MCN 2026

This session will look at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC)’s first 3D virtual tour as a case study for how museums can leverage technology to increase the longevity of short-term exhibitions while also enhancing the digital experience through community-centered interpretation and input.

In 2024, APAC opened its first exhibition in nearly 10 years called Sightlines: Chinatown and Beyond, curated by Sojin Kim with support from Adriel Luis and Mia Owens. Sightlines was open from September 2024 to November 2025 and focused on the impact Asian Americans had on the physical and cultural landscape of Washington, DC. 

The featured stories highlight examples of cultural production that interpret elements of Chinese, Korean, and Javanese heritage and express coalitional Asian American and BIPOC identities. These are presented in displays of artwork, material culture, images, and other graphic material drawn from Smithsonian collections as well as shared by local lenders, including community members and repositories such as the DC History Center and the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University.

In order to preserve this exhibition in a dynamic and engaging way, we sought to create a self-guided 3D tour where visitors could explore the gallery as if they were physically there. To enhance their digital visit, the virtual exhibition was embedded with exclusive interviews from community members who loaned or had connections to objects shown in the exhibition. There are 27 individual audio clips throughout the virtual tour, full transcripts, and related resources for visitors to take a deeper dive into topics mentioned in the interviews. 

By attending this session, attendees will learn more about the overall exhibition, the internal discussions had to greenlight the 3D virtual tour, the design and technical decisions made to ensure longevity of the tour and exhibition integrity, and the community care necessary to ensure its success. There will be a brief portion at the end on how we've activated the virtual tour for educational purposes already and the reaction from community members, educators, and students. Lastly, there will be a sneak peak of our upcoming 3D Tour for APAC’s newest exhibition - How Can You Forget Me: Filipino American Stories.