National Gallery of Victoria: Its About Size
The National Gallery of Victoria (“NGV”) https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au
is an example of a museum that can be successful with block-buster shows without having really addressed the digital change. The NGV is all about big budget, big spaces, big events. The museum is a dedicated art gallery built in 2 locations — NGV International on St Kilda Road dedicated to international art and NGV Australia on Flinders Street dedicated to Australian & regional art — a big, bold & modern space with extensive underground infrastructure.
Let’s look at some statistics to understand the size & scope of the NGV. The NGV increased its visitor numbers from 2.6M to over 2.8M in 2017. NGV’s art administrator Tony Ellwood, is credited with this phenomenal growth by creating big ticket exhibitions. Examples are Van Gogh, Any Warhol & Ai Weiwei with each event attracting over 400k visitors. Due to the popularity of the exhibitions (almost 50 per year) and the significant visitor numbers (19th most visited museum in the world, $140M annual revenue, AU$3.6B valuation of art collection) the State government allocated AU$28M in funding[1]. To supplement the revenue a dedicated team works tirelessly to attract private funding from companies & citizens. It is basically a well-oiled machine.
This all sounds amazing, but what about the digital experience?
· The museum had the usual set of digital tools, i.e. CUMULUS[2] by Canto for their Digital Assets Management, website, online social media presence (twitter, Instagram etc.), e-commerce, POS. The author hopes to get more information about this when a more formal interview can be organised.
· It also had other non-museum facilities, i.e. restaurant, family & children area, extensive bookshop[3], events area. The diversity of services is becoming more important with modern museums as people expect more. If a museum has other facilities such as restaurant, bar, library etc. the visitor will usually stay much longer. The visit tends to become a major outing thereby more revenue & better appreciated.
· For the visitor the NGV had the usual audio guides. As per most audio guides, these are fixed sequence devices that rely on the listener to stop & start the dialogue depending where they are & what they are looking at. The most modern ones are starting to have location awareness so that they can automatically select the dialogue depending on where you are, however these are quite rare.
· Other visitor specific digital experience depended entirely on the exhibition & artist involvement. Obviously, these will change from exhibition to exhibition. Some artists are prolific & highly inventive in how they use & interact with the digital medium. In the triennial exhibition there were the usual interactive screens. There were also 3D printed objects & projections, audio soundscapes, lighting & movement. Some of this is shown in the following photo which shows the visitor / artist digital creations.
[1] If you look at their annual report, private funding went from approx. AU$12M in 2016 to AU$39M in 2017! So almost as much funding came from donations as from the state.
[2] https://www.canto.com/en/cumulus/
[3] The NGV is considered one of the largest publishers in the Southern Hemisphere!
I hope to follow-up this informal interview with more formal discussions with the NGV where it is hoped the NGV will share its digital experience & plan (past, present & future) so stay tuned…
One more thing…
Visitors are never allowed in to the operational areas of a museum. It is here where all the maintenance, planning & logistics happen — the engine room of this fine machine. We were allowed to visit these hidden areas that are not open to the public. Passing behind the administration offices at the back of the museum we enter an underground world of extremely clean rooms, storage cupboards/shelves & passage ways.
People are moving around busily. There is much to do before, during & after each exhibition. With almost 50 exhibitions are year, these is no time to sit back & relax. Events have to be planned from 2 to 5 years in advance.
If we look at archiving & cataloguing, specific facilities need to be created. When the NGV created its photographic & digital art section, they needed to also build a cold room to store the pieces when not on exhibition. This room contains thousands of images, films, cassettes etc. at 10°C.
There are dozens of rooms dedicated to specific domains & tasks that any museum must deal with. Archiving & storage, refurbishment, repairs, documentation, image capture, plus the endless meetings between experts, curators, administrators etc. to determine programs & activities for several years in to the near & long-term future.
There is also the ceaseless creation of content:
· Books, catalogues, magazines & pamphlets for the extensive museum shop & associated channels
· Photographs & other archiving methods used to catalogue & store
· Audio — for the audio guides & visually impaired
· Online — for the web site, social media accounts such as Instagram, Facebook & Twitter
· Events — fundraising, members, family, social, societal etc.
· Administration — reports, accounts, logistics, sales, archiving, QC etc.
The NGV is a well-run machine and owes its success to the tireless team the continuously generate this content to inform, promote & advance art & the associated exhibitions.
Conclusion
As mentioned, the NGV is a well-oiled machine. It owes its success to a team that supports a strong leadership with vision. The leadership has pushed through a grand vision that has paid off — big ticket exhibitions. It also demonstrates one of the most important tendencies of any successful museum — temporary exhibitions have become more important than the permanent assets held by the museum even though these assets maybe of better quality & value then what is being exhibited. It reflects the ephemeral tendency of our society — the now is more important than the past or the future. Strangely enough even though we live the moment, people experience it through a screen/3rd party by generating selfies & sharing them instantaneously. If you were to ask a typical visitor if they remember the feeling or smell or ambient noise of a specific space or exhibition, in all probability they cannot tell you but would be able to share a photo or video of the event.
I believe that the NGV understands this & will eventually have to integrate this new way to partake in exhibitions — the new digital experience. Keep tuned in & find out more as it is recorded.
Do I give a score? It would be — “Impressive but watch-out, the future is happening faster than you think…”
Dot-Reality
Dot-Reality specialises in digital strategy & innovation for museums & institutions. With over 20 years’ experience in hi-tech & a passion for art & culture, Dot-Reality sees the museum & institute future about providing an inclusive experience that defies expectations. Transformation is not just about resources but about a change of perspective. Dot-Reality exists to help tailor this transformation.