Bloomberg Connects & Art UK:
The Transformative Effect of Bloomberg Connects on Institutional Partners and Their Audiences 

Aberdeen Art Gallery is a UNESCO-recognized museum in the northeast port city of Aberdeen. The roots of the gallery stretch back to 1873, when the flour merchant John Forbes White teamed up with other prominent locals to stage an exhibition showcasing their respective collections. In turn, the show led to the formal founding of the Art Gallery in 1885. Today, the museum is recognized for both its historical collection of Scottish art and selection of international masterpieces, including works by Gustave Courbet, Francis Bacon, and Bridget Riley.

Uses

Though the museum was already rich in interpretative and interactive elements, Bloomberg Connects provided a deeper layer of engagement, offering more personal and distinctive content for visitors and staff members alike. The Aberdeen Art Gallery guide comprises sections that provide basic location information, summarize exhibitions, offer additional details about highlighted artworks and objects, and aid museum navigation through curated tours. Each of these features includes unique audio recordings – and transcripts – from members of the organization’s staff.

Audience Impact

“I feel like there’s a whole world at my fingertips suddenly, with curators sort of guiding me.” – Aberdeen Art Gallery guide user

Of those surveyed, 76% of Aberdeen Art Gallery guide users rated their experiences as “very good” or “good.” 38% reported using the app before a visit, while another 38% said they used it during. 15% used Bloomberg Connects after their visit, and 47% reported visiting the app “anytime” or “on-the-go.”

Inside Aberdeen Art Gallery, 63% of survey respondents said they turned to Bloomberg Connects as a way of finding out more information about specific artworks or objects; 57% said they looked up further information about exhibitions. 43% used the app as a virtual guide, relying on it for logistical information, such as opening hours and directions. 

“It’s massively improved my experience…It’s made museum experiences more 4D…You can go and look at something and just look at it and enjoy it, or you can go and experience it…It’s given me just that extra bit of knowledge, but it’s given me a human interaction, because you can hear the curator talking about it, and you hear their emotion.” – Aberdeen Art Gallery guide user

Staff and Organizational Impacts

“It’s helped me understand our collection more in each venue because I’m more involved now. I feel like I’m part of the creation. The curators are creating these exhibitions, but I feel like I’m part of it as well.” – Aberdeen Art Gallery staff member

Bloomberg Connects has also benefitted members of Aberdeen Art Gallery’s team. The audio recordings allowed museum curators to go beyond the limitations of a text panel, offering additional information about artworks and sharing personal stories of connection. Meanwhile, the exhibition pages and the highlighted pieces therein proved to be popular resources for tour guides. “It just helps in that way because we’re time constrained and we’re short staffed,” said one guide, echoing a common problem among museums around the world.

Explore Aberdeen Art Gallery’s guide on Bloomberg Connects.

Kettle’s Yard is a modern and contemporary art gallery owned by the University of Cambridge. It is built around a home once owned by Jim Ede, a former curator at the Tate Gallery in London, and his wife Helen. In the mid-1950s they converted four derelict cottages into a house designed to display their large art collection. The Edes gifted the house to the University of Cambridge in 1966, and though exhibition and learning spaces have been added in the decades since, the house retains its homey charm, with the original structure looking much as it did when the couple left it some 60 years ago.

Uses

Unlike Aberdeen Art Gallery, Kettle’s Yard has no interpretative labels in the house. As such, the venue now relies on Bloomberg Connects for a wide array of features, from providing basic information about the house, its history, and its collection, to offering more in-depth insights, such as audio content about individual artworks delivered through the voices of founders and curators. Tablets preloaded with Bloomberg Connects are located within the museum’s temporary exhibition spaces.

Audience Impact

80% of surveyed visitors said their experience with the Kettle’s Yard museum guide was “very good” or “good.” 52% made use of the app before visiting the institution, while the same number claimed to employ it during. An additional 14% of those polled reported utilizing the Kettle’s Yard guide after their visit, and 38% used it “anytime” or “on-the-go.”

“It’s nice to have the voice over from the [founder]…It’s given me a good historical context.” – Kettle’s Yard guide user

The ways in which museum-goers used the Kettle’s Yard guide were just as telling. Among the surveyed, 70% said they looked to the app for its virtual map of the venue, while 57% said they used it to learn more information about specific artworks. The app’s “Collection Highlights” feature was particularly popular with respondents, as was its audio content. Both features helped visitors clock all the “must-see” moments, including objects not immediately recognizable as traditional artworks.

“I think the way I used it at Kettle’s Yard enhanced the visit, because I was able to learn more about particular artworks and artists while I was standing right in front of them.” – Kettle’s Yard guide user

Some poll respondents also pointed to the design and clarity of the Bloomberg Connects app. “Really clean” is the way one user described it: “I like the white space; it almost mirrors white space within the gallery wall…. It feels uncluttered, as opposed to a lot of apps that are a little bit more clunky in terms of being able to navigate.”

Staff and Organizational Impacts

The additional resources of support offered by Bloomberg Connects were especially impactful at Kettle’s Yard, an institution with limited resources. On this topic, one museum staff member pointed to the marketing materials and audio recording equipment Bloomberg Connects offers alongside the app.

“We are quite a small team with small budgets and we just would not have necessarily been able to do that without the support, which has been really good.” – Kettle’s Yard staff member

As with museum-goers, the app’s ease of use was noted by museum employees: “I think the interface is very clear,” said one staffer. “It’s been easy to train up other staff on using it as well, so we now have quite a few members of the team who will use it and upload things.” Other employees said the guide enhanced their ability to connect with audiences.

“I can have a nicer conversation [with visitors] because you’re able to talk about more details rather than just telling the story. It does become a bit of a conversation actually, which is nice.” – Kettle’s Yard staff member.

Explore Kettle’s Yard’s guide on Bloomberg Connects.