Lightning Talk

Saturday, April 06, 2019: 9:30am - 11:00am - Grand Ballroom: Lightning Talks

Jesse Bennett, AREA 17, USA

As the virtual front-door to one of the world’s great canonical art collections, the Art Institute of Chicago website sees more than 3 million unique visitors per year. These visitors have the unique opportunity to see something even visitors to the physical museum can’t—the 98% of the collection that isn’t on view at any given time. With the opportunity to create the definitive experience of an inexhaustible collection, AREA 17 collaborated with the Art Institute of Chicago team to offer new connections and discoveries to art experts and novices around the world.

Inspired by the idea of a museum of living thought—a concept introduced by museum leadership more than 100 years ago—AREA 17 envisioned a dynamic experience marked by new exhibitions, fluid transitions and exclusive curatorial content. Above all, they worked to position the site as more than a catalog of the artwork in the collection, but rather a place to ask questions of the art and its community.

In this Lightning Talk, join the AREA 17 Product Director from the Art Institute of Chicago site redesign as he provides an insightful overview of how they created a collection-centric storytelling hub that unlocked the interpretive power of museum curators and provided users unsurpassed insights on their favorite works.