Art has the power to bring people from diverse backgrounds together for enjoyment, discovery and learning. In this spirit, Baltimore will hold Art Bytes, a hackathon where technology and creative communities work together to build programs and applications inspired by art or to address specific challenges faced by museums. This will be Baltimore’s, and perhaps the nation’s, first art museum hackathon. 

This event will be at the Walters Art Museum from July 27–July 29. On Friday evening, July 27, staff from Baltimore’s museum community will present specific challenges or ideas that they would like solved—from how to use technology to experience a collection to how to virtually access archives. Over the course of the weekend, technologists, innovators, scholars and artists will coalesce into teams in the Walters’ Sculpture Court to design and develop their solution. Participants will be able to visit the museum’s galleries for inspiration throughout the weekend.

Visit our Idea Page to submit and vote on projects for teams.

On Sunday afternoon, July 29, leaders of the technology and innovation communities will judge which teams were the most successful. The experience of Art Bytes will be captured on video, and the team solutions displayed at Walters the following week.

Thanks to the generosity of the Abell Foundation $5,000 will be awarded in prizes!

Judges:  

• Mario Armstrong, Digital Lifestyle Expert, CNN, NPR, WYPR
• Greg Cangialosi, Managing Director, Nucleus Ventures, LLC
• Jeannie Howe, Executive Director, Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance
• Sid Meier, Director of Creative Development, Firaxis
• Sheri Parks, Associate Professor in American Studies at the University of Maryland and regular contributor to WYPR “Midday”
• Murray Taylor, President, Digital Steamworks

Where: The Walters Art Museum, Sculpture Court

When: Friday, July 27–Sunday, July 29

     Friday, July 27, 5–9 p.m.

     Saturday, July 28, 10 a.m.–midnight

     Sunday, July 29, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Price: Free

We would like to thank the following sponsors for making Art Bytes possible:

• Abell Foundation: Art Bytes Awards Sponsor

• Maryland Technology Development Corporation 

• Charles and Mary Kay Nabit

• Rosenberg, Martin, Greenberg, LLP

• Joyce L. Ulrich and Hank Stewart

• Jessica Watson, Jwatson Creative