Vive Arts Brings VR To Museums

The Vive Studios program will fund and develop VR experiences for cultural institutions.

Whether examining a priceless collection of ancient treasures or exploring an exhibit of historic war artifacts, museums have always provided an exceptional way to preserve and educate the public. But now institutions are aiming to make museum experiences more interactive and engaging, hoping to entice the next generation of patrons with technology.

And what better technology to help revamp the museum experience than with VR—moving you from behind glass cases to transporting you inside actual museum exhibits.

This is why HTC Vive has their sights set on bringing museum experiences to life in VR, announcing Wednesday the launch of Vive Arts, a new multi-million dollar global VR program hoping to change the way the world creates and engages with the arts. The investment program already has a hand full of partnerships active and will continue supporting content, creators and institutions looking to embrace the immersive medium.

Museum VR installations currently available can be found at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, Taipei’s National Palace Museum, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (French National Museum of Natural History) in Paris, Washington D.C.’s Newseum, and St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum.

Vive Arts’ next project will be in London for Tate Modern’s major upcoming exhibition, Modigliani, opening on November 23rd, where Vive will bring a one-of-a-kind integrated VR experience to gallery-goers.

“With the launch of Vive Arts, we are driving virtual reality’s influence in art and providing access to our world’s cultural heritage,” said Joel Breton, vice president, VIVE Studios. “We are empowering artists to create, and consumers to experience and interpret, art and culture in new ways.”

While today’s announcement includes the Vive Arts program that will help fund cultural institutions and VR installation development, there will also be a curated section on Viveport, the company’s dedicated subscription-based VR app store.

Since the launch of Viveport, it became clear that the company was looking to give us more ways to discover and experience non-gaming content with the Vive. That’s why a dedicated “Arts” section on Viveport is a welcome addition, especially for educational institutions like universities and high schools looking at VR to expand learning that ties directly into existing curriculums.

Vive Arts content will be available on Viveport starting today, with 15 to 20 more experiences expected to rollout over the next year according Breton. Interested museums and content creators can visit arts.vive.com for more information.