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March 02 2024
By Rebecca Carlsson
Not everyone has the means or opportunity to visit a museum, so should curators bring the exhibit to the viewer?
From social media to video streaming, technology plays an essential role in how we connect with the world around us. We rely on it for work, information and entertainment, and over the past twenty years it has completely revolutionised the way we access and engage with content.
It is therefore no surprise that museums are looking to utilise technology in order to help draw in crowds, enrich their exhibitions, and extend reach. And one of the most effective tools for achieving this aim is undoubtedly livestreaming.
Livestreaming is a medium that allows museums to beam their exhibits and activities to screens around the world, increasing audience engagement with, and recognition of, the museum’s offering. But how can a museum utilise livestreaming in an effective way? And how big of a role can it really play in growing a museum’s impact and achieving success?
How are museums using livestreaming to their advantage?
On 14 August 2017, five museums collaborated on Sunflowers Live, a sequence of broadcasts exploring different versions of Van Gogh’s paintings.
The programme linked museums in London, Amsterdam, Munich, Philadelphia and Tokyo through a relay of fifteen-minute presentations; the Tokyo contribution was prerecorded. It offered a way to compare paintings held in different places with expert interpretation. A separate Sunflowers 360 experience brought the works together in a virtual gallery.
A 2016 example from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) was a Facebook conversation with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro.
Online audiences were able to post questions for the director in the comments section of the video, which were read out and answered in real time. This gave people across the world the opportunity to interact directly with their creative hero, and enabled the museum to highlight the kind of events it runs to a much larger and more diverse demographic.
Sofia Stucchi’s April 2017 report, citing contemporary reporting, recorded more than 1.2 million views, 6,000 comments and 16,000 shares for the conversation. Views should not be relabelled as unique people, and these are historical totals rather than current performance.
When The Getty museum in Los Angeles went live for the first time in 2016, it was a spur of the moment decision; a suggestion by one of the museum’s interns to broadcast their annual college night. The short broadcast became an early example of using a museum event as live online content.
The historical account described subsequent gallery tours, curator conversations and behind-the-scenes broadcasts, rather than a current publishing schedule.
Through these tactics, the museum’s online audience gets to experience a more intimate and informal look at the inner workings of the museum, and gains a greater knowledge and understanding of their favourite artworks. In turn, The Getty creates a worldwide audience for itself, and helps to dispel the notion that art galleries are elitist, and only open to certain people, by interacting directly with a large and diverse audience.
Plan access and participation
A livestream can give people a way to take part when travel, time or geography prevents a visit. Plan for the barriers that remain: data costs, unreliable connections, hearing or visual access, language and confidence using the platform. Offer a clear description of the format and, where possible, an accessible recording or equivalent resource afterwards.
Plan live captions where appropriate, spoken descriptions of important visual detail, accessible registration and clear joining instructions. Consider a low-bandwidth option and an on-demand alternative, especially when reaching people with limited digital access.
Decide what participation means for this event. A curator conversation may need a moderator to bring online questions into the room; a close-looking session may need careful camera work and spoken description. Test the whole journey from the invitation to the replay.
Resource the production
A smartphone and an account can be a starting point. A reliable service also needs preparation, sound, connectivity, permissions, access support and staff to run the session and respond to the audience. Rehearse in the space, test the platform’s current requirements and plan what happens if the connection fails. The National Football Museum’s hybrid production approach offers a practical example.
Paid streams, memberships, advertising and sponsorship may be options, but income depends on platform eligibility, rights, production costs and audience willingness to pay. Assess those conditions before building a budget around revenue.
Measure online and on-site outcomes separately
Online viewing and physical attendance answer different questions. Record each separately and avoid assuming that a stream either replaces a visit or causes one. Ask participants what the format helped them do and what they would change before deciding whether to repeat it. Record views, reached accounts, comments and shares using the platform’s definitions; they are different measures.
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About the author – Rebecca Carlsson
Rebecca Carlsson is a journalist writing extensively about the arts. She has a passion for modern art and when she’s not writing about museums, she can be found spending her weekends in them.
