On April 23, 2015, the Smart Museum of Art hosted a panel discussion and debate around technology in museums.

The event was presented as part of the Smart's 40th anniversary How to Make a Smart Museum program series and considered the questions: Does technology play a role in creating authentic experiences with works of art? If so, what role?

Panelists Peter Samis (Associate curator of interpretive media, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), Deborah Seid Howes (museum educator and consultant), and Tiffany Holmes (artist and professor of art and technology studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago) framed and historicized the question of technology in museums.

Then, the question was opened to debate with case studies presented by Ricardo Philips, Charles Crable, Lucianne Walkowicz and Kayla Lewis, and Jessica Abra Sandy.

The How to Make a Smart Museum programming series was made possible by the Efroymson Family Fund.

Additional support was provided by the Illinois Humanities Council and the Franke Institute for the Humanities.