Across large national museums and small local institutions alike, one concern is increasingly hard to ignore: collections and expertise are strong, but the audiences museums need to reach are changing faster than traditional formats can keep up.

At the same time, expectations around digital access, inclusion and funding accountability are rising. In this context, “virtual exhibitions” are beginning to sit at the centre of audience development, accessibility strategy, funding narratives and exhibition planning.

Here’s how that shift is showing up in practice:

1. They turn your website visits into actual visitors

For many visitors — especially my Gen Z peers — the journey to any museum starts on Instagram, TikTok, or your website, not at the ticket desk.

They make a decision long before they stand in your foyer:

• Does this place feel relevant to me?

• Can I understand what I’d experience there?

• Is it worth spending my time and money?

A virtual "teaser" exhibition that lets them sense what it’s like to be in your spaces, preview the exhibition theme upfront, and understand why it matters is the most important angle to convince them of planning a visit.

It lowers the threshold, replaces uncertainty with curiosity, and gives people a reason to move from “I’ve heard of this museum” to “I want to be there”. It can let them build a connection with a central object, and create the wish in your visitors to see it in person.

2. Accessibility has become a real mandate

Most museums we work with are very aware of one uncomfortable fact:
the majority of their collections will never be on permanent display.

At the same time, large parts of the population face barriers to visiting — financial, geographic, physical, social. For people who are isolated, disabled, neurodivergent, caregivers, or living far away, these online experiences go beyond “marketing”, and often make up the easiest way participate in your programmes.

Funders and public bodies increasingly expect cultural institutions to respond to both realities:

• How do you provide meaningful access to the 90–95% of objects in storage?

• How do you reach the audiences who will never cross your physical threshold?

• Or even, for collections from other geographocal areas: How do we open access to the many communities these objects "belong" to?

Virtual exhibitions are one of the few workable ways to answer both questions at scale.

If you’re planning to apply for EU-level or national funding in the coming year, a serious virtual accessibility component is no longer “nice decoration” in the proposal. In many calls, it’s the element that moves an application from interesting to fundable.

3. You’re already competing with digital platforms

Your museum isn’t only competing with the institution down the road anymore.
You’re competing with TikTok, game engines and emerging spatial platforms for the same hour of attention.

A static web page with a few images and a wall text can’t carry the weight of your stories by itself.

Virtual exhibitions — in web, VR, or hybrid forms — can do something different:

• slow people down,

• invite exploration and play,

• hold complex narratives in a way that feels natural on a screen.

This doesn’t mean turning your programme into a video game. It means using the tools of immersive media to preserve what museums are uniquely good at: layered, critical, spatial storytelling.

4. Digital experiences now influence budgets

For many funding programmes, digital outcomes are starting to matter in very pragmatic ways.

They give funders:

• concrete reach figures,

• time-on-page / time-in-experience,

• international visitor data,

• sponsor-facing environments that can be reused across programmes.

Previewing exhibitions online, offering dedicated virtual spaces for partners, or running paid online formats are already shifting internal budget discussions in some museums I work with.

They make it easier to argue for investment in a topic because you can show how it performs with audiences beyond the building.

5. Virtual makes planning faster and less risky — and it boosts onsite visits

Curators and designers who prototype in 3D are not just creating attractive visuals for presentations. They are:

• testing storyline, layout and visitor flow before anything is built,

• checking accessibility and wayfinding early,

• aligning stakeholders around something concrete,

• avoiding expensive rebuilds and late-stage changes.

Virtual galleries and digital twins quietly become an internal tool for better decisions.

And importantly: well-designed virtual experiences tend to support onsite visits, not replace them.

Several studies on digital museum engagement have found that people who spend time in online or immersive experiences often feel more connected to the institution and are more likely to visit in person when they can. The virtual space becomes a bridge into the building — not a competitor to it.

What this really means for museum strategy

Virtual exhibitions are not about chasing a tech trend or replacing your physical work.

They’re about safeguarding its reach, relevance and accessibility in a world where audience behaviour, policy expectations and funding structures are all shifting at once.

If you’re trying to move from “we did a few digital pilots” to “this is a coherent, realistic part of our strategy” — or you’re simply not sure where to start — I’m always happy to share what we’ve learned working with different institutions, and to listen to what you’re navigating on your side.

Over to you

I’d be very curious to hear from museum professionals here:

• What concrete role do virtual exhibitions play in your institution today?

• And what role do you wish they could play?

Share your experience — the honest version, including what’s hard. That’s where the most useful patterns are emerging.