My Black Museum Experience

Across America there are several Black Museums that have served as keepers of our history and been responsible for exhibiting our stories by regions throughout the nation. I have been to many of them and have been fortunate enough to see some pretty sizable personal collections as well. Most recently, I visited the Smithsonian’s Musuem of African American Heritage.

You can only be impressed with the 4-story architectural gem, it’s floorplan and collection from top to bottom.

But I expected more!

I expected to see exhibits that utlized the full spectrum of technology to educate, engage and interact with each visitor. I expected to experience in living color every object on display in each exhibit. I, like most people today, expected the entire experience to be captured and retraced in the palm of my hand on my mobile device.

I expected to see Exhibits that could have been complemented with photos, information about the artist, descriptions, video and audio streaming where it is most relevant to each visitor and exhibit.

I expected to receive messages and notifications on my device about upcoming exhibits, lectures and other events at the museum during my visit.

I expected to see the school children visiting the museum to be fully engaged in a learning experience, that was fun and entertaining, that they could recall long after their visit to share and encourage others to want to visit and have a similar experience.

Even at the very least, I expected to receive some type of encouragement, by way of a push notification, to visit the gift store and pick up a souvenir or refreshment.

But with all of my expectations, I expected the museum to be fully engaged with each visitor by embracing new mobile technologies to extend audience reach and provide potential new revenue channels. While the Smithsonian is well funded, other museums in other cities aren’t so fortunate.

Where does this change start, you might ask?

Let’s start with QR Codes! They should be placed on all marketing and advertising collateral and it should take interested parties directly to a download link for the museums Progressive Web App (PWA).

The PWA is quickly downloaded to your device and is where all parties request tickets, confirm visiting dates and times and has info on the exhibits, collections and other events at the museum. The PWA is your mobile guide that connects to beacons and NFC Tags throughout the museum allowing you to receive push notifications and information about the exhibit during your visit at the museum.

Low-powered Beacons strategically placed throughout he museum allows important communication providing information and notifications directly to PWA users. Things like upcoming events, lectures, films, Gift Store & More.

NFC Tags can be assigned to every artifact on exhibit. They connect to the devices on command and can provide a host of information on each item in the exhibit with documented downloads, video and audio previews and much more. School DIstricts can produce downloadable lesson plans for better student engagement and reports on their visit.

Free Social Wifi Network provided where visitors can access the internet no matter where they are inside the facility and it allows them to post on their social media channels.

All of this means museums should embrace new mobile technologies that extend audience reach and provide visitor data that enables museum directors to better serve future visitors. Turning their rooms into an interactive experience that meet the expectations of museums visitors. The time of the touristic map and the audio guide have been left behind and, at present, some museums offer a wide variety of location-based services to enrich and personalize the experience of the visitors.

We’ve done a great job of preserving our history and telling our stories. Now we have to do a better job of communicating these stories with technology to have more of an impact in our future.