Museums today face a challenge: how do they engage wider, more dispersed audiences while preserving the integrity of their collections?
The Norman Rockwell Museum (NRM) houses the largest collection of Norman Rockwell’s artwork and illustrations. This premier visual arts institution is located in a part of New England that is somewhat off the beaten path. A significant surge in online engagement before the COVID-19 pandemic intrigued NRM leadership, prompting a complete technology overhaul. The transformation impacts not just the visitor experience but every department at the museum.
NRM approached this challenge with a comprehensive digital transformation, integrating Salesforce and other advanced tools to create holistic patron engagement. Here’s how they did it—and what other cultural institutions can learn from their journey.
The Need for Digital Transformation in Cultural Institutions
Why NRM Embarked on This Major Project:
- Traditional visitor engagement is evolving. Museums now need to offer online learning and interactive content alongside in-person experiences.
- Audience expectations have changed. Cultural engagement now includes streaming media, virtual tours, and digital exhibits.
- NRM’s unique challenge and opportunity. In-person visitation (~135,000 annually) has remained steady for decades, but online engagement has grown 20x in recent years.
According to Rich Bradway, NRM’s Digital Innovation Officer, their data showed that online visitors sought something much more valuable than just directions or hours.
“[In 2023], 54% of people coming to engage with us were actually looking to learn and consume content – so it’s not just about how do I get to the museum and what time do you open. That means that cultural institutions have to engage with people in a whole different way if they want to compete, so to speak, for that cultural dollar.”
NRM had already begun developing a virtual world to make online visits more engaging, including immersive virtual tours that let visitors interact with specific collection objects. However, disconnected processes and data made external communications and internal analysis more difficult and less timely.
That’s where Fíonta and Salesforce stepped in.
Building a Seamless Digital Experience
From Disconnected Systems to an Integrated Technology Stack
Before transformation: Systems across NRM’s departments required manual and sometimes duplicative data entry. The systems themselves were not always the issue – many of those systems are still in use today – but the lack of integrated data made it difficult for NRM staff to easily get an accurate picture of what was working and what wasn’t.
The solution? Implementing Salesforce as NRM’s central CRM and connecting other systems for automated, real-time data access. Now, data flows seamlessly between ticketing, admissions, marketing, fundraising, donor engagement, virtual events, customer surveys, and document management.
The Impact of Integration
With these improvements, NRM can now:
- Automate guest surveys to collect feedback and gather membership information.
- Personalize donor outreach based on interests and past interactions, donations, and purchases stored in Salesforce.
- Segment and send targeted email campaigns to patrons and subscribers.
“Everything we do now is in real time. In the past, with all of those systems separate and managed by human beings, it took time to gather that data about who people are and what they’re doing and communicate to them, to the point that it was almost pointless to try to engage in a timely way. Now, we can actually utilize Salesforce to be timely and increase patron engagement.”
Creating a Digital-First Visitor Experience
During the planning phase, NRM prioritized several key improvements:
- Interactive experiences with Unreal Engine that let visitors explore exhibits remotely and curate their own digital galleries.
- A self-service patron portal built on Salesforce Experience Cloud, allowing members to manage donations, memberships, and events.
- Real-time donor engagement by triggering Salesforce alerts when key patrons check in, ensuring staff can personally welcome them.
NRM is currently moving to Shopify Plus to expand e-commerce offerings, making museum content and products more accessible to a broader audience.
The Role of Change Management
Bradway emphasizes that successful technology adoption requires strong change management and staff buy-in.
“In terms of our staff, what I’m really, ultimately striving for is to eliminate the digital and technology department from the perspective of support. I want our staff to be empowered and set an example of self-initiative to work with technology, to be curious and self-sufficient. It’s really about inspiring that innovation at a technological level.”
A core part of the museum’s approach was fostering staff participation and gaining buy-in at all levels. Workgroups from different departments helped guide adoption and ensure that employees were comfortable with the changes.
“These workgroups still exist today, even though that we’ve already active in Salesforce because I want people to feel empowered to be able to ask questions and to be curious and to really kind of spark the kind of innovation that we want so that we’re always thinking forward rather than reactively.”
The continued work of the departmental workgroups has also helped to foster a culture of curiosity, initiative, and digital competency across NRM.
Lessons for Cultural Institutions
Every institution is different, but these lessons apply across the nonprofit cultural organization space:
- An integrated technology stack boosts efficiency and provides a complete supporter view.
- Digital engagement enhances, rather than replaces, physical experiences. Virtual tours increase accessibility while encouraging in-person visits.
- AI and automation improve efficiency but require human oversight.
- Change management is critical. Engaging leadership, training staff, and aligning technology with institutional goals leads to success.
Looking Ahead
The Norman Rockwell Museum’s digital transformation highlights how technology can modernize cultural institutions and preserve their missions. By integrating Salesforce, AI, and automation, NRM has enhanced engagement, streamlined operations, and positioned itself for long-term success.
“The purpose of this digital transformation is not to replace the experience of seeing art firsthand. It’s really to engage and continue to offer learning opportunities. And hopefully what it will do in the end is inspire online visitors to come visit the museum, whether it’s in Stockbridge or to any one of our traveling exhibitions.”
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Fíonta can help navigate the journey, ensuring your technology serves your mission and deepens connections with supporters.