Bringing Art to the People, Fostering a More Creative Society

THE CLIENT

National Gallery Singapore

WHAT WE DID

Stakeholder consultation & engagement
Audience research & engagement
Storytelling & strategy
Experience design & implementation
Cultural tourism strategy & data collection

Audience engagement strategy for National Gallery Singapore

The National Gallery Singapore (NGS) holds, curates and showcases the world’s most extensive public collection of Singapore and Southeast Asian modern art. It aims to widen Singapore’s access to art and inspire a more creative Singapore through its research, education and exhibitions. To do that, it wants to help non-art lovers discover and enjoy art so they can become art enthusiasts and regular gallery-goers.

NGS partnered with HOL to strategise, design and implement gamified micro-experiences that introduced artworks to the public. Accessed on mobile devices outside the confines of institutional walls, these experiences brought art and the museum to Singaporeans.

IMPACT

scans since launch

0 +

46.25s

average dwell time

Engaged Singaporeans

in the joys of art

Our collaboration with NGS took art experiences into the community and incentivised visits to the gallery. Non-art enthusiasts got a taste of the significant artworks in NGS’s collection through gamified micro-experiences.

The average dwell time for our micro-experiences was 46.25 seconds, well above the industry average (0.9 seconds). The relatively long dwell time reflected high interest and engagement in our micro-experiences.

SUMMARY

Micro experiences, big impact

In no small way, these micro-experiences were a positive first step in fostering a more creative nation. They helped break down barriers to art and made art more accessible and appealing to a wider audience.

ABOUT THE CLIENT

National Gallery Singapore

NGS is the leading visual arts institution in Singapore. It has the world’s largest public collection of Singaporean and Southeast Asian modern art.

NGS aims to foster and inspire a creative and inclusive society by creating dialogues between the art of Singapore, Southeast Asia and the world.

CHALLENGE

Bridging art and the people

Art in Singapore has an “image problem”. To the Singaporean on the street, it can seem unapproachable and out of reach. This is because many do not think they can understand it.

Museums in Singapore are also often housed in buildings of stature and ceremony. NGS, for example, occupies two national monuments: the City Hall and the former Supreme Court. These buildings are grand and impressive, and they are not everyday places Singaporeans visit. They add to the distance between art and Singaporeans.

It is not easy to overcome the notion that art is irrelevant or daunting. How could NGS engage an audience reluctant to approach art? How could it get them to step into NGS? How could it move closer to its goal of fostering creativity in Singaporeans?

INSIGHTS AND STRATEGY

Creating opportunities to know and love art

While art is around us, most Singaporeans rarely interact with it in their daily lives. They don’t have many opportunities to be exposed to it, understand it or communicate about it. This gives them the impression that art is irrelevant, boring or intimidating.

However, just as we can learn to read words, we can learn to appreciate art. We can acquire visual literacy; we just need the opportunities to do so.

Our audience engagement strategy then was to create opportunities for Singaporeans to experience art non-threateningly in settings they would feel comfortable in. This way, these experiences could help dispel their false beliefs about art.

Solution

Gamified micro-experiences

Out of gallery, into the community

Data collection

Our solution was gamified micro-experiences. We embedded elements from 18 artworks from NGS’s collection into casual games, along with educational content related to the works.

We created micro-experiences because the public needed to invest only a little time in each experience. Played on mobile phones, these bite-sized experiences were more attractive to uncommitted users. The low barrier to playing the games encouraged more users to play.

The games ranged from card matching and Old Maid-style games to object-catching games and multiple-choice quizzes. These familiar and engaging games provided easy points of entry for anyone to understand the stories and content of the artworks. Playing them was a small and positive step in increasing the users’ visual literacy.

Because this audience group would not yet visit NGS on their own, we reached out to them physically and digitally outside the gallery’s confines.

These micro-experiences were first launched in conjunction with NGS’s outreach at Our Tampines Hub, a busy community hub visited by many Singaporeans. They were then extended to schools to reach out to school children.

By taking art experiences out of NGS into the community, we showed Singaporeans that art isn’t a high and mighty concept and that NGS is a friendly and accessible institution.

Our strategy did not stop at bringing art to the public. We also incentivised the public to visit NGS in person. Those who completed at least one game could collect a reward in person at NGS.

By incentivising their visits, we got the newly initiated to step into the gallery for a more extensive and memorable encounter with art.

We collected engagement data, such as the number of QR code scans and dwell time, which gave NGS insights for tweaking or building on the micro-experiences to drive higher engagement. One insight was the popularity of the artworks or art genres; NGS could then refine the selection of artworks for this campaign and future ones.

The HOL team understood our project brief and worked closely with us every step of the project development. They were knowledgeable in terms of museum learning. Despite the tight timeline, HOL was able to deliver the project without compromising quality.

Ms Wang Tingting

Assistant Director
National Gallery Singapore

Bringing Art to the People, Fostering a More Creative Society