Transform the art museum into an exploratory journey of discovery
On Friday nights, NGV switches to Hide & Seek, a special time slot. Every visitor gets a clue booklet with images and short prompts; follow it to locate specific paintings and uncover hidden female stories,love, silence, sacrifice, rebirth as well as the artist’s life or the scene behind the work. Each page invites touch, reflection, and emotion, turning passive viewing into a guided, empathetic adventure. Your pass allows unlimited re‑entry throughout the night.
Design Highlights
Engagement
Make visiting more engaging and lower the entry barrier of traditional art exhibitions through a gamified clue booklet and interactive hints.
Tangible Interaction
Using a physical clue booklet as a medium, flipping pages and making marks turns the visit into a bodily participatory experience.
Social Connection
Visitors can choose between social sharing, interaction, or a personal notebook, allowing them to exchange discoveries and impressions with others after the experience.
Design Content
Core Question
Who is it designed for
This project mainly targets young audiences aged 18–30.
They are curious about art and culture but do not want to passively receive explanations or have the visit turn into a task that requires prior knowledge.
Current Issue
Lack of Artistic Engagement
Traditional exhibitions often rely too heavily on text explanations and passive viewing. Visitors usually move from one artwork to the next, acquiring information but rarely forming an emotional connection.
Lack of Accessibility
Museum content often feels dense and overwhelming, especially for casual or first-time visitors. Complex narratives, unfamiliar terminology, and spatial confusion make it difficult to stay focused or feel included.
Lack of Interactive Exploration
Many visitors lack clear direction or goals during their visit, often wandering aimlessly, which indirectly reduces attention and weakens the overall experience.
Tactile Interaction Makes Visiting More Engaging
The physical booklet turns viewing into exploration through touch, transforming visitors from passive visual consumers into active discoverers, thereby fostering a deeper emotional connection between the individual and the artworks.
But……Why?
Why NGV?
One of the world’s most visited art museums, connecting young audiences with culture and creativity.
Why Ticketed?
Payment invites intention.
It helps sustain the event and supports drinks, printing, and extended hours.
Why Friday Night?
To create a limited, quiet evening creates focus and meaning.
Fewer visitors, slower pace, a chance to truly connect with the paintings.
Why Oil Paintings?
Oil paintings tell stories through light, gesture, and detail.
They’re rich in emotion and easy to read, perfect for a clue-based experience.
Why Women in Frames?
Women have long been seen but seldom heard. These works reveal both the imagined and the real women as muse, artist, and observer.
Why the Booklet?
It turns viewing into discovery.
Through touch and movement, viewing becomes discovery, a personal link between body and art.
Storyboard
What Does This Experience Look Like
Through the clue booklet mechanism of Hide & Seek, visitors transform the museum space into an explorable field. Each discovery not only identifies the artwork but also layers the visitor’s personal experience onto it.
The booklet becomes a shareable memory carrier,enhancing the memorability, shareability, and emotional connection of the artworks.。
This experience is suitable not only for NGV public exhibitions but can also be reused or extended in other similar art spaces, making participatory exploration the core of exhibition design through a unified rhythm of discovery.
Event Page
This website serves as a complementary tool to the physical clue booklet.
When visitors encounter difficulties during their search or prefer not to ask others, they can use the website for navigation hints and continue their exploration.
The website also provides basic information about the event, maintaining a style consistent with the NGV official site, designed to support rather than replace the offline experience.