The invisible installation at the Museum of Modern Art

At the redesigned Museum of Modern Art, visitors are seeing a new building, new works and new ways to experience art. What they can't see is the new organization behind it-powered by hardware, software and strategies that streamline operations now and create a platform for the museum of the future.

The new museum   Delivering the experience The invisible installation   Reaching the community Power to change   Photo credits

For three years, MoMA has been reinventing itself. In 2001, faced with a growing collection and limited space, MoMA decided to remake itself: not just to remodel its facilities, but to reinvent the way it operated.

It was looking for new ways to help its staff work. But most of all, it was looking for new ways to reach the public-both inside the museum and in the community beyond.

"I think what other museums in the world are going to see, once MoMA reopens, is how successfully they've used technology just to support their core mission. There are plenty of places in the world that you can see technology sort of as an exhibit unto itself in museums — that's not really the best integration of things. MoMA has excelled in making that technology disappear, but also making it central to their operations. And I think that other museums are going to see that and say, 'We want to do that, too.'"

—John Tolva, Creative Director, Chicago Center for IBM e-business Innovation

It reopens with a permanent installation that's invisible to the public. The new MoMA runs on a powerful network of hardware and software…that's invisible to the public. This keeps the focus on art — on giving visitors a seamless experience that's enhanced, not upstaged, by the technology.

"Technology's a tool. Technology enables the culture, enables the art, but it isn't the end. It's the means. And MoMA, possibly better than anybody else, understands that, housing the end products of various technologies. We're just another in their palette of tools."

—John Tolva, Creative Director, Chicago Center for IBM e-business Innovation

MoMA's reinvention doesn't stop. Change is built in to the new museum. New works, new exhibits…the museum is constantly changing. So MoMA's new infrastructure is designed to support change — to make it faster, easier and less expensive. The technology brings the organization together, across disciplines, across job titles, so on-the fly decisions can be made with up-to-date information.

"One of the interesting things about integrating things on the back end is how that enables a real flexibility on the front end, in the exhibit space itself. In fact, in IBM we call this concept a 'flexhibit' that allows you to take your media that's been digitized, move it from gallery to gallery, put it on a handheld guide, send it to another museum, put it on the Web site, but manage it all centrally. Really treat the visitor experience as a flexible or a permeable output to your content."

—John Tolva, Creative Director, Chicago Center for IBM e-business Innovation

The experience changes. The viewer remains at the center. MoMA is a stage — for new art and new ways of seeing the world. Delivering these experiences to the visitor is one of the museum's most important goals. The new technology is helping MoMA reach these goals, for visitors today and in the future. This includes future innovations like a handheld "digital guide" that may one day offer visitors highly personalized tours of the museum.

"Well, our goal was from the start to make sure that the technology enables the museum to reach out to people who come in and look at the exhibitions. We have always had a goal to build infrastructure, to build an environment where the content is readily available to people who come into the museum and infrastructure is readily available to support that content."

—Rafail Portnoy, Principal, IBM Global Services

Windows and wires reach out to the world beyond. The new MoMA continues to reach out to the community around it. Walls of windows let in the Manhattan skyline…and a new network lets the organization share its collections with audiences anywhere in the world.

"You know, MoMA's always been very forward-thinking. And one of the aspects of their new design of their building is these large windows that give these tableaus of the architecture in the neighborhood. It's a deliberate way of looking out — participating in the community. And I think that the integration technologies that we've provided, the ability to centrally manage your data to distribute it throughout — the next logical step to that is sharing of the data beyond the walls.

"You know, there's no reason that these types of things couldn't be sent — the media couldn't be sent — on traveling exhibits or be used in sort of educational outreach. To literally go outside the walls, as they are somewhat figuratively doing in the new space."

—John Tolva, Creative Director, Chicago Center for IBM e-business Innovation

• Detail of the David and Peggy Rockefeller Building, The Museum of Modern Art, designed by Yoshio Taniguchi. Photo © 2004 Timothy Hursley.
• Vincent van Gogh. The Starry Night. 1889. Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest.
• Third floor with view of the David and Peggy Rockefeller Building, The Museum of Modern Art, designed by Yoshio Taniguchi. Photo © 2004 Timothy Hursley.