The creative use of glass is at the heart of a wave of innovations sweeping through museums and art galleries around the world. Glass is being used to bring displays to life, to enhance the visitor experience, to better display art and artefacts, and to protect them.
Here we take a look at some of the most inspiring ways that glass is being used to revolutionise interior design and enhance the customer experience of museums and galleries.
Using Switchable Glass to create art
Over the years, switchable technology has been specified by artists as a part of their installations, bringing art and technology together in a striking fashion. Take inspiration from the creatives by incorporating Switchable Glass into the building itself, whether it’s as a switchable glass partition to cleverly break up the space or as a projection screen that can ‘disappear’ when not in use!
Projection to bring art and exhibits to life
The goal of museums and galleries is to bring their collections to life in entertaining and creative ways to best engage their visitors. Galleries and museums around the world are embracing a range of the latest technologies to help in this goal, including an array of the latest projection screens. Projection screens allow images and video to be projected onto glass displays to show artefacts and art in rich detail, to offer talks from experts, and to provide context and background. With projection on to large panes of switchable glass and holographic effect screens, some truly impressive and captivating exhibits can be created.
Museum’s are also opting for using Switchable Glass Projection Screens with weighted cable systems to suspend the display screens from the ceiling. This is especially popular in listed buildings as the screens can be switched to clear when not in use, which doesn’t detract from the effect of the interior features.
Switchable glass to balance exhibition with conservation
Museums and galleries face a dilemma. They want to exhibit their collections to maximum effect. Letting large amounts of natural light into their galleries and exhibition spaces is typically the best way to do this. But light, particularly sunlight, can damage artefacts. Sunlight can degrade the colours on paintings, fabrics, and other surfaces. It can also cause irreparable damage to delicate objects.
The latest smart glass technologies provide galleries and museums with the perfect solution to this dilemma. Switchable smart glass can be turned from transparent to opaque with the touch of a button, allowing curators to control the concentration of light that’s let into rooms and when. Smart glass can even be used to show exhibits only when a visitor approaches a display, or to show a painting only at set times throughout the day.
Switchable smart glass gives curators a level of control over light like never before possible. By applying switchable smart films to existing windows, museums and galleries can even access this technology without needing to refit their existing windows.