A SOFTWARE company is reshaping the museum experience by combining creative content with cutting edge immersive augmented reality.

Cardiff-based Sugar Creative has been awarded the Amgueddfa Cymru [National Museum Wales] Challenge Fund to research and develop new ways to experience and interact with the museum’s collections on a local and global scale.

The innovation studio specialise in immersive storytelling technology and mobile development, and will use augmented reality to push the boundaries of how museums are experienced.

MD Sugar Creative, Jason Veal said:

“We are extremely pleased to be working with the incredible team at Amgueddfa Cymru to explore the potential of creativity and technology to combine for museum experiences of the future, a future that embraces and exemplifies a culturally rooted approach to history.”

Sugar Creative’s project, Arall, aims to enable users and visitors to explore and interpret the stories of Wales digitally and physically, drawing on the range of lived experiences that make up a modern diverse Wales

Visitors will be able to see and engage with a range of personal interpretations and reactions to objects in the Amgueddfa Cymru collection.

The fund is a result of the Clwstwr and Amgueddfa Cymru partnership. Clwstwr is part of the Creative Industries Clusters Programme, funded by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and delivered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council on behalf of UK Research and Innovation.

Producer and partnerships lead at Clwstwr, Adam Partridge, said:

“This is a great opportunity for Sugar Creative to test new technologies and ideas with the museum team.

“The potential to develop innovations which will further enrich the museum experience for future audiences is huge.”

Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales) is a family of seven Welsh muesums including:

  • National Museum Cardiff;
  • Big Pit National Coal Museum;
  • National Roman Legion Museum;
  • St Fagans National Mueseum of History;
  • National Waterfront Museum;
  • National Slate Museum;
  • National Wool Museum.

Director of Learning and Public Programmes at Amgueddfa Cymru, Nia Williams, said: 

“We are delighted that Sugar Creative has been awarded the Amgueddfa Cymru Challenge Fund.

"It is a pleasure to collaborate with the Clwstwr team on this initiative and we benefit from their extensive expertise and creative innovation.

"Sugar Creative’s project provides a huge opportunity to test new ways of using technologies and create exciting museum experiences of the future.”