By Meghan Stockdale, courtesy Cleveland Museum of Art
CLEVELAND — On Jan. 21, the Cleveland Museum of Art opened Gallery One, an interactive gallery that blends art, technology and interpretation to let visitors discover new ways of interpreting the museum’s collection through a variety of hands-on activities.
Gallery One uses innovative user-interface design and cutting-edge hardware developed exclusively for it, including the largest multitouch screen in the United States, the 40-foot-long Collection Wall, which displays images of more than 3,500 objects from the museum’s permanent collection.
Comprising three major areas, Gallery One offers something for visitors of all ages and levels of comfort with art. Games encourage visitors to see themselves in the collection, matching their faces to works of art or striking the poses of sculptures. In addition, interactive touch-screen and the museum’s new ArtLens iPad application allow visitors to explore how works of art were made, where they came from and why they were produced.
“Gallery One offers an unparalleled experience for visitors of all ages,” said museum director David Franklin. “We are especially proud to lead the way internationally in using technology to enhance and customize the art museum experience.
“We want visitors to look closely at original art works and to make personal connections to what they are seeing.”
The Cleveland Museum of Art has almost 45,000 objects spanning 6,000 years of art.
Gallery One is part of a multiphase renovation and expansion project across the museum’s campus in Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood.
