Speak to any museum director and, at some point during your chat, they will confess you they are constantly trying to find new ways and additional resources to attract a younger audience to see their exhibitions and enrich the experience of visitors from all parts of the world.
The Metropolitan Museum in New York is among the institutions that have been working towards such aims in a clever way. In 2013 the institution came up for example with an online series of two minute long clips about 100 Works of Art and 100 Curators They Inspired. Last week, moving from this award-winning series, the Met launched a new iPad app – 82nd & Fifth – that allows viewers to see curators talking about the works of art that changed the way they see the world.
There is a bit of everything for every taste from paintings and drawings to garments, sculptures, musical instruments, photographs, accessories and porcelain pieces (just to mention a few…).
There is obviously plenty to learn from Harold Koda talking about a Paul Poiret gown, Femke Speelberg looking at the architectural costumes in Masquerade à la Grecque by French architect Ennemond-Alexandre Petitot etched and published by Benigno Bossi or Pierre Terjanian exploring the influence of civilian clothes in a 1525 armour and Jeff Rosenheim analysing the poetical images of passengers captured in the New York Subway by Walker Evans.
If you're familiar with the online series, you'll also know that one of the main strengths of these videos is the "Explore" feature: the latter expands the knowledge in the short videos and allows viewers to look at the construction of a piece, at catwalk show images or at rotating pictures of a specific works of art.
The 100 episodes on the app are arranged under thematic categories, such as "Heroes and Villains," "Faith and Devotion," "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," "The Art of Parties," and "Politics in Art", and visitors can download favourite videos or share episodes, and create their own collections. The best thing remains the global focus of this project: the app is indeed available in English with translations in Arabic, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum, stated in a press release: "82nd & Fifth is a project that speaks directly to my interest in connecting the Met's collection to a broader audience. In a world filled with constant information, these two-minute, authoritative commentaries provide powerful, compelling content in quick doses. We hope they will intrigue a range of audiences, from those who already know and love the Met to those who are new to art."
The app is available for download from the Museum's 82nd & Fifth website and the iTunes App Store. There's definitely no excuse now not to visit the Met and learn more about its collections, even if you live in another country or are relaxing in a remote location.
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