Expanding access, preserving expertise

After two years of successful collaboration across a range of digital projects, Cogapp and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are embarking on our most ambitious work together: reimagining how FAMSF's world-class collections are experienced online.

The museums, the de Young and the Legion of Honor, are home to some of the world's great works of art. This project will open those works to new kinds of engagement: deepening the visit for those fortunate enough to experience these truly remarkable places in person, and bringing the collections to life for the many more who encounter them from afar.

Work has started and will progress though the summer, building on a year of joint research and prototyping. Central to what we're developing is a thoughtful approach to the latest generation of AI tools, one that treats them as a means of expanding access rather than replacing expertise. The museums' staff carry an extraordinary depth of knowledge, and our goal is to let that knowledge shape and enrich everything we build.