Vietnam Fine Arts Museum transforms in the digital age

Vietnam Fine Arts Museum - home to more than 20,000 art objects. (Photo: Vietnam Fine Arts Museum)

From a little-known destination, the Museum has now become a close, lively art space, attracting a large audience at home and abroad.

From “hiding” to “taking off” with technology

For many years, the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum has been virtually off the capital’s cultural tourism map. Visitors are mostly single foreigners, while travel agencies hesitate to include the museum in their tours because the exhibition system is difficult to introduce. Recognizing these shortcomings, the Museum’s leadership has boldly applied technology, considering digital transformation as the key to changing its appearance, improving service quality and building the brand of a “friendly museum”.

According to Dr. Nguyen Anh Minh, Director of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, in the first decade of the 21st century, the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum was still a name that was little known to the public. Information about the Museum, even in the press, media or on the internet, was very rare. Visitors to the Museum were mainly foreigners, accounting for 80% of the total number of visitors, or students from schools organized in large groups. Travel and tourism companies often did not include the Museum in the list of destinations in their tours, and tour guides were often afraid to bring visitors because the exhibition system was still inadequate and difficult to introduce.

Deeply aware of the shortcomings in the current state of operations, the Museum's leadership has put forward innovative thinking and demonstrated strong political determination. The goal is to apply digital transformation to creative activities to comprehensively change the appearance of the Museum, improve professional quality, improve service quality, and build the brand of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum to become more beautiful and friendly to the public.

The Vietnam Fine Arts Museum has implemented a series of major projects, creating pioneering digital products in the industry. One of the breakthroughs is the iMuseum VFA multimedia commentary application, launched in 2021. With 9 popular languages and iBeacon positioning technology, the application helps visitors access information about 200 typical artifacts right on their mobile devices. This is a socialized product, combining the Museum's professional content and technology solutions from businesses.

Thanks to iMuseum VFA, visitors can freely explore artifacts, search for exhibition locations, and even visit online remotely. The proportion of visitors using the application accounts for up to 8% of the total number of visitors - three times the number of visitors guided directly by staff. This success has brought the Museum the award for Outstanding Digital Transformation State Agency in 2021.

Another creative idea that the Museum has been nurturing since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out is the creation of an exhibition space on a digital platform. After 2 years of implementation, on October 3, 2023, the Online Fine Arts Exhibition Space (VAES) was launched for the first time in Vietnam.

The space (VAES) is built with two major categories: the lotus-shaped building architecture stylized from the lotus in ancient fine arts, simulating a luxurious, majestic, artistic physical space and the digital exhibition spaces inside, built with a route and design suitable for each exhibition content. This digital space is built in 3D to simulate a real space, where artists can find a way to display their works that suits their needs and creativity; while visitors can access exhibitions and artworks anytime, anywhere in the world with just an internet-connected device.

To date, 22 exhibitions have been held online on VAES, attracting the attention of domestic and international experts. This product has helped the Museum receive the Vietnam Digital Transformation Award 2024 for the second time in the category of excellent digital transformation public service unit.

Not only developing on a digital platform, the Museum also innovates live exhibitions with advanced technology such as cinemagraph, 3D Mapping. Dong Ho and Hang Trong paintings or ethnic costume patterns are separated into layers, animated into moving images, creating a unique visual experience for viewers.

The new exhibition spaces, incorporating interactive touch screens, have provided a visual approach, helping the public - especially young people - to gain a deeper understanding of the artistic and cultural significance of each artifact...

From “little-known museum” to “cultural meeting point”

Thanks to persistent innovation, the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum has made a remarkable change, the number of visitors has increased by more than 300% compared to 5 years ago, of which domestic visitors account for about 70%. From being "forgotten" on the tourist map, the Museum has now become a familiar cultural meeting place for young people, families and art lovers.

Website and fanpage traffic has increased steadily. The number of internet searches is impressive, with just one click, the keyword “Vietnam Fine Arts Museum” immediately gives more than 10 million results. These are positive evidences from the determination to innovate, create, apply science and technology and digital transformation in the activities of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum.

Sharing about the Museum's successes in applying digital technology, Dr. Nguyen Anh Minh, Director of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, said: The Museum's creative activities and technology applications in recent times have contributed to bringing the Museum closer to the public, spreading the love of art, and at the same time bringing valuable practical experiences to the operation of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum in particular and the type of fine arts museum in Vietnam in general. Digital transformation is not a temporary trend, but an inevitable trend of the times. The Vietnam Fine Arts Museum has been steadfast in this long-term orientation.

Each museum and cultural institution needs to clearly define its direction, persistently pursue it, and regularly summarize and learn from experience to improve and enhance operational efficiency. Only then will the application of technology and digital transformation truly become a driving force for sustainable development, contributing to affirming the role of culture in the cause of building and defending the Fatherland.

THANH THAO

Source: https://nhandan.vn/bao-tang-my-thuat-viet-nam-chuyen-minh-trong-ky-nguyen-so-post910790.html