Cuseum’s 2020 Year in Review

2020 will go down in history as the year that everything changed. Between COVID-19, a social awakening, and unexpected events around every corner, the past year has been filled with unprecedented moments. These last 12 months have been transformative for Cuseum, and for the sectors we serve. As we step into these first days of the new year with much optimism and excitement, we want to look back at the past year and share many milestones, customer stories, and achievements with you.

Over the course of 2020, Cuseum has helped an ever more diverse range of organizations succeed in the digital age, including museums, zoos, aquariums, science centers, botanical gardens, universities, and associations of all sizes. We also launched an industry-acclaimed webinar series, implemented cutting-edge enhancements to our suite of digital engagement tools, and much more. We’ve examined new technology trends, helped organizations adapt to the shifting tides of the pandemic, and explored the explosive rise of virtual events, digital communications, and contactless experiences in the era of COVID-19.

Looking back on the year, we are so inspired by the incredible resiliency and creativity of our community, and want to thank our partners, customers, and audience for being a part of this journey.

As we kick off 2021, join us in reflecting on the past year!

January

Cuseum kicked off the year with many exciting launches, and we were proud to support organizations including the Texas State Aquarium and Florida Aquarium 🐬, two of the most visited aquariums in the United States, in getting their sustainable digital membership initiatives off the ground!

Pro tip: Interested in launching your own Digital Membership initiative? Download our Guide: How to Launch & Succeed with Digital Membership Cards.

cuseum year in review — *The Florida Aquarium*

We then dove into exploring the biggest technology trends in 2020, and what they mean for museums. Cuseum’s CEO & Founder was featured by Verizon in an article about novel applications of 3D printing in research, education, and exhibit design in museums.

In January, we also launched a new digital initiative for Plimoth Plantation, just in time for the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower journey ⚓️.

February

In February, innovation tasted sweeter than ever as we celebrated our 5th patent! As a part of Cuseum tradition, for every new patent granted, the whole team celebrates with a delicious “patent cake” 🍰, decorated with our latest patent number. The fifth patent illuminates the new and transformative possibilities of wayfinding in museums.

The month of February is also Black History Month, and we were thrilled to highlight the incredible work of our partners at the Museum of the African Diaspora, SFMOMA, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, who celebrated Black History Month with special exhibitions, creative events, and more.

Cuseum continued to explore technology trends in the cultural sector with the release of a widely circulated article about the potentials of mixed reality, autonomous things, artificial intelligence, and other new tools in museums.

Phipps Conservatory digital membership initiative — *Phipps Conservatory*

Last but not least, new digital membership initiatives went live at the Hammer Museum, Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Garden, and Fort Collins Museum of Discovery (to name a few)!

Hancock Shaker Village mobile engagement app — *Hancock Shaker Village*

At the end of the month, we were excited to help the renowned living history museum, Hancock Shaker Village, launch their new mobile engagement app.

March

March was a whirlwind of a month, and a turning point for 2020. At the beginning of the month, COVID-19 began escalating, sweeping through Asia and Europe and causing cultural organizations and tourist destinations to close down internationally. In response, the Cuseum team published some early thoughts to assess the situation and help museums anticipate potential disruptions. This article quickly became one of the most widely read and distributed pieces of content in company history.

Several weeks later, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic and the United States went into lockdown, forcing the vast majority of museums and cultural institutions to temporarily close their doors. In a matter of days, the entire cultural sector entered a state of uncertainty.

The Cuseum team acted quickly to meet the needs of the sector, rapidly organizing a webinar 📺 with industry leaders from the Philbrook Museum of Art and Akron Art Museum to help museums manage the pandemic and find creative ways to keep audiences engaged. This premiere webinar, “How to Keep Your Audience Engaged, Entertained, and Inspired in the Age of Coronavirus,” garnered nearly 4,000 registrations and immediately received wide recognition and acclaim.

After this initial webinar took off, Cuseum set out to develop and produce weekly webinar discussions with innovative and diverse panelists, addressing topical issues for the museum sector during the pandemic. We swiftly launched two webinar series to explore shifting challenges in museum engagement and membership amidst the COVID-19 crisis.

Committed to serving resources to the entire cultural sector, we also joined forces with American Alliance of Museums (AAM) to publish a viral article on leveraging digital content during the pandemic. As of December 2020, it had received over 25,000 views and was the second most popular AAM blog post of 2020!

We didn’t stop there! In March, Cuseum also announced a partnership with Tessitura Network’s ecosystem of trusted technology and service providers, and Cuseum’s mobile engagement and digital membership solutions were integrated into the Tessitura platform to benefit their users. With coronavirus quickly creating high demand for digital engagement tools, the announcement of this new partnership couldn’t have been more timely.

Finally, a few notable digital membership launches included the Blank Park Zoo, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, and The DoSeum.

April

With the pandemic creating a heightened interest and need for digital tools, Cuseum invested in new features and solutions to help its partners solve challenges around operations, remote engagement, and communication with Digital Membership and Mobile Apps.

We also scaled our webinar programs to meet the growing needs of the cultural community, and continued to produce two virtual discussions each week. In our weekly webinar series, we explored topics like new social media platforms, virtual educational content, and supporting communities during the crisis, with special guest speakers from the Hirshhorn Museum, New-York Historical Society, Canadian Museum of History, North Carolina Museum of Art, National Civil Rights Museum and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, to name a few.

With the continued impact of COVID-19, major conferences across the world were reimagined in virtual formats. Cuseum’s CEO presented AI Sees What? The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Machine Vision for Museum Collections at Museums and the Web (MuseWeb) 2020.

On Membership Mondays, Cuseum’s Head of Growth and Partnerships, Dan Sullivan, addressed issues like reinforcing the value of membership, the member experience, and managing membership fulfilment and renewals alongside top membership professionals from the San Antonio Zoo, The Franklin Institute, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Cleveland Museum of Art, and Santa Barbara Zoo, among others.

These webinars regularly received as many as 5,000 registrations each (from all around the globe!), and were widely praised by museum professionals as a beacon of support, community, and professionalism during COVID-19. They were also endorsed and promoted by every major museum association, including the American Alliance of Museums, Network of European Museum Organisations, Europeana Think Culture, and the Arts Marketing Association.

We were excited to celebrate Grand Rapids Art Museum, Living History Farms and many others for triumphantly launching their digital membership initiatives in the midst of the pandemic!

May

May was another eventful month at Cuseum. We witnessed one of our biggest digital membership launches to date – University of Michigan’s Alumni Association 🎓, one of the largest alumni associations in the world!

University of Michigan digital membership — *University of Michigan*

In response to closures and reduced capacity at museums around the world, Cuseum released a groundbreaking Augmented Reality (AR) app to virtually transport famous artworks from museums into people’s homes. Through this [AR]T Museum App 📱, people all around the world have been able to virtually place paintings and other objects onto their walls and revel in artworks that are typically only available to view inside a museum setting. We also rolled out a special AR feature to all of our app customers, allowing them to offer augmented reality versions of their collections to their own audiences.

In conjunction with this AR release, the Cuseum team published the results of a 10-month long research study on the neurological perceptions of original artworks as compared to their Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and digital versions 🧠. This groundbreaking research supported the great value and importance of access to art and culture through new digital platforms.

The [AR]T Museum app and research study were featured in publications around the world 📰, including Fast Company, Venture Beat, Artnet News, ZDNet, the Observer and countless others!

May had no shortage of big announcements! Later in the month, Cuseum worked in collaboration with Blackbaud’s Arts and Cultural team to release The Ultimate Guide to Surviving & Thriving As a Cultural Organization, an eBook 📚 designed to help cultural professionals adapt to COVID-19, shifting visitor expectations, the data revolution, and new technology.

As part of this initiative, Cuseum’s Dan Sullivan participated in a ”Tech Talk” panel at the virtual American Alliance of Museums conference to discuss key insights from the book with Blackbaud, Cheekwood Estate and Gardens, and Tellus Science Museum.
➔ Download the Ultimate Guide eBook

May was also the beginning of museum reopenings in many parts of the world. In light of this, Cuseum continued to produce relevant webinars, like “Preparing to Reopen: Strategy, Planning & Process on the Road to Reopening Museums,” which included top-notch panelists from the San Jose Museum of Art, Museum of the African Diaspora, and the Texas Historical Commission and attracted almost 5,000 registrations!

Cuseum’s Dan Sullivan also began serving as a guest moderator for a special webinar series by the Association of Midwest Museums and Southeastern Museums Conference, focusing on “Reopening Plans in Action” and featuring an incredible variety of international speakers.

And we can’t forget May 18th: International Museum Day 🌎! For the occasion, Brendan Ciecko spoke on a virtual panel hosted by the Ministry of Culture in India 🇮🇳 on "Revitalising Museums and Cultural Spaces,” alongside other museum leaders.

June

With the world already reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, we witnessed another tragedy: the death of George Floyd. Across the country, as we mourned the deaths of Floyd, as well as Ahmaud Arbery & Breonna Taylor, a national reckoning emerged around the systemic injustice that remains entrenched in our country. As Black Lives Matters protests swept across the country, Cuseum made a public commitment and Solidarity Statement with the Black community.

As mission-based organizations serving diverse communities, museums also became an important part of the dialogue around systemic injustice over the summer. To help amplify the voices of Black museum professionals and promote a dialogue around social justice and inclusion, Cuseum assembled several webinar panel conversations to discuss how cultural organizations can face systemic injustice, strive towards a more equitable future, and be beacons of hope for their communities. On Membership Mondays, panelists from the National Museum of African American History and Culture and National Civil Rights Museum discussed “Diversity & Community Support in Membership & Visitor Services.” With another group of panelists, including Terri Freeman, President of the National Civil Rights Museum and Cecile Shellman, the Senior Diversity Fellow at American Alliance of Museums, we discussed “Striving Towards An Equitable Future: Addressing Systemic Injustice as a Cultural Organization.”

June also marked the fourth month of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. In light of this, the Cuseum team analyzed the emergence of digital content, new technology, and new distribution channels in the cultural sector in a new article.

➔ Read More: “Coronavirus: The Unexpected Driver of Digital Innovation at Museums and Cultural Attractions”

We continued to share our research on neurological perceptions of art through digital, with Cuseum’s CEO presenting the session “When XR and Neuroscience Collide” at PTC’s LiveWorx 2020 Conference!

Our CEO also facilitated two sessions at the virtual Immersive Learning Research Network Conference: a special lecture on Using Neuroscience to Learn How the Mind Perceives Art through AR & VR and a panel discussion on Education and Engagement through XR Experiences in Museums with special guests from the Museum of the African Diaspora, Norman Rockwell Museum, and Perez Art Museum Miami.

Lastly, this was also a month packed with exciting launches! On the arts and culture side, we were excited to help the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium, and many more launch their digital membership cards. The Pittsburgh Zoo is one of the only a few major zoo and aquarium combinations in the country! 🦍 🐡

We were also psyched to see a handful of alumni associations such as the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Western Washington Alumni Association, and Oregon State University Alumni Association get their digital alumni cards off the ground!

July

July was a huge month for partnerships! To kick it off, we announced our new partnership with accesso Technology Group, a premier technology solutions provider for attractions and venues worldwide. Through this partnership, Cuseum’s offerings can now be used in conjunction with accesso’s point-of-sale, ticketing, and virtual queueing offerings.

We also collaborated with our friends at Blackbaud to produce a webinar on time and cost savings using Digital Membership Cards. This was an opportunity to celebrate our joint customer, the Anne Springs Close Greenway, who grew their membership base from 7,100 member households to more than 12,000 members in just 6 months! 🙌

➔ Read More: “5 Cuseum Success Stories to Inspire Your Membership Program”

This July, we also composed one of our most popular blog articles to date, exploring how museums can generate revenue through digital content and virtual experiences. Published by the American Alliance of Museums online, the article has received thousands of views and made AAM’s top 10 posts of 2020 list! Our accompanying “Museum Lightning Talks” webinar explored these digital initiatives in a live discussion with creative practitioners from the Carnegie Museums, Lincoln Park Zoo, ICA Boston, Phoenix Zoo, and more!

➔ Read More: “How Museums Can Generate Revenue through Digital Content and Virtual Experiences”

The excitement didn’t stop there. In July, Cuseum’s AR app, [AR]T Museum, was featured by Apple as “App of the Day” and promoted to tens of millions of people globally across Apple’s App Store social media channels! 🎉

Digital membership launches continued to make a splash with the Seattle Aquarium, one of the top ten most visited aquariums in the United States. 🐟

Other noteworthy launches included the San Diego Natural History Museum, Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, ICA Boston, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, and many others!

And we can’t forget the Heard Museum! This past July, they launched their mobile app, which includes an impressive array of gallery guides!

August

We started August by celebrating the Cuseum's 6th year birthday 🎂! It’s been an unforgettable six years, and couldn’t be more grateful, excited, or humbled by our amazing customers and the cultural community at large.

This month, our CEO, Brendan Ciecko, was quoted in NBC News, where he shared his perspective on the role of virtual programming in museums.

We also worked closely with our partners at Tessitura Network to produce a webinar on driving engagement with digital memberships and mobile guides, which was facilitated by Cuseum’s Dan Sullivan!

On the subject of mobile apps, special shout out to the Kemper Museum of Art! This August, Kemper took their new exhibit on the work of contemporary Ethiopian artist Elias Sime to the next level with Cuseum's AR-powered “Museum from Home” feature, allowing their visitors to virtually place works by Elias Sime on their own walls.

With most K-12 schools starting up again in August, we also sat down with the International Spy Museum, Perez Art Museum Miami, and Detroit Historical Society for a webinar discussion to explore how museums can support schools and educators.

Meanwhile, with the increased interest and engagement from alumni associations and institutions of higher education, the Cuseum team set out to share new resources to aid our alumni relations community.

➔ Read More: “7 Ways to Keep Your Alumni Members Engaged During COVID-19”

A number of renowned institutions initiated their digital membership card programs with us, including the High Museum of Art, South Carolina Aquarium, and The Health Museum!

September

We started off the month with the launch of a helpful guide to reopening museums and cultural attractions. Packed with tips on digital tools, the visitor journey, and recovering visitors and revenue, the playbook was an instant hit.

➔ Download Playbook: “Reopening Museums & Cultural Attractions”

After producing several popular blog articles on alumni engagement during COVID-19, Cuseum also launched our third webinar series: Alumni Hour. Similar to museums, COVID-19 greatly disrupted traditional forms of alumni engagement, which previously included in-person homecoming, class reunions, tailgates, and networking sessions. On our premier Alumni Hour webinar, we were joined by panelists from Duke Alumni Association, University of Texas San Antonio Alumni Association, and Southwestern University to discuss alumni engagement in the era of coronavirus.

More exciting news came later in the month, when Cuseum’s CEO & Founder, Brendan Ciecko, was featured in the Artnet Intelligence Report’s Fall 2020 Innovators Issue, alongside 51 other talented and creative entrepreneurs, artists, and dealers.

He was also interviewed in Artnet News, where he shared his perspective on how museums can ramp up their digital efforts.

➔ Read More: “The New Innovators: Cuseum Founder Brendan Ciecko on How Museums Can Up Their Digital Game Without Paying an Arm and a Leg”

Our CEO was also invited to participate in an exciting range of speaking engagements this September to share his expertise. Alongside the General Director of the State Hermitage Museum (the second-largest art museum in the world!) in St. Petersburg 🇷🇺, the Director of the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, and the General Director of the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan 🇮🇹, he shared his perspective in a live panel about “Museums of the World: the New Reality Online and Offline,” which aired on national television.

Continuing to explore online content, our CEO also presented on a special Ars Electronica panel on new business models for virtual content. Later in the month, the Alley & Verizon 5G Labs invited him to moderate an online discussion about digital discovery and experiencing art through XR, alongside the renowned multidisciplinary artist Nancy Baker Cahill and guests from the Serpentine Galleries and Museum of the African Diaspora.

Meanwhile, we collaborated with our friends at accesso to share new perspectives on the transformation of the visitor experience in the age of COVID-19.

We were delighted to welcome the Telfair Museum of Art, Burke Museum, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Washington State History Museum, and many more to the Cuseum family this month with the launch of their digital membership initiatives!

October

This year, the American Museum Membership Conference (AMMC) went virtual, but that didn’t stop it from being incredible. Cuseum’s Dan Sullivan collaborated with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Exploratorium, and Miami Children’s Museum to examine the successes and setbacks of new digital initiatives in membership. Following the conference, we took an opportunity to reflect and recap AMMC on Membership Mondays, alongside conference organizers from the Smithsonian, St. Louis Art Museum, and Henry Ford Museum.

Later in the month, the UK’s Membership Management Forum 🇬🇧invited him to share how organizations across the pond can save time and money, and drive engagement, with digital membership cards.

Our CEO spoke at the Visitor Experience Group (VEX) conference, where he presented his thoughts on coronavirus as the unexpected driver of digital innovation at museums and cultural attractions.

We had another exciting celebration when our CEO Brendan Ciecko was named a “Museum Innovator” by Blooloop.

As part of this award, Blooloop highlighted the great strides of the Cuseum team during the pandemic, noting that, “With guest speakers from institutions such as Smithsonian Institution, The Franklin Institute, Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Metropolitan Museum of Art and more, [Cuseum’s] weekly webinars have been an invaluable resource to museum and cultural professionals during this challenging time.”

We had more notable launches this month, with the Chicago History Museum, National Civil Rights Museum, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, New York Hall of Science, and more all getting their digital initiatives off the ground!

November

We kicked off November with an exciting mobile app launch with the MFA Boston! As one of America’s top museums, we were thrilled to support the release of MFA Mobile, which serves as an interactive guide with special tours including “Monet and Boston” and “Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation.” 📱

2 patents in one year?! This November, Cuseum also announced the issuance of our 6th patent for a new system of contactless venue admission. With COVID-19 accelerating the transition to touch-free technology, Cuseum focused our R&D efforts on creating a new type of entry and admission experience 🎟.

With only two months left of 2020, we also facilitated a number of webinars around Giving Tuesday♥️ and year-end planning in both museum membership and alumni relations. On Membership Mondays, we were thrilled to be joined by guest speakers from the Museum of Latin American Art, Mütter Museum, and Potawatomi Zoo. On Alumni Hour, experts from Penn State Alumni Association, University of South Carolina Upstate, Bryant University, and the University of Puget Sound shared their top tips for closing out 2020 stronger than ever.

We also welcomed a huge range of organizations to the Cuseum family, including the Mint Museum, Perez Art Museum Miami, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Palm Springs Art Museum, Lowell Observatory, and Liberty Science Center.

December

December began with our final virtual conference of the year – the Arts Marketing Association – where Dan delivered a highly praised presentation on the emergence and acceleration of digital and virtual memberships during COVID-19.

We also took a chance to reflect on the changes in alumni engagement, museum membership, and the cultural sector at large over the course of 2020 in our three final webinar discussions of the year. For our last webinar of 2020, we brought back celebrated guests from the Philbrook Museum of Art, Akron Art Museum, and Brooklyn Children’s Museum to talk through the trials, triumphs, and transformation of cultural organizations this year.

Since March, our webinars have received over 90,000 views and hundreds of notes of praise and acclaim from industry professionals! We’re humbled and honored to have an opportunity to serve and support the sector. 🙏

To close out the year, we were thrilled to help the Toledo Museum of Art and Impression 5 Science Center launch their new digital membership cards and witness the Institute of American Indian Arts roll out an incredible mobile experience.

In the past 12 months, we’ve had to reimagine so many aspects of the visitor, member, and donor experience. No industry has been untouched by the pandemic, and for the cultural sector, as well as higher education, the transformations have been profound. As we look forward to 2021, Cuseum is more committed than ever to helping cultural organizations, associations, and schools navigate these changes, and ultimately achieve deeper engagement with their constituents.

With a new year among us, we are upbeat and excited about what 2021 will hold! ⭐

Happy New Year! 🎉