2021 will go down as another unforgettable year in history. With the ups and downs of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year has been filled with inspiring recovery, stumbles and setbacks, and most of all, a bold embrace of change. These last 12 months have been pivotal for Cuseum, and for the institutions, communities, and audiences that we serve. As we welcome 2022, we want to reflect on 2021 and share the many accomplishments, customer achievements, and company highlights from the past year.
Over the course of 2021, we’ve worked with a growing and diverse range of cultural organizations, institutions of higher education, and member-serving organizations, including museums, zoos, aquariums, science centers, arboretums, botanical gardens, universities, and professional associations of all shapes and sizes. We’ve also published multiple industry-acclaimed reports on topics like membership and digital revenue streams, launched a leading-edge Member Portal product, and continued to innovate our mobile engagement solutions with AI and accessibility enhancements. We’ve examined new technology trends, like the growing discourse on NFTs, traveled (virtually) to over 25 conferences and speaking engagements, and won our very first Webby Award.
As we prepare to dive into 2022, join us in looking back on this 2021 highlight-reel!
January
Cuseum kicked off the year with over a dozen customer launches! We were excited to help organizations including the University of Tennessee Alumni Association 🎓, Franklin Park Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, Exploratorium, and Georgia O'Keeffe Museum streamline their membership operations with the implementation of digital membership cards.
Image: Exploratorium, Source: https://integralgroup.com/
We also helped various cultural sites deploy interactive mobile engagement experiences 📱: Friends of Wissahickon’s app offers audio tours educating audiences on the history, geology, and nature of Wissahickon Valley Park, while the Historic Wendover Airfield Foundation mobile tours bring World War II Army Air Force history to life ✈️.
Recognizing the many changes ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cuseum team also set to work initiating two industry-wide research studies, focusing on how cultural organizations began generating revenue through digital programming and virtual membership models.
Finally, Cuseum’s CEO made a virtual appearance at the INTIX (International Ticketing Association) Annual Conference 🎟 to share his thoughts on “Coronavirus as the Unexpected Driver of Digital Innovation.”
February
With so many of our clients and partners in the membership space still recovering from the pandemic, Cuseum kicked off February with an inaugural Membership Monday’s webinar examining 2021 predictions and priorities in museum membership, alongside experts from the North Carolina Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Zoo, and California Academy of the Sciences.
Continuing from January’s momentum, we helped new clients including the Mississippi Children's Museum, South Coast Botanic Garden, and Contemporary Arts Museum Houston initiate cutting-edge digital membership programs.
Image: Mississippi Children’s Museum, Source: https://ccdarchitects.com
We closed out the month by celebrating our CEO & Founder, who was recognized as Forbes 'Next 1000” for his achievements at the intersection of arts, culture, business, and technology!
March
We commenced the month of March by publishing one of our most-downloaded resources of the year. With the rapid acceleration of virtual membership models in the pandemic era, this report, 100+ Membership Leaders Share Their Priorities For Digital Transformation in Museum Membership, highlights how expert cultural leaders are moving membership into the digital age. With all the buzz it generated, Cuseum’s Marketing & Content Lead, Maddie Taylor, was tapped for more insights on the timely topic by Jing Culture & Commerce.
As media attention shifted to the emergent topic of “NFTs,” our CEO took to Artnet to examine “The Surging Demand for Digital Collectibles,” in addition to facilitating a webinar, “Discussing and Debating the Potentials of NFTs in the Museum Sector,” featuring the voices of three notable cultural technologists. These marked some of the very first efforts to contextualize the NFT discourse within the cultural industry.
We didn’t stop there with dynamic speaking engagements. At the Museum of Contemporary Digital Art, Brendan offered insights on “The Future of Museums in the Digital Realm.” We then went (virtually) international! While Brendan hosted a special online event for the VR/AR Association on immersive storytelling, Cuseum’s Head of Growth & Partnerships, Dan Sullivan, shared his insights on the emergence and acceleration of virtual memberships at House Theatre Marketing Festival, one of the largest gatherings of performing arts professionals in the UK.
This was also a month packed with exciting launches: Brooklyn Children's Museum, Maryland Zoo , and the Field Museum 🦖 – some of the most acclaimed cultural organizations in the country – all took off with their Digital Membership Card initiatives!
Image: Field Museum, Source: https://visittheusa.com/
And, speaking of digital memberships, we were excited to introduce a top-requested functionality for this solution: extended support for Google Pay and Android Wallet, making it that much more convenient for users to download their digital cards.
We closed out the month with a special surprise: an exclusive showcase by Zoom, recognizing the success and achievements of Cuseum’s webinar series, which has garnered over 100,000 registrations and views since its inception in March 2020.
April
April was an eventful month for Cuseum customers – we launched a record 17 new clients in just thirty days! These included the College of Charleston, Oregon Zoo Foundation, and Society of Clinical Research Associates, highlighting the value Digital Membership Cards offer to cultural institutions, alumni groups, associations, and membership organizations of all kinds.
Image: Oregon Zoo, Source: https://arcpublishing.com/
On the app side, we were also thrilled to help Juniata College Museum of Art pioneer their new mobile experience, connecting audiences to their myriad collections and exhibitions.
Speaking of mobile apps, we enabled a much-anticipated new feature for our Mobile Engagement solution: AI-Powered Multilingual Translations, which allow mobile app customers to serve diverse audiences with an array of custom audio experiences.
We were also thrilled to publish and share a major anthology for our customers and audiences in alumni relations and higher education: our new comprehensive eBook, The Ultimate Guide to Navigating the New Landscape of Alumni Engagement 👩🎓.
We then tuned in virtually to one of the year’s most dynamic conferences: Museums and the Web 💻. Brendan presented 2 sessions: on the first, he was joined by a panel of digital specialists to explore how COVID-19 has accelerated digital engagement and sustainable digital transformation, and on the second, he presented Cuseum’s novel research study on “Neurological Perceptions of Art through Augmented and Virtual Realities.” Closer to home, Brendan served as a special guest speaker for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s course on “Extending the Museum.”
Up north, Cuseum’s Marketing & Content Lead, Maddie Taylor, joined the Canmore Museum’s “On the Table” dialogue 🇨🇦, alongside Lord Cultural Resources President Gail Lord, to share insights on membership and community in the digital realm.
Last, but certainly not least, Cuseum was humbled and honored to learn we had been nominated for Best Art, Culture, and Event App in the “Apps and Software” category of the 25th Annual Webby Awards 🏆. Widely recognized as the “Internet’s highest honor,” the Webby Awards celebrate excellence on the Internet. With this nomination, Cuseum’s Augmented Reality (AR) app, [AR]T Museum, was singled out as one of the best in the world in its category, and among the top picks of nearly 13,500 projects worldwide!
May
We did it 🥇! After being nominated for a Webby the previous month, our customers and community rallied behind us to help us win the title of best Art, Culture, and Event App in the “Apps and Software” category of the 25th annual Webby Awards. We originally released this winning Augmented Reality (AR) app back in May 2020, allowing anyone around the world to virtually place paintings on their walls and revel in artworks that are typically only available to view inside a museum setting.
The excitement didn’t stop there. With the acceleration of digital priorities creating a heightened demand for online membership benefits and member-exclusive content, Cuseum invested in a new solution to help our partners solve challenges around hosting and sharing virtual offerings. In early May, we were thrilled to announce this latest innovation in membership: the Member Portal. With this new solution, you can offer your constituents a truly unified membership experience, allowing members to update their personal details, review their membership level and benefits, access exclusive digital content, and redeem special gifts all in one place.
Later that month, to coincide with International Museum Day 🌎, we published another cutting-edge report: The Impact of Virtual Programs on Revenue Generation for Cultural Organizations. With survey data from 500+ museum professionals, the report examines how museums and cultural organizations are generating and diversifying their revenue channels through the use of virtual programs. This research has been re-shared throughout the cultural space, including in Jing Culture & Commerce, where our CEO and Marketing Lead shared additional commentary on the study.
We also got extra academic this month – our CEO served up special talks at Chapman University, as well as Savannah College of Art and Design!
A number of renowned institutions initiated their digital membership card programs with us, including Princeton University Art Museum, Children's Museum of Houston, Clark College Foundation, Portland Museum of Art, and Naples Botanical Garden.
Image: Princeton University Art Museum, Source: https://planetprinceton.com
June
This month started off with one of the most exciting conferences of the year: American Alliance of Museums. While we couldn’t come together in person, that didn’t keep us from connecting with our colleagues. Brendan facilitated a session entitled “Decolonizing through Digital - The Future of Provenance Research,” in addition to presenting our research on neurological perceptions of digital art.
Cuseum’s Head of Growth Partnerships then took the virtual mic, moderating a session on the emergence of new virtual memberships models with panelists hailing from the Exploratorium, Carnegie Museums, Springfield Museums, and Longwood Gardens. He also sat down for a “Tech Talk” with our friends at Blackbaud and our clients at the Adventure Science Center to discuss how arts and cultural organizations can become more resilient while recovering from the pandemic.
Our CEO then continued to share our research on revenue generation through digital programs at Museum Next’s Digital Income Summit 💸.
Lastly, this month was packed with exciting launches! On the mobile app side, we were thrilled to help the Natural History Museum of Utah and Santa Barbara Historical Museum implement innovative digital experiences and tours for their patrons. Cleveland Zoological Society, John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, and The Noguchi Museum were just a few of the many organizations that instituted digital memberships in June.
Image: Natural History Museum of Utah, Source: https://nowplayingutah.com/
July
This was a busy month for our alumni association clients and partners! We converged with them virtually at the Council of Alumni Marketing and Membership Professionals annual meeting, where our Head of Growth & Partnerships hosted a virtual happy hour and networking event. We also held a special Alumni Hour webinar, which offered insights and tips for Fall 2021 planning in alumni relations. Adding to the excitement, our new clients at the University of Wyoming Alumni Association launched their Digital Membership Cards.
As an increasing number of alumni associations are seeking out this digital solution, we took time to sit down with our partners at the University of Tennessee, who successfully launched digital cards to alumni from all of their campuses, saving them $20,000 per year!
Image: University of Tennessee
We continued to share our report, Exploring the Impact of Revenue Generation on Virtual Programs – this time on a webinar with our CEO and Marketing Lead.
Our CEO then zipped over to the Museum Next XR Summit to present, before recording a special episode of the podcast Design Museum Everywhere on “Crafting Museum Experiences through Technology.”
To close out the month, we celebrated helping some of the biggest arts and cultural organizations in the world kick off their digital membership card initiatives. These included, Oakland Zoo, Saint Louis Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Image: Oakland Zoo, Source: https://sfgate.com/
August
We started August by celebrating the Cuseum's 7th year birthday 🎂! It’s been an unforgettable seven years, and couldn’t be more thankful for and humbled by our amazing customers and community.
We then joined our valued partners at the Tessitura Learning and Community Conference (TLCC), where Cuseum hosted a virtual booth, and our Head of Growth & Partnerships served up two sessions on “Driving Engagement with Digital Memberships” (by popular demand!).
We continued to share our research on digital revenue generation, with Brendan presenting a session at the Association of Nature Center Administrators Annual Summit, while Maddie conducted a keynote at the Fiber Arts Organizations Symposium.
Unfortunately, August also saw the rise of the COVID-19 Delta Variant. To help our colleagues and community prepare, Cuseum returned with a live Membership Mondays webinar to explore “Navigating Membership Amid New Uncertainty & the Delta Variant.”
Several new customers successfully initiated the switch to digital membership cards this month, including the Western Australian Museum and Thinkery Austin.
Image: Western Australia Museum, Source: https://museu.ms/
September
With an uptick in demand for our new Member Portal product, we started off the month with the launch of a helpful guide to educate our audience and customers on this new solution.
We then had a chance to virtually reconnect with our colleagues at the Association of Zoos and Aquariums annual conference 🐨🐬. Joined by panelists from the Adventure Aquarium, Cleveland Zoological Society, Woodland Park Zoo, and Zoo Advisors, Dan Sullivan facilitated a session on “Membership Hot Takes: Novel, Buzzworthy, and Unpopular Ideas to Shake Up Your Membership Program.” He then popped over to the Accesso Client Seminar to station Cuseum’s virtual booth!
More exciting news came later in the month, when Cuseum was shortlisted for Digital Innovation Award at Investor Allstars.
We then had to celebrate UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley 🌺, who in September simultaneously deployed Digital Membership Cards, Member Portal, and Guest Pass Referral. Cuseum’s solutions are powerful on their own, but when used together, this membership triumvirate is equal to more than the sum of its parts!
We were also delighted to welcome Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, the Museum of Science and History, and many more to the Cuseum family with the launch of their digital membership cards!
Image: Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum
October
October brought us to the height of conference season! We began the month by joining our valued partners at Blackbaud for bbcon! Dan hosted a session with our longtime Digital Membership customers at Anne Springs Close Greenway and Tellus Science Museum, where he shared insights from the 2021 report on digital transformation in membership and facilitated a dialogue with fellow presenters.
It was then straight on to the Association of Science and Technology Centers Annual Conference 🧪, where Dan and the Cuseum team hosted a virtual booth and presented a special demonstration session on “Driving Engagement and Value with Digital Membership Initiatives.”
Simultaneously, we tuned in to the annual Visitor Experience Group (VEX) Conference, where Maddie Taylor shared insights on the rise of digital visitors and virtual revenue generation in museums.
We were also excited to take part in MUZE.X, a biennial conference debating museum futures. While we couldn’t travel to the University of Malta 🇲🇹, Brendan Ciecko still contributed as a virtual speaker!
Keeping his eye on the future of the cultural space, Brendan was also tapped for insights by the Accesso team, where he shared his thoughts on preparing cultural attractions for digital transformation, and Artnet, where he offered his perspective on the art world’s “technological revolution.”
We closed out the month very close to home – celebrating the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Mystic Aquarium for the launch of Digital Membership Cards!
Image: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Source: https://bostonmagazine.com/
November
Speaking of close to home, we are always honored to take part in the New England Museum Association Conference. This year, Maddie was joined by panelists from the Mystic Seaport Museum, Currier Museum of Art, and Old Sturbridge Village to explore virtual engagement and benefits in membership.
November also marks the beginning of one of the most important times of year for all of our partners working in development and membership. To help our audience make the most of these final days of 2021 – and particularly Giving Tuesday ❤️ – we were joined by the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Oakland Zoo, and SPCA of Texas for a Membership Mondays webinar on 2021 Year End Strategy.
Revisiting a hot topic of the year, we also examined the growing interest in NFTs in one of our top blog posts of the year: How Museums and Cultural Orgs Engaged with NFTs in 2021.
At RO.ME Museum Exhibition in Italy 🇮🇹, Brendan jumped in to offer his thoughts on the visitor experience, digital engagement, and what it means to take steps towards the hybrid and "phygital" world. On the other side of the world, he presented to the museum and cultural sector of Brazil 🇧🇷 on behalf of the Secretary of Culture & Creative Economy and the US Embassy.
Staying international, we were thrilled to learn that Cuseum’s [AR]T Museum app won an international “Culture Online” award for “Best IT-solution for the Cultural Sector.” Organized by the Russian Cultural Foundation, the "Culture Online" award celebrates organizations that implement cultural projects online or using digital technologies.
On top of that, University of Southern California Alumni Association, Wright State Alumni Association, and the Imagination Station successfully implemented digital memberships!
Image: University of Southern California, Source: https://moneyinc.com/
December
With an eye on emerging trends, Cuseum’s recently published article, How Museums and Cultural Orgs Engaged with NFTs in 2021, inspired interest and dialogue from organizations including the Creative Commons, Tessitura Network, Gizmodo, and more.
Additionally, Cuseum’s report on digital revenue generation was cited in Art Basel Magazine, an annual publication celebrating the largest art fair in the world.
To close out the year, we were also thrilled to help the International Center for Photography, The Mütter Museum at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and the Savoy Automobile Museum getting a running start with their Digital Membership Cards.
Image: Mutter Museum
Behind the scenes, our development team has been hard at work to deliver a new and improved interface, as well as some extra special features, to our Digital Membership platform. Stay tuned for an announcement in 2022! 📢
In the past 12 months, we’ve transitioned from reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic to recalibrating our vision of the future. In this year of recovery and recasting, museums, nonprofits, and institutions of higher education have boldly embraced change, long-term digital transformation, and a new hybrid era. As we look forward to 2022, Cuseum has never been more enthusiastic about empowering the arts and cultural, higher education, and nonprofit sectors to flourish in this time of change.
With the year upon us, we are eager and optimistic about what 2022 will hold! ⭐
