Workflow: May 20–December 30, 2020

• Phase 1 (May 20–June 20): Project kickoff, design review, site-mapping, content strategy, and planning. Identify 12 Kress artworks. Gather texts from “Your Voice” initiative.
• Phase 2 (May 26–July 30): Content gathering and development (consisting of art historical research for the 12 Kress artworks as well as working closely with University of Miami faculty and student intern to develop interpretive content and critical responses to the Kress collection for inclusion in the digital interactive). This phase also includes development and configuration of a digital interactive application for the in-gallery kiosk and online platform.
• Phase 3 (August–September 2020): Content writing and editing. Development and testing of the digital interactive application for the in-gallery kiosk and online platform.
• Phase 4 (October–November 2020): Finalization of content, audio recordings of content, training related to software application and its content management system, and application approval and acceptance by all partners.
• Phase 5 (December 2020): Public launch of the digital interactive application kiosk and online platform.

The CultureConnect team and Lowe Art Museum focused on approaches to surfacing interpretations of each painting and sharing visual references to help visitors make clear connections. The final app structure introduces audiences to paintings through these lenses:

• The Artwork: first and foremost, the museum team wanted to ensure visitors could engage with the painting directly, without distraction, as they would during an onsite visit. The Artwork page offers a zoomable, hi-res image of the painting without text.
• Symbols + Stories: This facet shares the background narrative of the work paired with an image carousel that magnifies details and meaning behind important figures, objects, and symbols within the painting.
• Artist + Style: This section helps build context around the artist’s life, style, and artistic influences. When art history terminology is used, a definition is always highlighted to ensure the interpretation is accessible to both art lovers and novices alike. The digital medium enables easily digestible content depth through visual design.
• Voices: in service to the project mission, the museum team wanted to empower audiences to reflect and respond to each painting. Using the web form, this section lists 7 prompts to encourage users to share their reactions. An adjacent image carousel features previous responses.
• Time Travel: Global and historical context is provided so that audiences are able to see significant world events contemporaneous to when the artwork was created.
• Contemporary Connections: in the final section of each painting’s journey, the museum team helps create connections to our lives today. It quickly becomes clear that these paintings tell timeless stories and often reflect inherently human struggles that we still experience in contemporary society.

Creating opportunities for the museum’s audience to share their thoughts, reactions, and questions as they explore the Kress collection was essential to the project’s mission and, therefore, the application’s content strategy.

The Web Form is like a survey tool (with aesthetic design controls) that can be activated on any content page in a CultureConnect application. Elements that you can mix and match include: text, images, dropdown menus, multiple choice, checkboxes, multi-line inputs for responses, single-line inputs for email addresses and phone numbers, document download (e.g., PDFs), and more.

The museum team provided prompts for the user to reflect upon after viewing and learning about the artwork. The same prompts were provided for each artwork and the user could choose to answer any or all questions and provide as short or long of responses as desired.

Due to pandemic and museum closure our measurable outcomes have been limited. We hope to move to a more robust approach upon reopening.

The Lowe will measure and evaluate this project through two specific lenses:

• The first will focus on user interface and interest/understanding of the Kress Collection. This information will be captured through observation, surveys, and built-in analytics within the software design that can track performance, measure outcomes, and collect user-generated responses.
• The second will focus on measuring the effectiveness of the museum’s approach to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion, engaging in a human-centered design approach.

Support and funding from the Kress Foundation. The unwavering support of many members of the Lowe Art Museum, spanning education, marketing, collections, and exhibitions departments.

Community engagement takes time and patience. Figuring out how to make works relevant to many audience members requires outreach and openess to ceding authority.

Yes, we hope to continue to add artworks to this project and continue to engage the community in the choices of those artworks and the content developed and shared related to those artworks.