The Phillips Collection Wins an American Alliance of Museums Muse Award for Innovative Contemplation Audio Tour

The bronze award in audio tours and podcasts acknowledges the museum’s use of digital media to enhance visitor engagement.

Washington, DC—Director Dorothy Kosinski is pleased to announce that The Phillips Collection received a MUSE award at the American Alliance of Museum’s (AAM) 26th annual MUSE Award Competition on Sunday evening in Atlanta, Georgia. The MUSE Awards recognize Galleries, Libraries, Archives or Museums (GLAM) for projects that use digital media to enhance visitor engagement. Awarded bronze in the “audio tours and podcasts” category, the Phillips’s recently developed Contemplative Audio Tourguides visitors through a mindful experience with the permanent collection, encouraging participants to slow down and connect with the art.

The Phillips Collection’s Contemplation Audio Tour was developed by the museum’s Education Department in collaboration with key professionals such as Yoga District and The University of Virginia’sContemplative Sciences Center. The program encourages walk-in visitors to harness the restorative power of art by slowing down and deepening their relationships with the Phillips’s art on view. Each tour aims to extend a typical viewing of an artwork from 15-30 seconds to several minutes, and draws from meditative practices that ask visitors to turn inward and pay attention to their bodies and breathing. The audio tour includes stops at some of the most celebrated artworks in the collection, including Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party, the Rothko Room, and Wolfgang Laib’s Wax Room; it also features a choose-your-own artwork function. At the end of the tour, participants reflect on aspects of the experience that they can take with them throughout their day.

“While a handful of museums offer programs connecting art with contemplation or meditation, we believe The Phillips Collection is the first museum to make this type of encounter available for any visitor at any time,” says Phillips Director of Education Suzanne Wright. “All of our tours use inquiry-based techniques to encourage visitors to make personal connections, look closely, and tap into their senses to find new pathways for experiencing artwork. The contemplative audio tour aims to enrich this experience.”

The MUSE award recognizes the Contemplation Audio Tour as a unique digital media enhancement for the visitor experience at The Phillips Collection. Because participants can access this tour via cell phone, the museum’s app, or a YouTube playlist, audiences can use this contemplation tool both inside and outside of the museum. In addition, using a “bring your own device” model encourages visitors to focus on the experience rather than the technology, which is pivotal when setting the stage for an unconventional experience with art.

“The relationship between art, health, and well-being resonates deeply with the museum because our founder Duncan Phillips possessed a keen understanding of the healing power of art,” says Kosinski. “This project manifests Phillips’s original vision and exemplifies the museum’s enduring focus on experimentation.”

The Phillips Collection will be featured prominently on AAM’s website as well as in Museum Magazine for this achievement.

Hear all of the Contemplation Audio Tour stops here: www.youtube.com/PhillipsArtMuseum/playlists