The Digital Future: How Museums Measure Up

The digital future continues to unfold at American art museums. The best recent innovations have been gathered in a new report, “Next Practices in Digital and Technology,” that the Association of Art Museum Directors is set to release on April 24. The report describes 41 museum projects that use digital technology to engage visitors, make collections more accessible and understandable or improve museum operations like ticketing and collections management. The projects cover a wide range. The Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas (TX) is compiling a digital census of French sculpture in the United States that will be available as an internet portal. Working with 280 museums, the center has compiled records of 7,000 works made between 1500 and 1960 that can be found in public collections, museums, historic homes, and public spaces. The center estimates that it will add another 8,000 to 13,000 works before the project is completed in 2019.