Hybrid Model Deployment at a leading American Art Museum to Advance Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI)

Value Summary

• Improvement in visitor satisfaction scores, equity, and the creation of a more inclusive environment.
• Improved collection security including a dramatic improvement in response time to security-related proximity alarms and emergencies.
• Cost savings by security forces having complete visibility to all galleries, covering more galleries effectively, and satisfying certain line-of-site lending requirements without adding more personnel.
• Creating a new personnel category “Visitor Engagement Representatives” with more duties and responsibilities. These job duties improve employee morale and increase retention rates.

Museums and cultural properties are facing major staffing challenges with an unprecedented number of positions to fill, often accompanied by tighter budgets. These complex issues have left many museums looking for solutions to enable them to maintain a high level of protection for their priceless collections with fewer people. Technology is one compelling solution to consider.

Visiting a museum or an art gallery should be a positive experience. Visitors sometimes feel that security guards single them out, including accusations of racial or other bias. The Art Sentry system can help sensitively address this controversial aspect of museum operations.

Nothing makes a museum security guard cringe more than an engaged and fascinated visitor reaching out to touch a priceless work of art. And for good reason. Those touches, especially cumulatively, can do some serious damage. Besides breaking or damaging the item outright, the oils on our skin will also break down the items over time. Perhaps the primary reason not to touch the artifacts is out of respect for their history and what they represent.

It’s a tall task for museums to protect their valuable collections that often feature artwork, sculptures, furniture, and other artifacts worth many millions or even billions of dollars. Museum security is a very complex challenge and has become even more difficult with the explosion of social media and the renewed focus on ensuring a positive, inclusive environment for visitors. Visitors are often interested in posting the “perfect selfie” with collection pieces which puts them at substantial risk and sensitivities run high with potential visitor interactions.

Proper lighting plays a vital role in the operations of all cultural properties and is often the key to successful museum exhibitions.

Art Sentry would like to announce that, to better serve our existing and future customers, we have formed a partnership with WESCO Energy Solutions. WESCO is the largest electrical wholesale distributor in North America and together we can provide a turnkey project.

Museums – and the collection pieces they contain – are more than just a fun activity for the family on vacation. These collections are critical for promoting social justice issues by showing us an in-depth view of the world’s history.

Why Humans Have Been Inspired to Create Art Throughout History

Art has long been a part of human culture, inspiring others and providing insight into moments of history.

From the first cave drawings to modern works of art, it is curious why this urge to create has pervaded humanity even in difficult circumstances. All the while being seen as an unnecessary luxury since it is explored for reasons outside of pure survival.

Art Sentry, the leading object protection and surveillance solution for cultural properties has partnered with Axis Communications to integrate the Axis Perimeter Defender product into its system. This feature is designed to extend the protection of cultural properties beyond the interior of their facilities and assist with the early identification of potential threats.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak hit, many museums and cultural institutions around the world have needed to temporarily close their doors. While this obviously affects the financial well-being of each of these individual institutions, the broad cultural benefits of museums in our country, our greater economy, and the emotional well-being of our society have been sorely missed.