In the age of advanced digitization, cultural institutions face the challenge of transforming their activities and offerings into an online accessible space, while remaining consistent with their mission and audience needs. Designing a coherent digital off-site strategy is becoming an element to reach wider audiences and to adapt traditional forms of culture to contemporary expectations.
1. Analysing the institution’s audience and goals
The first step in creating a digital strategy is to thoroughly understand audience needs and institutional goals. The key points are:
- Identify target groups that may be interested in your offerings. Understanding preferences, level of sophistication in using technology and device availability will allow you to better tailor the form and content of your digital initiatives.
- Cultural institutions often aim not only to promote the arts, but also education, community integration or inclusivity. In the context of digital off-site activities, it is important that these goals are consistent with the online initiatives being implemented.
2. Adapting content and form to digital space
When moving an exhibition to an off-site space, it is important to think about how to preserve its character and values in the online version. Adaptation of the digital exhibition should take into account:
- Interactivity and engagement: An exhibition in a physical space provides an opportunity for direct contact with artworks, but a digital version can offer greater interactivity. Therefore, elements can be implemented that allow viewers to interact more deeply, such as virtual walk-throughs, interactive apps, or the ability to create their own tour « paths. » In addition, the use of multimedia can enrich the viewer’s experience.
- Accessibility and intuitiveness: Online exhibitions must be designed for easy navigation and broad accessibility. An intuitive interface, a variety of formats (e.g., video, images, text), and options for viewing content in different languages or on different mobile devices are key elements that make an exhibition user-friendly for users with varying degrees of digital sophistication.
- Flexibility of form: In addition to simply transferring the content of the exhibition to digital form, consider creating new content in parallel. This could include interviews with curators, artists talking about their works, or access to archival resources that would not be available in the physical space.
5. Adapting the exhibition to off-site conditions
To make the exhibition work well off-site as well, several elements should be taken care of:
- Adaptation of visual content to the screen: adaptation of graphics, photos or videos to the resolution of screens and optimization for different devices.
- Changing the form of interaction with the audience: opportunities to comment, ask questions of artists, or participate in digital workshops.
- Contextualization and additional information: access to contextual information (e.g., historical background, artist biography) that enriches the reception and brings the experience closer to that in the physical space.