A visitor uses Echo, an app designed for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. (courtesy the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; photo by Jean-François Brière)
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has launched a new app that allows visitors to scan art to access audio and video recordings about the museum’s collection.
Called Echo, it was designed in partnership with the Montreal firm La Maison Jaune.
“In the middle of the pandemic, when our teams were working from home, I felt the need to reunite the museum with its community,” says chief curator Mary-Dailey Desmarais. “The Echo application is a wonderful medium through which to experience the testimonials of our teams and the broader museum community.”
The first experience offered through the app is MyMMFA, and features stories from local public figures about particular works in the collection that have moved them. Visitors can listen to people like actor Anglesh Major, author Fanny Britt and Olympic gold medalist Marie-Philip Poulin talk about artworks on display.
For example, if you stop by Adrian Stimson’s installation Beyond Redemption, you can hear the poet, storyteller and director Joséphine Bacon react through the app. “I was immediately struck by it,” she says. “Because in this work, I saw our past and then I also saw our present, and […] our future.”
The museum will continue to work with La Maison Jaune to add new content that features upcoming exhibitions, as well as more of the permanent collection.
Source: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
