Smithsonian Museum and TOPPAN Launch Digital Art Project
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art has partnered with Japan-based TOPPAN Inc. to expand its digitisation programme through a series of digital and virtual-reality initiatives designed to increase worldwide access to its collections. The agreement supports the museum’s wider strategy of expanding online content, introducing technology-based visitor experiences and reaching broader audiences.
The first project under the partnership will see TOPPAN produce digital content for a virtual reality recreation of the Peacock Room, with completion scheduled for early 2027. Created by artist James McNeill Whistler, the Peacock Room is one of the museum’s best-known attractions and combines Whistler’s design ideas with artistic influences from Japan and China.
Alongside the virtual reality project, the agreement provides for the digital archiving of works from the museum’s collection, making more of its holdings accessible to audiences worldwide via online platforms.
The initiative is especially important because a large part of the museum’s collection cannot be loaned to other institutions. When museum founder Charles Lang Freer donated his collection to the United States, the gift included restrictions preventing the authentic works from leaving the museum. Digitisation therefore provides an opportunity to make these artworks available to an international audience without moving the collection from its permanent home.
As part of the Peacock Room project, TOPPAN will animate selected objects and artworks in the virtual environment while featuring historical audio that explores the room’s history, including episodes of controversy and intrigue associated with the space. These interactive features are intended to provide visitors with additional historical information that cannot be experienced within the physical gallery.
The agreement also establishes a framework for future joint projects that advance cultural exchange between the United States and Japan, with particular emphasis on Japanese art.
Founded in Tokyo in 1900, TOPPAN operates internationally across printing, packaging, electronics and digital solutions. Since 2007, the company has led the development of 4K virtual reality projects for museums and cultural organisations worldwide. Its contribution to the Peacock Room project combines digital imaging with immersive technology to create an interactive interpretation of one of the museum’s most important historic interiors.
The wider TOPPAN Group provides integrated services across communications, security, décor materials, electronics, packaging, printing and digital transformation. Employing more than 50,000 people worldwide, the company delivers technology-based services across a broad range of industries while pursuing sustainability objectives.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art opened in 1923 as the first Asian art museum in the United States and the country’s first national art museum. Its collections include works spanning antiquity to the present day and rank among the world’s most significant holdings of Asian art. The museum also cares for an important collection of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American art.
Through its programmes of collecting, conservation, exhibitions and research, the museum serves as a national and international resource for the study of Asian art and its historical and societal connections with the United States. Its collections and public programmes present the diversity of Asian artistic traditions and examine their interactions with America across various periods.
Located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the National Museum of Asian Art is open free of charge on 364 days each year and closes only on 25 December. It forms part of the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum, education and research complex, which welcomes millions of visitors annually.
