Kiosk
The judges said:
This extraordinary kiosk-based interactive—running on seven stations at the Koret Education Center within SFMOMA, adjacent to its galleries—doesn't just bring art and artists to life for museum visitors in ways that are inviting and engaging. Its design is a work of art, melding beautifully with the museum's own aesthetic and tone. With detailed images to explore, videos that let you meet artists, and other rich, interactive features, reviewers found it "gorgeous, clean, elegant, beautifully designed, straightforward to use and graphically compelling." They felt that its great depth and variety of content "doesn't feel like an art history lesson," yet its educational message was subtle and effective. The panel was especially impressed by how this program melds a decade of prescient rich media, video, interactives, and the art objects themselves into a cohesive presentation, which feels as contemporary as SFMOMA's most cutting edge exhibition.
The producers said:
This new interface, co-developed with the designers at Method, Inc., unifies content from thirteen different programs originally developed over a ten year period using
a variety of authoring tools and languages—from Apple Media Tool CD-ROMs to HTML to Flash. The programs were atomized and aggregated under a single umbrella.
The program runs on kiosks in the museum's Koret Visitor Education Center and adjacent to the galleries. The goal was to enable visitors who have just come from the
Museum galleries to surface the rich media resources of greatest interest to them within three clicks, even if they don't know the name of an artist, the title of an
artwork, or the program in which it originally appeared. This was achieved through three animated browsing menus: "Artworks," "Artists," and
"Interactive Features."
Tips:
- Preservation angle: Find ways to keep your old multimedia programs continuously in service, if they're good. Once you withdraw them, you might not get them back!
- Think first of the visitor's needs and capacities. Find ways to guarantee them a quality experience even if they don't meet you halfway (e.g., by remembering the
name of the artist they liked! ;-)
http://www.clevelandart.org/explore/
The judges said:
The Cleveland Museum of Art brings the wealth and depth of its collection online in a way that, in the words of one reviewer, "needs no glitz or glitter...it is the real thing...a rich resource, with a clean and clear design aesthetic, which offers [visitors] endless opportunities to make CMA's object's their own." By presenting information about its entire collection, whether images are available or not, CMA demonstrates an intellectual respect for its audience. This site has an array of compelling features, from ever-changing "Today's Selections" to advanced search and access to keywords, from personal collections visitors can "curate" and share, to e-cards for those who just want to say hello with their favorite discovery. Reviewers "found it very personal...like the museum put this together because they care about their audience." They especially appreciated the "satisfying multimedia," and special touches like "How big is it?," and artist biographies and image licensing information. With Collections Online CMA has become among the first museums to embrace the STEVE folksonomy tagging project with its "Help others find me" feature. CMA Collections Online is a great museum collection resource today, and sets the foundation for an even greater resource in the future.
The producers said:
With the Cleveland Museum of Art temporarily closed for expansion, we want to make CMA Collections Online an area where continued exploration and nurturance for a love
of art can occur even with the physical doors closed. We seek to create a destination that allows a greater understanding of the connections and opportunities provided
by a collection (resources drawn randomly from the database, how big is it?), a place for individual and community creativity (personal collections and postcard
features), a place where the visitor feels they have a role to play in helping others visit the collection (guest key-wording), and where they can accomplish the
activities they desire to accomplish (study photographs, rights and reproductions). Most importantly we wanted to offer our visitors access to as many kinds of
assets as we can (audio, video, voices other than educational and curatorial, QTVR photography, and additional views). The more ways the museum can find to
emphasize how important the visitor (virtual or actual) is to us, the more relevant the museum becomes in the life of the visitor. As one online visitor recently
commented, "I love this website. It's like being an honorary registrar and curator. I enjoy having a 'personal collection' available online to study and display
while the museum goes through its own Renaissance."
http://www.phillipscollection.org/american_art/index.htm
The judges said:
"American Art at the Phillips Collection," gives visitors to their Web site get a great introduction to a great collection. Simple and elegant navigation transports you to a beautifully designed interactive timeline which combines art and history while encouraging more direct exploration by artist, medium, or period. This yields a site that reviewers found "fun to play with" and demonstrates "a genuine desire to make this art accessible." The collection's accessibility is leveraged by the site's "Learning" section, which guides teachers in how to use specific art objects in a variety of core curriculum areas. Overall, reviewers agreed that this is an artful welcome to a superb collection.
The producers said:
In creating this program, we wished to open the collection to a broader audience, moving beyond the small, intimate scale of the museum itself. Presenting 150 years of
American art in the museum's collection is meant to emphasize stylistic diversity as well as The Phillips Collection's particular strengths—in-depth holdings of
works by major American artists such as Dove, Marin, Lawrence, Diebenkorn. We also wanted to show that the museum's collection extends beyond the Impressionist and
Post-Impressionist works traditionally associated with the institution, as Duncan Phillips was one of the earliest and most consistent champions of American artists
in the 20th century. The program was designed to expand the usual database to offer audiences not only a full array of high quality, full-screen images, but also to
provide a variety of information about the works, the artists, collecting, and through the timeline and Learning Activities—ideas for integrating art into the
curriculum—to meet the needs of educators.
Ruth R. Perlin, who is in charge of educational technology at The Phillips and produced this program, says that she re-learned some things that she already knew—one
needs to have a clear sense of the limits of a program, including time and resources. And that you can always use more of those very things—time, staff,
funding!
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/
The judges said:
The Newseum's "Today's Front Pages" is a daily Web exhibit featuring the front pages of up to 500 newspapers from around the world, making it what one reviewer called "the world's most satisfying newsstand." This award celebrates its innovative and dynamic approach to a highly specialized content area. The Web site successfully expresses the dynamic nature of news with global circumspection while assuring that visitors see their own world in new and unexpected ways. Read all about it.
The producers said:
One of the Newseum's most popular exhibits, when it was open, was the daily posting of front pages of domestic and international newspapers. When the Newseum closed in
2002, it was decided that we should continue exhibiting the front pages on the Web. The process of collecting these files has evolved over the years, but it is a massive
undertaking, with files being transferred from newsrooms around the globe. The exhibit has grown from slightly more than 100 newspapers, to more than 500 a day now. In
addition to the daily postings, front pages containing news of historic interest are archived and made available as well. These include the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001,
the invasion of Iraq and hurricane Katrina. When the Newseum re-opens we will also begin posting portions of our historic newspaper collection, which includes editions
from as early as 1541. This online exhibit was developed and created by Libby Melton and Harland Harris and is maintained on a daily basis by the graphics department
of the Newseum.
One of the most important aspects of an online exhibit is the ability to add new content as often as possible. The staff resources needed to maintain and update an
online exhibit should be considered at the beginning of the project.
