After paying for admission to the Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt, I was handed this Museum To Go card. As someone explained, you tap the card on devices throughout the museum for anything you might want to engage with later. I dumbly nodded my head, really not understanding the concept.
I started noticing these white devices, each with different titles or descriptions related to a nearby exhibit: tap the card, watch the lights flash, and move on. Later – potentially much later – you visit the museum’s Museum To Go site, enter your code, and dive deeper in the comfort of your home!
Final Thoughts
What a fucking cool concept! Many benefits including:
- Engagement: Allows the museum to engage post-visit, hopefully establishing a deeper connection that encourages future visits (or other support);
- Context: Provides additional information and deeper background than what could be internalized during the visit itself, perhaps showing part of the collection that otherwise must remain off display;
- Time Commitment: Does not require visitor to spend time visiting absolutely every exhibit, focusing instead on the most important exhibits and filling in the blanks later.
What is especially surprising is that Museum To Go is not a commerical product sold to museum but apparently unique to the Jûdisches Museum: the only other reference found is the virtual museum at the Canton Museum of Art. Not sure why or how the museum took on this fairly technical initiative, involving both hardware and software components; regardless, very well executed and hopefully the concept expands to other museums.
Well done, Jüdisches Museum!
Image Credits
- The Museum To Go cards designed by Jüdisches Museum, likely copyrighted as well.
- “Device Tap” © 2026 Scott C Sosna, all rights reserved.
