May 18th is the 42nd international museum day, themed with “super-connected museums: new method, new public”. Following this theme, the Changsha museum announced that the "virtual tour of exhibition halls" system of Changsha museum was officially launched, and the service platform of "smart museum" put into trial operation in the international museum day. Without leaving their homes, citizens can "travel through time” in the virtual museum, visiting the exhibition halls and viewing the cultural relics in the virtual world.
As time goes by, the former Changsha museum is not suitable to hold high-level cultural relic and art exhibitions. In 2015, Changsha established a new museum in Binjiang cultural park. The largest exhibition area of the new museum is more than 9000 square meters, and 1,250 sets of Changsha precious cultural relics are displayed as basic exhibition in the new hall with complete protective measures. Display exhibition, social education, public service and collection protection are significantly improved than the former museum. Visiting museums and experiencing cultural activities of museums have gradually become an important part of citizen's life.
On May 18 this year, the “Smart Museum” platform of the Changsha Museum began its trial operation after three years of construction. By logging in the new official WeChat and official website of Changsha museum, audience would “travel through time” in the museum, they can enjoy the exhibition hall in the virtual world and feel the cultural relics.
The staff of the museum introduced that the platform adopts the most advanced intelligent navigation, official WeChat navigation, AR technology interactions and other methods to meet the individual needs of the audiences, mainly covering the revision of official website, the virtual exhibition hall, the 3-D touch of cultural relics, smart navigation, WeChat public platform function upgrades etc. Changsha museum was taking the lead in building panoramic roaming virtual exhibition hall in China.
Since May 2017, Changsha Museum has launched an innovative cultural and educational program, “If the cultural relics can speak, one day, one series of cultural relic’’. It takes three minutes a day to explain the story of a cultural relic in Changsha, and has successfully broadcast more than 300 stories of Hunan local cultural relics. Therefore, this program has become a popular cultural and quality one.
On May 18th last year, the Changsha Museum's basic exhibition "Xiangjiang flows northward/the mid-stream water - Changsha Historical and Cultural Exhibition" was opened free of charge.
The series of activities which prepared for the international museum day will cover the Xiangcheng Forum "International City Museum Movement: Theme and New Trends", “Hantang Fan culture and Painting Experience Workshop” and other 26 activities. Beside this event will invite public to experience the culture of museum free of charge.