Digitalisation of Museum Programming: M+ Museum

Launched in late 2021, M+ is a museum in Hong Kong which shows a wide range of art from Asia. As “Asia's first global museum of contemporary visual culture”, one of its areas of interest is South and Southeast Asian art. In early 2022, its physical location remained shut for several months under COVID-19 policies in addition to existing travel restrictions. How has the museum adapted to changes during the pandemic while promoting its diverse collections without museum goers in its physical space? How can scholars or the general public virtually access the museum’s repository of knowledge of South and Southeast Asian art? Through analysing the museum’s digital strategies, this essay explores how M+ connects with local, regional and global audiences to maintain its presence.

Nalini Malani, ‘Remembering Mad Meg’, 2007–2019, four-channel video installation with sound, sixteen light projections, eight reverse painted Mylar cylinders. Image courtesy of M+, Hong Kong. Photo by Lok Cheng and Dan Leung.

Digital access during closure of physical space

When there was no foot traffic from tourists and locals, the museum ensured that there was open access to digital content to help virtual visitors learn more about works of art on display and search for information on the museum’s collection online. On its website, visitors could apply filters to search for images of art in the museum’s collection according to subject matter, classification, date range, colour or by specific collection. Notable South and Southeast Asian artworks include those of Singapore-based artist Heman Chong and Indonesian artists such as Christine Ay Tjoe and Abdul Djalil Pirous.

For timed exhibitions, multimedia content was included on the museum’s website to provide context to the show. The exhibition, ‘Nalini Malani: Vision in Motion’, featuring the practice of the Mumbaibased artist over the past fifty years, was meant to be an exhibition on display at a physical location called The Studio at the B2 level of M+ from 7 December 2021 to 31 July 2022. When the museum’s physical location was closed, visitors of the museum’s website could read the information of the exhibition, view images and video clips of the works on display, as well as watch pre-recorded webinar videos from 2021 of curator Doryun Chong in conversation with the artist. Inspired by mythology, the artist explained the concepts behind her moving installations and her iPad drawings. Such immersive content paved the way for sustaining the interest of potential visitors in anticipation of the reopening of the physical location of the museum on 21 April.

Social media campaigns to promote inclusivity

Among the many social media campaigns launched by M+ when the museum was closed, the #5WomenArtists campaign in March celebrated women artists from diverse cultural backgrounds from the museum’s collections. Indian artist Arpita Singh was one of the featured artists. In the post, several short paragraphs accompanied the images of her works of art. The text described her signature style and historically contextualised the evolution of her oeuvre, such as her vibrant, narrative paintings and her experimentation with pure abstraction

Arpita Singh, ‘Untitled’, 1976, ink, pastel, and poster paint on paper, 67.9 x 88.2cm. Image courtesy of Arpita Singh and M+, Hong Kong.

Such bite-sized educational content delivered in a mobile-first approach grabbed the attention of art enthusiasts, who gained insight into knowledge of art through their smartphone’s social media feeds. Simultaneously, the campaign elevated M+’s brand to showcase the museum’s efforts in promoting inclusivity, reaching people virtually beyond Hong Kong. Art students and scholars in South and Southeast Asia could also take advantage of the museum’s digitalised content to conduct further research.

Experiencing art at home through streaming and online talks

Streaming content has played a significant role in visual culture especially in the pandemic, and the museum embraced this format to appeal to remote audiences. M+ organised ‘Watch and Chill: Streaming Art to Your Homes’ in collaboration with the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design in Manila, and MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in Chiang Mai. Through the streaming platform, art enthusiasts could experience more than twenty video works by contemporary artists from across Asia from the comfort of their homes.

Pauline J. Yao, Lead Curator, Visual Art, M+. Image courtesy of M+, Hong Kong. Photo by Winnie Yeung @ VISUAL VOICES.

Pacita Abad, ‘I Have One Million Things to Say’, 2002, oil on muslin cloth stitched on canvas, 247.8 × 181.7 cm. Image courtesy of the Pacita Abad Art Estate and M+, Hong Kong.

Moreover, M+ organised a series of online talks to demystify the museum’s work. One of the online talks named ‘Open Up M+: South Galleries’ featured the sharing session of M+’s Lead Curator of Visual Art, Pauline J. Yao. She discussed her experiences during the making of ‘Individuals, Networks, Expressions’, one of M+’s opening exhibitions in the South Galleries. The eye-catching work named ‘I Have One Million Things to Say’ (2002) by Philippine artist Pacita Abad has appeared in many promotional materials of M+’s ‘Individuals, Networks, Expressions’ exhibition. Through the online event, both local and international audiences could learn about art from the 1950s to the present while exploring the identities, histories and perspectives shaping Asia.

Hybrid model for flexibility and sustainability

As seen from the way M+ pivoted to a hybrid model of museum programming, it is clear that the ability to attract audiences online was essential. Collaboration with other museums in the region has become increasingly important as museums transcend geographical boundaries to circulate information among South, Southeast and East Asia. Through a mixture of traditional site-specific exhibitions, as well as digital strategies adapted to social media trends and human behaviour under various policy changes, museums could optimise for the transition into a post-COVID world.