Talking about innovative curatorial practices, the Cleveland Museum of Art has just announced the release of its first special exhibition mobile application: “CMA Senufo”, designed for the upcoming Senufo: Art and Identity in West Africa, opening Feb. 22.
Through the presentation of insightful commentary, high-resolution imagery and video, “CMA Senufo” encourages a closer look at some of the exhibition’s individual objects and the story behind Senufo-speaking artists and patrons. The app is free and now available for iPhones through the Apple iTunes App Store. From home, you can enjoy a video preview with the museum’s Curator of African Art, Constantine Petridis, and find information for planning a museum visit. When you visit the exhibition and connect with the museum’s wifi network, the app will become your tour guide and offer other information (such as a multimedia tour featuring interviews with the curator, African art scholars and artists). The app also provides an interactive list of related events, gallery tours and information about the Cleveland Museum of Art. You need an Iphone of course; however, the museum will provide a limited number of iPod Touches free of charge for visitors without one.
You can read more about the development of this app here. To quote CMA’s director William M. Griswold: “The Cleveland Museum of Art takes the development of cutting-edge technologies and interpretive materials to the next level with this exhibition app”. “The new technology behind our ‘CMA Senufo’ app provides visitors exclusive content, and allows visitors to experience this exhibition in ways not possible before.” We can only applaud the introduction of new technologies into the museum experience – however, I still prefer to spend my time looking at the display cases instead of staring at my phone.
ps below the preview of the exhibition that is featured on the app.