All case studies
Northaven
A museum that spent six weeks searching for an artist already in its own exhibition archive.
The problem
Northaven’s programming team ran a six-week search for a textile artist, found a wonderful candidate, and discovered she had exhibited with them in 2019.
The archive knew. The archive was a filing cabinet and a database designed for objects rather than people, and nobody thought to ask it a question phrased as who might we commission.
With Artkive
Past exhibitors went into the roster alongside new discoveries, so the institution can search its own memory before searching the internet.
Artists are tagged by medium, region and prior relationship, which means the first place programming looks is now the group of people who have already said yes once.
The results
310
Past exhibitors catalogued
Searchable by medium
6 wks
Search time avoided
By asking the archive first
40%
Of new commissions
Went to prior exhibitors
Northaven is invented for this demo, and so is every figure above it.