05 - Magnifying the Minute: Numismatics and digital accessibility at the Yale University Art Gallery

In May 2022, the Yale University Art Gallery opened its inaugural gallery dedicated to the display of numismatic objects. As part of the gallery design, the curatorial department was faced with an age-old question: how do you effectively display an object with multiple sides? Being the only curatorial department, at the time, seeking digital offerings to enhance the visitor experience, the Bela Lyon Pratt Gallery of Numismatics became the Art Gallery's first exhibition space to utilize mobile-triggered technology to help depict the full contexts of displayed objects. Using Smartify, a UK based web application geared towards the museum experience, visitors are able to more deeply engage with objects, particularly coins, by viewing their obverse and reverse faces in exacting high resolution and detail. In addition to deeper magnification and images, the collection's curators can now utilize Smartify's capabilities to create pedagogically motivated content, with accessibility at the forefront, geared towards building knowledge of and appreciation for these minute masterpieces, for our visitors.

Our audience is a combination of the Yale University student body, faculty, scholars, and staff with the local New Haven and broader Connecticut public. While this community is our usual public, the Art Gallery hosts visitors from all over the world. With this in mind accessibility and simplicity is imperative to ensure a fulfilling and exciting visitor for our guests. From class visits to international travelers, our audience is vast and varying--presenting the ultimate opportunity to spread appreciation for the ancient world through the lens of Numismatics.

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Presenters

Emily Pearce Seigerman, Yale University Art Gallery; Benjamin Hellings, Yale University Art Gallery

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