Capitol News

The MSU Museum has been chosen to participate in the Bloomberg Philanthropies Digital Accelerator Program. This initiative is designed to assist cultural organizations in the U.S. and U.K. by enhancing technology and management practices to boost operations, revenue, fundraising, audience engagement, and programming.

As part of a cohort comprising 200 nonprofit cultural organizations, the MSU Museum will embark on a project called the Digital Surrogates Pipeline. This project aims to bring museum collections to life through digital innovation, including virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), providing new contexts for cultural and scientific objects to inspire deeper audience engagement.

Devon Akmon, director of the MSU Museum, stated: “Our selection for the Bloomberg Digital Accelerator Program is an exciting opportunity to reimagine how we share and interpret our collections.” He added that by incorporating advanced technologies, they plan to develop innovative connections with audiences at the intersection of arts, sciences, cultures, and technologies.

The Digital Surrogates Pipeline will feature a dedicated lab for digitizing objects and experimenting with new technologies. An interdisciplinary team of museum staff and Michigan State University experts in AR, VR, and digital storytelling will guide this initiative. The goal is to establish a foundation for future digital learning guides, activities, and interactive experiences.

Over the past three years, the Digital Accelerator Program has strengthened nearly 150 cultural organizations across the U.S. and U.K. The initial cohort of 40 institutions collectively generated $20 million in additional revenue through various means such as fundraising while reaching over one million new audience members and engaging more than 4,000 artists and partners.

The MSU Museum joins this program alongside other nonprofit cultural organizations from diverse artistic disciplines across 52 U.S. cities and 28 U.K. cities.