How modern museum and exhibition set-ups can attract new audiences

Museum and exhibition set-ups are becoming more and more engaging, a trend much appreciated by the final consumer as confirmed by the latest statistics showing a growing success in these initiatives. Although this issue seems to mainly affect the integration between traditional museum paths and high-tech services such as multimedia, the creation of immersive video games and augmented reality, there are actually many other sectors of the set-up affected by this recent “wave” of innovation.

Among the many success stories, we can certainly cite the reorganization of the storytelling of the works exhibited towards a more targeted and emotional direction. The Brera Academy in Milan, for example, has redesigned the captions of the works by offering different readings according to the target – i.e. experts, families and children – and has launched “experiential” tours that include visits to (and therefore the set-up of) the deposits and the restoration laboratories; initiatives that have been very successful.
Another trend puts museums at the center of social integration projects aimed at creating value for the surrounding area and the community itself. Examples of successful initiatives in this regard are the MoMA of San Francisco or the V&A in London which gave rise to the creation of “open squares”, not linked to the purchase of the ticket, which can become a meeting point for young people, families and neighborhood students. For museums and exhibitions spaces, this active role in the sustainable development of the city translates also in the use of materials and construction techniques that can increase both the territory’s eco-sustainability as well as the quality of life of future generations.

A change of pace in the definition of the cultural offer of museums and exhibitions that implies a growing dialogue between organizers, curators, cultural mediators and set-up companies which are called to manage increasingly complex projects and to extensively know areas, such as web social networks, local social policies or augmented reality, just until recently totally “unknown” in the museum world.

Cover image by Museo Corporea & Studio GrisDainese.
Source: Design At Large, Laura Traldi