DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF MUSEUMS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC

 

                                                                                                                                     ©-Ankita Gupta

Museums are vessels that house the vast historical and cultural treasures of past for future generations to appreciate. With careful documentation and preservation of the artefacts, museums bridge the time gap offering present a glimpse into the lives of the past, the ethnicities and cultures. They are moreover practically viable, productively engaging, and enjoyable modes of delving deep into one’s roots.

With the world going through a Pandemic and everything becoming digitally available and accessible, it was time for the museums to transform digitally in order to survive. In the beginning it was sure challenging for many museums because of the lack of resources, funding and the fact that they had to start everything from scratch i.e. digitisation of collection and new opportunities for the public, a new and refined approach to museum education and lifelong learning, developing crucial digital skills and training programmes, and generating revenue through digital activities. The museums however accepted the challenge and started embracing the new technologies to understand their audience better and create a more engaging platform. Still many museums around the world, especially the small museums, are in the process of transformation and making them digitally accessible.

Even before the pandemic, museums were starting to digitise, however it was limited to digitisation of the collection in order to have a more effective management of museum’s collection. However as the pandemic hit, it became a tool which reshaped the entire museum experience and the way it functions.

The transformation process began from engaging people through live talks, lectures, seminars, workshops, activities on various social media platforms, for example Twitter, Zoom, Facebook, Instagram and many others to providing virtual tours of the museums along with its collection. The process gave many museums an opportunity to re-design their websites and make it more visitor-friendly, engaging and inclusive for all.

The most interesting was the effort of Uffizi Gallery, Florence. They started a Tik Tok Account and brought together Renaissance art with trending music with the aim to engage with the diverse audience and hopefully increase their interest. This was conducted last year however it was so engaging that it still lingers on the minds of people.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History created a virtual tour that allows its visitors to take self-guided tours of select exhibits and areas within the museum. The visitors can even access past exhibits that are no longer on display.

The Louvre Museum, Paris offers the virtual tour of its galleries and the Palace architecture and has provided almost everything online, even the concerts that are held at the Museum can be accessed by everyone from their homes. They even launched an app on both Google play store and Apple store named ‘Mona Lisa- Beyond the glass’ that gives a 360 degree view of the Louvre and talks about a brief history of the museum and takes us to the gallery where Mona Lisa painting is displayed. The app then talks about the Mona Lisa painting in detail. Also, they have provided the tour in five different languages for the user to choose from.

Along with this they have also created a virtual tour for kids that depict the select gallery objects and tales in animated form, an interesting way to draw the attention of kids and ignite as well as increase their interest.

Museums, for example Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Bhau Daji Lad Museum, National Museum, Odisha State Museum and various others provided a 360 degree tour of their museum premises and the galleries. Many made their collection available on Google Arts & Culture. Many even started conducting various workshops and fun activities for kids online such as colouring the Miniature, Dress as the Object, the world through my eyes, etc. Museums like Assam State Museum, Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya and others started with competitions, particularly on special occasions such as World Heritage Day or International Museum Day, like essay writing and quiz to keep the people engaged as well as informed regarding the current developments and themes in Museums.

According to a survey, Rijksmuseum saw a decrease in its visitor footfall last year since 1964. At the same time, because of their highly engaging digital content, they saw 23% increase in the number of its social media followers as well as an increase in the number of visits to its website and the virtual tours.

Recently on May 18 which is celebrated as International Museums Day, few museums collaborated with Tik Tok that hosted its first ever global LIVE museum marathon. The marathon brought together some of the world’s most iconic cultural institutions, featuring exclusive virtual tours conducted by 23 museums across different countries in the world such as Uffizi Galleries, Rijksmuseum, Black Country Living Museum, National Gallery Singapore, Israel Museum and others.

Hence this shows the effort museums are making to get into the digital world and stepping out of their comfort zone leaving no stone unturned in order to make museums accessible to everyone around the world. It’s still a long way to go!

To embrace ‘Digital’ might have seemed a tough process but this digital transformation of Museums, in a way, increased Museum’s reach and helped the Museums as well as the audience to connect and interact better with each other and opened new opportunities to learn from each other.