The Cleveland Museum of Art is preparing to reopen its ArtLens Gallery in a fully reimagined form in early summer 2026, the museum has announced. The gallery, which originally opened as Gallery One in 2012 and became a national model for technology-driven museum engagement, has been closed for a comprehensive transformation incorporating artificial intelligence, mixed reality, and immersive environmental design.
The redesigned space will be organized into four zones — Relate, Investigate, Create, and Engage — each offering a different mode of interacting with works from the museum’s permanent collection. A new interactive conservation lab will allow visitors to explore the methods curators and conservators use to examine objects, including techniques for identifying provenance and detecting forgeries. Other features include a dynamic portrait mirror that composes visitors’ likenesses from images in the collection, and an infinite landscape installation drawing on a continuous stream of collection artworks.
Chief Digital Information Officer Jane Alexander is leading the initiative in partnership with Design I/O, the studio behind popular earlier features in the space, including the gallery’s gesture-based “zoom wall” and “collage maker” interactives. The new design brings together curators, conservators, educators, technologists, and designers in a collaborative process. The museum describes the goal as creating a “multisensory, inclusive environment” that lowers barriers and sparks curiosity across visitor demographics.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is located at 11150 East Boulevard in University Circle. General admission is free. The reimagined ArtLens Gallery is expected to open in July 2026; updates will be posted at clevelandart.org.
Source: Cleveland Museum of Art