As technology becomes ever more present in the cultural institution – reshaping its operations, how it engages audiences and what it exhibits – the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) is hosting a forum to reflect on what the digital frontier means for the museum of today and tomorrow.
On April 21, FAMSF, in partnership with seven other Bay Area museums and cultural strategist András Szántó, will host a symposium, titled Museums of Tomorrow, at Stanford University. The day-long program will include presentations from a panel of museum directors, artists and academic experts on how technology is transforming power structures within the arts and institutions.
The time, said Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of FAMSF, is ripe for such a discussion, coming as it does on the heels of the NFT boom and the rise of AI, and following of a pandemic-induced digital acceleration.
“Museums around the world are grappling with the opportunities and costs of thoughtfully introducing technology into their work and audience engagement,” he told Artnet News. “And given that so much of this development is coming from the Bay Area, it seemed logical and an opportunity for us to convene a roundtable here.”
Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Photo courtesy of FAMSF.
The forum will bring together an international panel of museum directors not limited to Meriem Berrada of the Al Maaden Museum of Contemporary African Art in Marrakech, Morocco; Seb Chan of the Australian Center for the Moving Image in Melbourne; Hou Hanru, former director of MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Art in Rome, Italy; Sonia Lawson of the Lomé Palace, Togo; Suhanya Raffel of M+ in Hong Kong; and Kamini Sawhney from the Museum of Art & Photography in Bangalore, India.
Also on the program are Adam Banks, director of faculty at Stanford’s Institute for Diversity in the Arts; Stanford d.school faculty member Glenn Fajardo; and Brooklyn-based Nigerian-American artist Mimi Onuoha.
Diversity was key to Campbell and Szántó’s selection of museum participants, not only in a global sense, but in the variety of institutions. Historical and contemporary museums are represented, as are newcomers like MAP Bangalore. The goal, Campbell added, was to bring together a range of perspectives on the issue of technology.
Legion of Honor. Photo: Henrik Kam, courtesy of FAMSF.
The public symposium will represent the culmination of a week-long “learning journey”, during which administrators will participate in discussions and brainstorming sessions at Bay Area institutions, including SFMOMA., San Jose Art Museum, Asian Art Museum, Gray Zone, and Cantor Center for the Arts.
Additionally, museum directors will meet with leading companies in the region and develop initiatives in AI and digital arts platforms. As the gap between culture and technology narrows, such conversations, Campbell says, are bound to bear fruit.
“We are clearly going through a time when an entirely new aspect of art and experience is developing, whether it’s digital art or immersive experiences in which digital is a component,” he said. -he declares. “So I think we’re going to see museums creating more and more spaces to accommodate these new hybrid experiences.”
Kamini Sawhneym, director of the Museum of Art and Photography. Photo courtesy of FAMSF.
“Technology has enabled us to provide new ways for people to relate to the museum’s collection and understand how art can be relevant to their lives,” said Kamini Sawhney, director of MAP, which was launched during the pandemic as a virtual platform. “The key is to discover that delicate balance that allows us to be faithful to a work of art while exploring new and exciting ways to encounter it.”
While technologies such as AI, blockchain, and virtual and augmented reality are on attendees’ radars, they also stressed to Artnet News that these tools should be implemented with purpose. M+ Director Suhanya Raffel, for her part, highlighted how the museum’s digital programs, including M+ Facade controls, appealed to an East Asian audience of “early adopters of technology”.
Sabine Himmelsbach, director of the House of Electronic Arts. Photo: Ivana Kresic.
Sabine Himmelsbach, Director of the House of Electronic Arts in Basel, Switzerland, added: “Cultural institutions need to be sure that the technologies they use and offer serve the public. The central concern of mediation at the HEK is cultural participation. Promoting this is one of the essential tasks of all artistic and cultural institutions aimed at the public.
But as museums embrace technologies at the individual level, Seb Chan, CEO and Director of ACMI, further stressed the need for “wide-sector, whole-community approaches”. The museum itself ran a mentorship program for art and culture leaders to exchange knowledge and improve digital literacy.
Seb Chan, Director and CEO of the Australian Center for the Moving Image. Photo courtesy of FAMSF.
“Nowadays it makes more sense to share this with others as much as possible, on a civic scale,” he said. “What could a local art museum share, in terms of technology, with the local theater or nearby concert halls? How could each learn from each other?
FAMSF’s Museums of Tomorrow roundtable could be another opportunity.
The Museums of Tomorrow public symposium will take place April 21 at Stanford University’s Clark Center Auditorium and Cantor Arts Center and will be streamed live via webinar. Tickets are free and can be booked here.
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