A study to identify and evaluate the roles and challenges of modern art museums - with special reference to the incorporation of digital technology in art museums in the Gauteng province of South Africa

Abstract

This research briefly introduces the roles of art museums and presents selected digital technology implementation challenges and benefits in art museums in the Gauteng Province. An art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of work of art, usually visual art. Art museums collect objects of art and other historic artefacts that are documented and exhibited for different purposes, such as aesthetic value, social, historic cultural and educational, significance and research values that are traceable to a specific society or group of individuals.

In South Africa, particularly in the Gauteng Province, art museums are failing to keep pace with international trends about the use of digital technology. It is, therefore, important for art museums as information dissemination centres to incorporate digital technology in their daily museum business as it may offer the opportunity for these museums to become more effective and competitive in the global information society.

A literature review is done to understand the trends of different digital technologies in other first world international cities. The examined literature revealed that the Internet and other technological applications of the new millennium prompted a re-evaluation of cutting edge museum research, education roles, and documentation capabilities. Consequently, digital technology became an integral component of the digital policies of many art museums, allowing them to satisfy the demand for online information sharing abilities. A qualitative research approach together with a constructivism educational theory is used to fully understand South Africa’s position regarding the use of digital technology. In South Africa, digital technology usage in art museums is predominantly limited to email exchange, electronic invitations to exhibitions, data capturing of collections and viewing of basic websites. In other words, digital technologies are not optimally used in the South African art museum environment.

The study explores the benefits of digital technology interfaces at art museums against fixed traditional art museum information dissemination practices. The objectives of the study are to create an awareness of best practice in the implementation of digital technology interfaces at art museums in Gauteng.

The findings in this study indicate that digital technologies have proved to be useful in several spheres of public life resulting in the popular utilization of e-learning, e-mail, e-health, e-government and e-commerce. It is, therefore, proposed that art museums in South Africa embrace digital technologies to enhance the transformation of these museums. In essence, the implementation of digital technologies such as ‘virtual tours’ and other popular social media platforms and applications may raise the profile of art museums and market their contents to wider audiences, and may also help to popularise their heritage collections for leisure and scholarly purposes.