The aim of the Institute of Jamaica’s Virtual Museum is to replicate the functions of an actual “brick and Mortar” museum, in terms of
- Mounting of Exhibitions;
- Providing specific information to facilitate research;
- Providing access to Jamaica’s digitized National Collections – Artefacts /Objects and Specimens;
- Disseminating information for Outreach/Educational purposes; and
- Offering the visitor an unique experience in viewing or exploring the virtual tours of various exhibitions.
The Virtual Museum is a repository of Virtual Exhibitions, which are digital replicas of temporary physical exhibitions, that is, exhibitions that are scheduled to be dismantle within a 3 – 8 months period.
The Institute of Jamaica’s (IOJ) Virtual Exhibitions mostly consists of the following components:
- Virtual Tour: panoramic view of the actual space.
- Pop-ups (which can comprise of pictures with text, audio or videos).
- Audio Summaries (mostly for overview of what the visitor will see or experience in specific spaces).
- Curator’s talk/ narrative on specific artefacts, art work or topics featured in the exhibition.
- Video clips that were included in the actual exhibition.
In 2012, the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education (CHASE) Fund sponsored the launch of the Virtual Museum. At that time it was the first of its kind in Jamaica and started with three (3) exhibitions – “WAR…Less We Forget”, “Our People Other World” and “the Barrington Watson: A Retrospective”. These temporary exhibitions were mounted by National Museum, Jamaica (then called the Museums of History and Ethnography) and the National Gallery of Jamaica. Later in the same year, the Jamaica Music Museum (JaMM) launched it’s virtual exhibition on “Equal Rights: Reggae & Social Change”.
The Institute of Jamaica, is an Agency of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport (MCGES), and has five (5) divisions and two (2) departments, which are responsible for mounting temporary exhibitions.
This Virtual Museum aims to replicate at least 80% of these temporary exhibitions, as part of the Institute of Jamaica’s mandate “For the Encouragement of Literature, Science and Art”.