The Escalette Collection of Art in Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences is excited to join a global community of more than 1,300 institutions partnering with Bloomberg Connects to enhance visitor experiences in cultural spaces worldwide. Bloomberg Connects is a free app and website that offers digital guides to museums, gardens, public art, historic sites, and more. Featuring multimedia content such as audio, video, text, maps, and images, the app shares unique, behind-the-scenes stories that make every visit feel like a VIP experience.

Accessibility is at the core of the app, which is designed with a variety of built-in accessibility features, including voice over, captions, audio transcripts, image zoom, and font size adjustment. The app also offers content in over 50 languages and counting, ensuring that every visitor can fully experience its content. Bloomberg Connects is a project founded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, which, for over two decades, has combined emerging technology and accessibility to transform how audiences engage with cultural institutions.

Bloomberg Connects is an ideal platform to enhance Chapman University campus communities’ and visitors’ experiences of the Escalette Collection. As a “museum without walls,” the Collection features permanent and temporary exhibitions across more than 18 buildings on the Orange and Rinker campuses. Through the app, these spaces can be mapped and unified in one place, making it easier for visitors to see what’s on view and where. Bloomberg Connects also provides a cohesive platform for sharing the stories of students, artists, and community partners that are unique to the Escalette Collection. In particular, student voices—their research, reflections, and contributions—are foregrounded as integral to the visitor experience.

For the initial launch, the Escalette Collection’s Bloomberg Connects guide features two tours: an Outdoor Sculpture and Mural Tour and Sensation, an exhibition of work by Steve Roden on the third floor of Beckman Hall. The Outdoor Sculpture and Mural Tour guides visitors through campus, offering insights from artists as well as Chapman students, faculty, and staff. It explores the history of Chapman’s sculpture program and highlights themes of materiality and form. The Sensation guide centers on the student curators of the exhibition, who share their perspectives on the work on view and their experiences curating the show. Additional content highlighting other exhibition spaces across campus will be added in the coming months.

Bloomberg Connects enhances the Escalette Collection’s mission to make the art on campus an accessible resource for education, inspiration, and empathy. The app makes this possible not only for those on campus but also for those who want to explore the Collection remotely from around the world. By joining Bloomberg Connects, the Escalette Collection stands alongside institutions committed to the best practices in visitor experience design and strengthens its presence within the Southern California and global arts communities.

  • Download the app here.
  • Visit the web version here.