SMK Digital

The National Gallery of Denmark is investing in a five–year developmental programme to bring the museum to the very forefront of digital arts communication. The investment – SMK Digital –has been made possible through a donation from the Nordea-fonden. This has given the museum a unique opportunity to launch several ongoing digital development projects. This strategy describes, in terms of technology and communications, how the museum will realise its vision of developing digital museum practice that stimulates user interest in art.

New digital platforms and online arts communication
The communications initiative is based on the museum’s collections and the artistic knowledge and expertise that the museum represents by virtue of its position as a leading research institution.
Digital representation of the museum’s collections requires these works to be digitised. The actual digitisation process falls outside the focus area of SMK Digital.

SMK Digital consists of a series of projects:

• A new website for the museum, launched April 2010.
• The collections online gives the user online access to the museum’s collections and shows how museum professionals work with the collections. Ongoing launches from 2010.
• Stories of art - will bring the art to life. To be launched at the end of 2010.
• The art database, Corpus, is a further development of the museum’s current knowledge database Globus, which will make information on the museum’s collections, research and exhibition activities available online. Corpus is developed in cooperation with the international consortium CollectionSpace. To be launched in 2011.
• Digital productions integrates digital communication, video and games in the galleries of the museum and as a central part of the museum’s art education and promotion.
• My SMK lets you customise your content. This concept is in development and is expected to be launched on an ongoing basis.

Users are co-creators
The National Gallery of Denmark has good experience in developing form and content in close cooperation with its users. In April 2007 the museum launched u.l.k, the youth art lab, which was developed in close cooperation with the target group according to the idea of arts education and promotion for the young by the young.

SMK Digital is also devising methods to allow users to generate their own content. The goal is to create the right conditions for an ongoing dialogue with the users when we develop new content.

At the same time we explore when and how users may become active co-creators.

SMK Digital programme overview (PDF) (53KB)