Smartify user scanning Frans Hals’s The Laughing Cavalier (1624) at The Wallace Collection, London, 2017. © Smartify
You can now use Smartify, a free app which identifies artworks, in the UK.
Using advanced image recognition technology, Smartify instantly identifies artworks by scanning them on your smartphone. Simply by holding the phone up to an artwork, detailed information about the work is instantly shown onscreen. Audio interviews with artists, glimpses of curatorial research or hidden stories behind the work can all be brought to visitors in a seamless experience, in the presence of the work itself. Whenever you are curious about an artwork, scan it into Smartify to learn more.
Anna Lowe, Co-Founder & Head of Partnerships at Smartify, said: ‘We are incredibly excited that Smartify is now easily accessible in many of the world’s leading museums and galleries. We hope to reframe the use of mobile phones in the gallery space as engagement rather than distraction. We invite users everywhere to follow their curiosity, discover more about collections and exhibitions, and build their own personal collection of favourite works to share.”
As a Community Interest Company Smartify ensures that the museums and artists it works with benefit from reinvestment of the profits of the company.
Discover venues
A venue map directs users to all the places where Smartify is supported, and venues on the app include an optional curated selection to guide visitors to specific highlights in their collection or exhibition.
Venues include: Royal Academy of Arts, UK; The National Gallery, UK; National Portrait Gallery, London, UK; The Wallace Collection, UK; The Bowes Museum, UK; Turner Contemporary, UK; Ben Uri Gallery, UK; Sculpture in the City, City of London, UK; Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London, UK; Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art, UK; Deutsche Bank at Frieze Art Fair, UK.
