Bloomberg Philanthropies has announced a three-year, $17 million commitment to expand and rebrand its effort to help cultural institutions increase access to the arts and enhance the visitor experience through mobile technology.

Awarded through Bloomberg Philanthropies' digital engagement initiative, which has been renamed Bloomberg Connects, the grants will support the efforts of six museums to develop projects that use cutting-edge technology to create immersive experiences. In New York City, the American Museum of Natural History will use its grant to upgrade its navigational app into a dramatically reimagined on- and off-site experiential guide to the museum, enabling visitors to build personalized tours of the museum's collections and capture and share their favorite exhibits and objects; the Brooklyn Museum will use its grant to implement location-based technology throughout the museum so that visitors can use their mobile devices to ask questions of experts in real time; and the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum will use the funds to equip visitors with an interactive "pen" when they arrive that enables them to digitally "collect" objects and record their visit for later viewing.

New mobile and on-site technologies that break down barriers between art, engagement, and learning at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art will include multi-player geolocation games, thematic walking tours, art-based learning activities, and commissions in the digital space; the Science Museum in London will create a narrative-led gallery on the history of information and communications technology featuring interactive screens, immersive digital experiences, online learning resources, apps, and a game; and the Gardens by the Bay in Singapore will integrate the natural world with the virtual via an app that offers visitors interactive trails and activities.

"Everyone should have the opportunity to experience all that the arts have to offer, and technology can help make that possible by putting so much information right at our fingertips," said Bloomberg Philanthropies founder Michael R. Bloomberg. "Each of the institutions we're supporting is using technology in different ways to engage, educate, and immerse their visitors — and to make their world-class resources available to a greater number of people, more of the time."