Grant supports new mobile app project

December 3, 2014

Conceptual sketch of Mount Auburn's proposed new mobile app.

The Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery is delighted to announce that it has received a grant of $106,720 from the A.J. & M.D. Ruggiero Memorial Trust in support of a three-year project to create a multimedia interactive visitors mobile app. This multi-platform people/location finder will provide better access to Mount Auburn Cemetery’s rich archive of materials about the individuals buried and commemorated at the Cemetery as well as its notable horticultural, art, and architecture collections. The most common question asked of Mount Auburn’s staff and docents is where to find a grave or notable site. The new Mount Auburn mobile app will pull data from the Cemetery’s existing burial and horticulture databases, providing visitors with ability to search for and find more than 100,000 burial locations, and use GPS technology to navigate to their exact locations within the Cemetery’s 175 acres. Mount Auburn’s mobile application will be developed to work on both hand-held devices and desktop computers so as to provide information to physical and virtual visitors.

During the first phase of this project the Friends is partnering with two other historic landscaped cemeteries to create a robust and all encompassing app. Partnering with these other cemeteries also gives Mount Auburn the opportunity to take advantage of the creative ideas each organization brings to the table during the mobile app’s development stage. This opportunity to work collaboratively will benefit each of the partnering organizations tremendously.

With the infrastructure in place, the Friends is now seeking funding for the development and delivery of interpretive and educational content that will populate Mount Auburn’s new mobile app. For example, information about Mount Auburn’s “notable residents” will be enhanced with new content, images, audio and video. Curated content will also be written for the Cemetery’s landmarks, plants and trees, and wildlife. We are additionally fundraising for the creation of an exhibition entitled “earth.sky” for the mobile app that consists of short multimedia videos by Mount Auburn’s first artist-in-residence, Roberto Mighty.

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