Culture Object

An open source WordPress plugin for getting museum objects online


What is CultureObject?

CultureObject is a WordPress plugin which
consumes museum collections management data.

The plugin allows you to easily pull in your collection data so it is native to WordPress. Once it's there you can do powerful things with it: build a stand-alone collections site, a mobile web app, a curatorial check-in system... or, just integrate your object records with your existing WordPress website.

How it works

Install, import, integrate.

We're developing a range of "providers" (think of these as data formats from a specific collections management system). You select the one relevant to you, point at your data - either XML file or API - and import.

Once the data is in WordPress, you can properly integrate it with your site. Feature objects as part of online exhibitions, drop an "object of the week" sidebar wherever you need, use collections records in your newsletter and so on.

Coming soon: functionality to enable you to drop-in things like object image puzzles, random object sidebars, multiple choice quizzes based on object data, etc. Join the mailing list to find out when these are available.

Get your museum collection online


You build

Open Source and free

The plugin is now available via the WordPress plugin repo. Or if you want to get into the bleeding edge, see it on GitHub. You'll find some simple documentation over at http://docs.cultureobject.co.uk. If you're interested in what we've got planned with CultureObject, see our Trello board!

To use the plugin you'll need to have a pretty good knowledge of WordPress theming and PHP.

Join our mailing list for announcements about future changes / developments.

 

We build

Need to get someone else to do the work?

If you want to get a totally bespoke, beautifully designed, collections-focused mobile-friendly site and don't have the skills or time to do it yourself, then we (Thirty8 Digital) can design and build for you. We can also help you with planning your online collections strategy, mobile opportunities and so on - all the way through to go-live. We've been doing this for 12 years now, and have a solid track record of delivering museum projects.

We've built collections-focused sites using CultureObject for clients like the Government Art Collection, The Wiener Holocaust Library and Southwest Collections Explorer.

 

Or, if you want something beautiful but don't have the budget for bespoke, see The Museum Platform for a complete online collection and storytelling solution

 

The Museum Platform

No budget for bespoke?

(It's not CultureObject, but has the same reasoning behind it: a desire to help museums get their collections online quickly and easily - and also to enable powerful storytelling on top of these collections...)

If you're wanting something beautiful, but don't have the budget for a full bespoke project or the knowledge to build your own, check out The Museum Platform.

We've got a powerful import pipeline for all flavours of museum collection, giving you faceting / filtering, deep zoom, enhanced record support, commenting and community elements...and much more

Plus - we've built a platform with highly integrated tools for telling incredible museum stories. Build online exhibitions with ease using our timeline, map, gallery and gamification tools...