Perth Art Gallery Launches Digital Guide So Visitors Can Admire the Collection From a Bus Shelter in the Rain
Free app lets you 'experience world-class art without having to find somewhere to park'.
Perth's art gallery building, which can now also be visited from a phone. Photo: Eirian Evans, “Perth Museum and Art Gallery - geograph.org.uk - 7434244”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
PERTH — Perth Art Gallery’s new free digital guide, which lets people explore the collection on-site or remotely through a smartphone app, has been hailed as “a game-changer” for residents who want culture “without the faff of the actual weather.”
“It’s perfect,” said one pensioner, browsing the collection on her phone under a bus shelter. “I’ve seen the whole thing and I didn’t even have to take my hood down. Mind you, the bus never came. I’ve seen the Fergussons twice.”
The guide features images, audio and behind-the-scenes stories, accessed in the gallery by QR codes, which officials stress are “real gallery QR codes, not the parking machine kind.”
Not everyone is convinced. “Art is meant to be seen in person,” said one purist. “You need to stand in front of a painting, in silence, while someone’s child licks the glass. You can’t get that on an app.”
The real story: Perth Art Gallery launches free Bloomberg Connects digital guide (Culture Perth & Kinross)
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