BMA's Roots & Routes

A museum's mission to put visitors at the center of a temporary exhibition led to an outpouring of highly personal storytelling.

The Baltimore Museum of Art partnered with the Mississippi Museum of Art to curate an exhibition exploring stories of the Great Migration through contemporary art. The museums wanted visitors to “Reflect on this moment in history and consider [their] own family ancestry through the eyes and work of 12 Black artists” — and then to share their own stories of migration through a custom storytelling interactive, “Roots & Routes”, which we built with the exhibition team at Guru Experience Co.

In Roots & Routes, visitors enter a private booth where they are prompted to record audio, video, or simply take a photo and write their story about how migration was or is a part of their life journey. They add dates and locations, which the interactive combines with their stories to show the movement of their life trajectories through time. The museum team then has a chance to review the stories for appropriateness and publish them for other visitors to explore.

It's a good example of what we care about most: technology that deepens the human connection an exhibition is built around, rather than getting in its way.

The exhibition toured the US along with the interactive, traveling on to The Brooklyn Museum of Art, where it was on view until June 25th.

Curious about creating a user-generated story interactive of your own? Get in touch.