The Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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Ancient Art of the Mediterranean
The Institute unveils its latest multimedia program
You enter the museum. You make your way to the Ancient Art galleries, where you visit your favorite objects -the magnificent Roman marble copy of Polykleitos' Doryphoros, the Greek Crouching Lion, the Assyrian Winged Genius, the Egyptian Model Boat.
But now, situated near these familiar treasures, you see something new -the sixth of The Institute's interactive multimedia programs, Ancient Art of the Mediterranean. Here too, you find a gallery...on a computer screen. Situated chronologically around a three-dimensional, open air, rotunda-like space, you see 38 objects from the museum's permanent collection.
Through a complex combination of techniques, photographic images of these works have been seamlessly blended with intricately designed, computer-rendered surroundings. The chronologically based layout, together with the architecture of this virtual gallery, underscores the historical succession of Mediterranean cultures, from Egypt to Greece to Rome.
Touch the screen and you find this simulated space is fully navigable. Walk right up to the False Door, the Striding Figure, or the Etruscan Cinerary Chest.
A bird's-eye view lets you see the floorplan from above and jump to any object in the space. When you touch an object's pedestal you find a wealth of information embedded in the objects themselves. 
A stack of file folders loaded with information about your chosen object appears. There's an identification card containing the object's vital statistics; a brief summary in which photographs appear, showing details and comparisons as you hear a description of the piece; a series of questions to provoke you to look more closely at the actual object and think about its qualities and mysteries; a map, pinpointing the object's origin (with an option to instantly view present-day political boundaries); and a list of major events of the Mediterranean region and the rest of the world, around the time the particular object was made.
In the program's virtual gallery, just as in the museum's actual one, you can browse from object to object, spending as much time as you like with each piece.
At any time you can enter the Resource Room, another invented space within the program, which contains books and maps, and allows easy access to the same files available in the program's gallery, but here sorted by culture and theme.
When you leave the program to explore the museum's actual galleries, you may find that your relationship with the objects -even those you already knew so well- has been enhanced as a result of new information, and broadened through the context provided by the Ancient Art of the Mediterranean interactive multimedia program.
This program is a production of the Institute's Interactive Media Group: Andy Atwood; Julie Loney; Lisa Nebenzahl; Jim Ockuly; Scott Sayre; and Tammy Sopinski, in cooperation with the Education Division: Kate Johnson, Chair, and the Department of Decorative Arts, Sculpture, and Architecture: Christopher Monkhouse, Bell Memorial Curator. Ancient Art of the Mediterranean and the five other interactive programs already installed throughout the museum are made possible through the generous support of the General Mills Foundation.