GLAMi nomination: Painting & Sculpture Interpretive Gallery
institution: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
category: Groundbreaking
http://www.bwco.info
SFMOMA’s Painting and Sculpture Interpretive Gallery (Gallery 218) is a space dedicated to bringing visitors closer to artists and their artworks—the same artworks that were introduced in the preceding galleries. In addition to the interior design of the space itself, this project consists of two very unique interactive installations that were created specifically for this space.
The Wall Experience is made up of large “interactive posters” that provide visitors with easy access to stories about the artists themselves—and some close-up analysis of some of their significant works that are presented at SFMOMA.
The complementary Table Experience allows visitors to playfully dive deeper into stories based on unconventional access points.
A significant aspect of the project is the innovative Eyes-Free Mode (this functionality is premiering at the Museums and the Web conference. This project component is the first of its kind at SFMOMA—and the first seen at art museums in the United States—with a primary input modality of touch and a primary output modality of audio (effectively serving both the sighted and also blind and sight-impaired visitors).