Gallery One at Cleveland Museum of Art Collection Wall
Gallery One at the Cleveland Museum of Art is a unique, interactive gallery that blends art, technology and interpretation to inspire visitors to explore the museum’s renowned collections. It is comprised of 3 major sections.
The Collection Wall is simply incredible. It is a 40-foot, interactive, microtile wall featuring works of art from the permanent collection that rotates by theme
and type, such as time period, materials and techniques, as well as curated views of the collection. It is the largest multi-touch screen in the United States.
"The Collection Wall is a fulcrum between Gallery One and the permanent collection galleries," said Caroline Goeser, Director of Education and Interpretation. "It displays the collection in a way that is constantly changing and evolving. You have a chance to see it differently depending on the
perspective or theme that's shown."
When you select a tile, the wall 'opens up' to feature the piece and provide more information and options.
The largest multi-touch screen in the United States, the Collection Wall utilizes innovative technology to allow visitors to browse these works of art on the Wall, facilitating discovery and dialogue with other visitors. The Collection Wall can also serve as an orientation experience, allowing visitors to download existing tours or curate their own tours to take out into the galleries on iPads.
The video below shows the process of removing and replacing the micro-tiles on the Collection Wall, the largest multi-touch screen in the United States, at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Microtile removed in the Collection Wall
Inside the microtile
The wall refreshes frequently, even without user input, and often displays artwork in larger dimensions on a particular topic or genre.
The Collection Wall, as well as the other interactive in the gallery, illustrates the museum's long-term investment in technology to enhance visitor access to factual and interpretative information about the permanent collection.
"The Collection Wall powerfully demonstrates how cutting-edge technology can inspire our visitors to engage with our collection in playful and original ways never before seen on this scale," said Jane Alexander, Director of Information Management and Technology Services. "This space, unique among art museums internationally, will help make the Cleveland Museum of Art a destination museum."
Jane Alexander showed Great Lakes Geek Dan Hanson the Collection Wall.
In concert with the opening of Gallery One, the museum has also created ArtLens, a multidimensional
app for iPads. Utilizing image recognition software, visitors can scan two-dimensional
objects in Gallery One and throughout the museum's galleries to access up to 9 hours of additional
multimedia content, including audio tour segments, videos and additional contextual information.
Indoor triangulation-location technology also allows visitors to orient themselves in the galleries and
find works of art with additional interpretive content throughout their visit.
Additionally, visitors will have an opportunity to dock their iPad, or one borrowed from the museum,
at the Collection Wall.
Visitors who use the Collection Wall to browse the collection can save their
favorites to their iPad. These saved objects can then be combined into a customized tour, so visitors can direct their exploration of the collections on view in the museum's permanent collection galleries. Curated tours by the museum's director and staff as well as other visitors can also be found on the
app.
"ArtLens allows the visitor to take the experience of Gallery One out in to the other areas of the museum," said Caroline Goeser. "It brings in many voices and traditions from different cultures, as well as giving visitors a chance to see demonstrations of art making techniques by local artists. The content is layered so visitors can choose what interests them and discover new ways of looking at and interpreting the object. Their experience is guided by their own sense of curiosity and discovery"
