Art Work Calling

Rather than asking visitors to put away their cell phones, the Baltimore Museum of Art is letting people use cell phones to learn more about the exhibitions.

Rather than those unwieldy audio sets that require you to move in order and listen to little snippets about each exhibit, a new service – Guide by Cell - allows curators to provide visitors with a more interactive experience. Some have the artists record information about their works, others allow visitors to record their impressions as well. The service is currently available at 150 museums, parks and gardens including the Phillips collection in Washington, DC, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Art Museum.

The service draws great reviews from curators and visitors alike, because there’s no equipment to lend out and collect, and people are already familiar with the features of their cell phones, so they don’t have to spend their time learning how to use a device just to access the content. It’s also less expensive for the museums and more easily updated. I think I’ll head out to the Phillips collection this weekend and check it out.