About the Project

Target Audiences

Primary Audience: DIA Museum Visitors

The 200,000+ people who visit places like the DIA every year who are typically people walking through African, Asian, European, American, Contemporary, Indigenous, Oceanic, and Islamic art galleries who want to understand the fuller story behind what they're seeing.

Art enthusiasts and curious minds who want to connect artworks to bigger historical, social, and cultural contexts not just the traditional Western-focused narratives museums have historically told.

From middle schoolers to university students on class trips who need information that meets them where they are whether they're just starting to learn about a culture or digging deep into research.

African American, Asian American, Latino/a, Indigenous, Arab American, and other communities looking for authentic representations of their own cultural heritage when they walk through museum doors.

Data, Information and Content

How We Show What We Know (And What We're Still Learning)

We use a color-coded system to be transparent about our curatorial process:

  • Blue: Basic information to understand the object
  • Green: Objects with interesting geographic stories or migration histories
  • Orange: Objects with mixed cultural backgrounds or cross-cultural influences
  • Red: We're actively rethinking how we frame these objects
  • Yellow: Waiting on input from cultural experts or community members

The Technology

Reality Capture Logo
Reality Capture

Professional photogrammetry software for creating detailed 3D models. Free for educational institutions.

Sketchfab Logo
Sketchfab & MetaAR

Platform for displaying 3D models and creating AR experiences. Free for museums and cultural institutions.

Cytoscape Logo
Cytoscape

Open-source software for visualizing complex networks and mapping connections between objects.

The Platform

A responsive website accessible at reframingcollections.org from any device. Cloud-based storage enables scalability as more institutions join. No app downloads or special software required.

What It Costs

Most of the software we're using is free for educational and cultural institutions. The real costs are people's time, labor, and cloud hosting.

Starting Small (1-2 museums, 50-100 objects): $15,000-30,000. A part-time team working with a couple of partner institutions to prove the concept works.