Commentary
ASK Brooklyn Museum Offers Visitor Experience Insights

ASK Brooklyn Museum Offers Visitor Experience Insights

What if you could know exactly what your visitors thought about the art on view in your museum? And what if you knew what questions they had about it? What might you do with that information? At the Brooklyn Museum, we do know what (at least some) visitors are thinking and what questions they have. And we aim to use that information to improve our visitor experience. Thanks to our award-winning chat app, ASK Brooklyn Museum, we have collected anonymous data on what our visitors want to know about art, which artworks get the most attention, how much users explore the galleries and more. ASK connects users to a team of art historians and educators who answer their questions in real time during their visit. Since the soft launch of the app in 2015, we have held over 14,000 conversations with users. That’s a lot of data.

Interview
Becoming Someone Different

Becoming Someone Different

The Gallery’s new director, Blair Jackson, talks with Bulletin editor David Simpson about where he’s come from, what he’s got planned, and what he’s excited about as he settles in to his new role.

My Favourite
Tony de Lautour's Underworld 2

Tony de Lautour's Underworld 2

Underworld 2 is a must-see. I know, I know. Everything is a must-see or a must-read or a must-do in this society of superlatives and imperatives. But you really do need to be in the same room as this work. Underworld 2 is immense. You need to be in front of it—to be immersed, to be overwhelmed, to be confronted. I start at the left-hand side and plot my journey as if I am planning a road trip and this is my map; first south around the mountains, turn left, then keep going until you pass a lion on the right-hand side. Stop and take in the scenery, go down a dead-end road or two. There’s no rush. You’ll know when you’re there.

Commentary
The Dutch Funeral, Retitled

The Dutch Funeral, Retitled

When you think about it, The Dutch Funeral is a peculiar title for a work painted in the Netherlands, by a Dutch artist. You could imagine such a work being titled The Funeral, or A Funeral; or even more likely, A Funeral at a Specified Place or possibly At a Specified Time. Even Of a Certain Person. But The Dutch Funeral? Most unlikely. It was while we were researching works for the Closer exhibition that its strangeness suddenly became evident to me. I was surprised that I’d never questioned the title before. But then, like many people who grew up in Christchurch, I was used to The Dutch Funeral as a fixture of local culture, a work so large it could never be taken off the wall at the McDougall; a magnificently gloomy painting which van der Velden scholar Rodney Wilson once described as “a sort of Christchurch version of the Night Watch with an immense public following”.

Load more