Imagine… that the experience of a visitor looking at a work of art can be made visible…

FROM COLLECTION TO CONNECTION reflects Museum Arnhem’s initiative to open up and visualize the collection digitally in the next two years in an innovative and sustainable way, for and by a wide audience, an audience that is not used to art-historical terms or periods.

The basis for this is formed by a participatory application, in which the associations of the visitor are central. With this, the collection is viewed and used in a radically different way. The subjective and intuitive experience of the online visitor is made visible through the use of qualitative and interactively generated data. As a result, everyone can become his or her own curator and art historical frameworks can be broken. This leads to a greater connection of the visitor with the collection, because the view is converted into data and made visible. The application will be a White Label that can be used by other museums

Museum Arnhem is one of the top 10 Dutch contemporary art museums with its high-quality collections of realism, contemporary art (including a lot of art by women and non-Western art) and design (with jewelry as a gem) and the exhibition program that always responds to the current affairs.

Objectives
• The plan leads to greater visibility of the collection
• The plan leads to a different way of experiencing art: consideration is converted into data and made visible • The plan leads to more connection of the visitor with the collection
• The plan leads to a new way of linking information to the collection, which deviates from a specialist eye or art-historical perspective
• The plan leads to a network of visitor data that provides a good insight into the visitor’s interests and experience
• The plan results in a White label, so that other institutions can use the same method and application

Added value
The application has added value for our target groups, Museum Arnhem and the cultural sector:

We want to achieve the following effects for the target groups
• Discover (new) art through personal associations and learn the story behind the artwork
• The relationship between the public and the collection is strengthened
• Art-historical frameworks are broken and art is placed in the visitor’s perception
• Everyone can be his or her own curator
• We want to achieve the following effects for Museum Arnhem
• We generate more insight into how the collection is perceived by our visitors
• We unlock stories that are important, a collective memory based on our collection
• We use this knowledge in future presentations in the room, for example through the public in residence program and in future presentations
• The thesaurus of the collection is supplemented
We want to achieve the following effects for the cultural sector
• The software will be developed as White Label2 and will be part of the Network Digital Heritage, among other things
• Collections are actively connected with the public and made accessible in an inspiring way
• New layers of meaning are added to the collections
• There are opportunities to form an online platform for contemporary art

A success story

The From Collection to Connection project will unlock and visualize the collection digitally over the next two years. The project follows the national Digital Heritage strategy, using open standards and facilities. We are connected to Erfgoed Gelderland and partner at DEN. Project partners understand the importance of collaboration, retrieving expertise from partners and larger peer museums, and re-sharing the knowledge gained with smaller peer institutions. Therefore, we are committed to the principles of the National Digital Heritage strategy and its component, the Digital Heritage Network.