine: Dare to Dream, a new exhibition in Venice in connection with the 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. The museum has again collaborated with Guide-ID to enrich the visitor experience using Podcatcher audio guides.
See also: Accessible storytelling with Podcatcher Pro
Creating a sense of connection
From Ukraine: Dare to Dream gathers artists from around the world to address existential questions facing our society, such as climate change, conflict, political turmoil, and humanitarian disasters. It launched in mid-April and has since welcomed over 30,000 visitors.
The exhibition includes artworks by: Kateryna Aliinyk, Allora & Calzadilla, Alex Baczyński-Jenkins, Fatma Bucak, David Claerbout, Shilpa Gupta, Oleg Holosiy, Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova, Nikolay Karabinovych, Dana Kavelina, Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk, Lesia Khomenko, Yana Kononova, Kateryna Lysovenko, Otobong Nkanga, Wilfredo Prieto, Daniil Revkovskiy and Andriy Rachinskiy, Anton Saenko, Oleksiy Sai, Fedir Tetianych, and Anna Zvyagintseva.
Thought-provoking topics are explored through a range of art forms, from paintings to life-sized exhibits. Despite the current global challenges, the PinchukArtCentre team aimed to leave guests with a greater sense of connection to humanity. As a result, the exhibition design is gentle and easy to understand.
Knowing the effectiveness of the Podcatcher, the team wanted to use an audio guide to share the artists’ narratives. The principle was to provide an immersive, distraction-free environment where artists could explain their work in their own words – an ideal fit for Guide-ID’s mission to tell untold stories.
Adaptable installation
Museums can make any content available to hear through the Podcatcher. For this exhibition, the PinchukArtCentre team asked artists to script and narrate their stories. The artists could share their experiences in their own voices, offering visitors a deeper insight.
Listening to the artists’ tales enhanced the exhibition experience and allowed for deeper engagement with the art. The Podcatcher received a positive response at both La Biennale di Venezia and the PinchukArtCentre in Ukraine, even though these locations serve different audiences.
The exhibition’s location in Venice’s historic Palazzo Contarini Polignac meant that the ‘beacon lite’ device which triggers the Podcatcher could not be fixed to the wall, as in a typical installation. With Guide-ID’s assistance, the PinchukArtCentre team developed innovative solutions to guarantee the Podcatcher could function properly while preserving the building’s historical integrity.
Olha Shyshlova, head of programs at the PinchukArtCentre says: “Guide-ID’s support has been essential for the success of this exhibition. Their assistance helped us navigate the unique challenges of setting up in a historical building and ensured that we could deliver a seamless audio guide experience to our visitors. Their technical support and proactive approach significantly enhanced our ability to provide an engaging exhibition experience.”
Enhancing the visitor experience
This successful collaborative effort demonstrates the transformative impact of storytelling through Podcatcher audio guides, which developed a richer visitor experience and a deeper connection to the art.
The project’s unique challenges, including the historical setting of Palazzo Contarini Polignac, were overcome through creative solutions and a common dedication to excellence. This partnership with the PinchukArtCentre team reflects Guide-ID’s key value of empowering museums to share captivating narratives that connect deeply with their audiences.
“We look forward to future collaborations that continue to push the boundaries of how art and stories are experienced. By providing immersive, distraction-free audio experiences, Guide-ID remains dedicated to enhancing the way people connect with art, history, and culture worldwide,” a representative from the firm concludes.
Guide-ID recently sponsored the VE: Forum Visitor Experience Seminar, a free, peer-led event which took place on 11 July at the Thinktank Museum in Birmingham, UK. The event’s theme was ‘The future of visitor experience’, and it featured presentations from industry experts who discussed ways to drive the sector forward and enhance the guest experience.
