Bank Street Arts is a self-funded arts centre in Sheffield consisting of 24 studios and offices, 7 gallery spaces, 3 project spaces, an education space, a café, a shared jewellery cooperative and workshop. They have frequently changing exhibitions and wanted a way of helping inform visitors about what is currently on display in their galleries.
iBeacons have been been placed around the venue so that the app will automatically show the user content relevant to the gallery they are in.
The launch of the app coincided with the launch of the Opening Up The Book event, running from 2nd September to 11th December 2015. Situate allows staff at Bank Street to take control of the content in their app and change it whenever a new exhibition opens. The content that the app launched with includes video and audio and provides the visitor with additional context for the artworks on display. My favourite is an excerpt of a reading by the author of ‘The Unforgotten Coat’ the book that the polaroid photographs in gallery 1 were created for.
