Lehigh University Art Gallery added its art collection to Bloomberg Connects, a free app designed as a digital guide to arts and culture. Launched in November, the app expanded access to the university’s art for audiences on and off campus.
The gallery joined more than 1,250 museums, galleries, sculpture gardens and parks featured on Bloomberg Connects. Lehigh’s page, available on the app or website, includes free self-guided tours inside and outside the gallery.
Through Bloomberg Connects, users can view images of works from the gallery’s collection alongside information about the artists and historical background.
Director of LUAG William Crow said people can access some of the 20,000 works in the gallery’s collection that can’t be displayed due to limited space.
“Access to the collections is one of our highest priorities at the art galleries,” Crow said. “We’d love everyone to have physical access, but even people on campus or in town only see about 3% of the collection since we only have so much space in the gallery.”
Elise Schaffer, the coordinator of museum experience and access, said the app also increases the gallery’s visibility beyond the university.
Schaffer, who spearheaded the app’s implementation, said the process began in April, when she completed a 13-week training course from Bloomberg Connects to learn the software.
Schaffer now leads the app’s content and said she hopes students will play a role moving forward.
One student, Collet Akins, ‘27, is curating an exhibit on Chinese Ceramics and said she plans to use Bloomberg Connects to provide additional context for visitors.
“We have plans to put additional information and materials on the app that might be outside the strict narrative of what we’re trying to tell with the case, but that enhances the visitor experience,” Akins said.
Visitors can open the app while viewing the exhibit to explore more information than what appears on the placards accompanying each piece.
Having used Bloomberg Connects as both a museum educator and a visitor, Akins said she recommends the app to Lehigh students.
While Schaffer said she’s excited about the launch, she also expressed concern about encouraging phone use in gallery spaces.
“I think one of the challenges is that we want people to come to the museum and disconnect and this encourages people to use their device,” Schaffer said. “So we want to find a balance between how people use it in our space versus how they still get that experience disconnecting from the rest of the world.”
Crow said museums have long grappled with how to use digital tools without taking away from the experience of viewing original works.
“That’s always the balance we’re trying to strike — how to create resources that are useful to visitors that don’t take the place of the original works of art, but somehow complement that experience,” Crow said.
Crow also said another benefit of the app is the ability to learn from other institutions.
“Since so many institutions globally are using this app, it really creates a community of practice where we can see how other museums and cultural sites are using this app and we can learn from one another,” he said.
The gallery isn’t the only Lehigh organization adopting Bloomberg Connects. Lehigh University Libraries are currently training to implement the app for their own exhibitions.
Alex Japha, a digital archivist in the Special Collections department, began training in October to launch the library’s archives on the platform. He said the incorporation of the app is excellent and he enjoys the mapping feature for outdoor work and sculptures.
He also said the libraries plan to use the app to enhance in-person visits and improve accessibility in hopes of reaching not only the Lehigh community, but off campus as well.
The first feature, Japha said, will be an audio tour of Linderman Library, expected to launch early this year. In the future, the library plans to release an interactive element on Bloomberg Connects with each new exhibition, typically once a semester.
“The library staff are only here Monday through Friday, so when we’re not here, we want to give the same level of service and the same kind of opportunities to people who can’t meet our schedule,” Japha said.
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