Rockwell Museum Gets Grant to Develop Digital Experiences
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STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — Norman Rockwell Museum has received a competitive grant of $150,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the federal agency’s Museums for America Program.
The grant supports a new project called "Norman Rockwell's World — Interactive Multimedia Experiences that Engage Audiences with Norman Rockwell Museum’s Digital Collections."
Grant funds will support development of software and a content management system, as well as creative production that will bring to life the vivid art and times of Norman Rockwell, with multimedia modules linked to up to 30 artworks in the museum's vast collection — beginning with many of the artist's most iconic images.
The modules will be designed to engage discovery and make learning fun, as users explore a world of rich audio, video, and imagery pulled from the museum's digital archives, including interviews with Rockwell, his children, models, neighbors and friends; documentaries of people who most influenced him; and revelations of his working process, his relationships with national magazines and advertisers, his friendships with other artists, and the times in which he lived.
The modules will be accessible from smartphones, tablets, new touch-screens in the galleries, and standard web browsers, making it easy to explore when visiting the museum or offsite from a desktop computer, laptop, or mobile device anywhere at any time.
"We are thrilled to receive this support from IMLS," said Norman Rockwell Museum Director Laurie Norton Moffatt. "This very generous matching grant will help us create more exciting digital experiences that engage audiences more deeply with our collections."
The museum hopes to complete the first phase of this project in 12 months, after which it will seek outside support to develop digital experiences for more than 100 additional Rockwell artworks in its collection. The museum's holdings include more than 780 original Rockwell artworks, among them, finished paintings as well as drawings and studies.
"The Institute of Museum and Library Services enlists hundreds of library and museum professionals throughout the United States to review grant applications and make recommendations on projects most worthy of funding," said IMLS Director Susan H. Hildreth. "Receiving a grant from IMLS is significant achievement, and we congratulate Norman Rockwell Museum for being among the 2014 IMLS museum grantees."
IMLS museum grants support a wide variety of projects that create learning experiences, strengthen community communities, care for collections, and provide broad public access.
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