AKGo!

FREE Audio Experience

A museumgoer listening to one of the AKGo! audio journeys. Photo by Jeff Mace. 

About AKGo!
The free AKGo! audio app is more than your standard museum audio guide. It is a campus-wide, immersive experience designed to reward curiosity and in-the-moment discovery. Whether you are a longtime museum supporter, a first-time visitor, a sports fan, an architecture enthusiast, a child or just young at heart, AKGo! welcomes you into the collection with a variety of thematic, self-guided journeys. Using your own device and moving at your own pace, AKGo! offers over 150 minutes of multi-layered sound design and narration by AKG staff and unexpected guest voices that create space for personal connection with the artworks and the museum.
 
AKGo! opens up the museum’s historic and significant collections, offering different pathways for people to explore the art on view through seamless, unintrusive technology and very human storytelling. Created in partnership with Art Processors, leaders in innovative storytelling, AKGo! evolves how we share our collection and the new museum campus with you.

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Available Now

Before and After Again

Listen to the artists and cultural producers Julia Bottoms, Tiffany Gaines, and Jillian Hanesworth as they respond directly to the tragic slaying of ten Buffalo residents on May 14, 2022.

Featured Voices:
•   Aaron Ott, Curator of Public Art
•   Julia Bottoms, visual artist
•   Tiffany Gaines, curator, writer and photographer
•   Jillian Hanesworth, Poet Laureate Emeritus, City of Buffalo

Stanley Whitney: How High the Moon

Speaking candidly, Stanley Whitney sheds new light on his practice as he shares what drawing means to him, how color can be transformative, and who he’s inspired by. 

Featured Voices: 
•    Stanley Whitney, artist
•    Cathleen Chaffee, Charles Balbach Chief Curator

Journey Through Modern Art

Short on time, but want to explore the history of modern art through the AKG’s dynamic collection? We’ve got you covered. This journey helps shed new light on old favorites by tracking the development of modern art in the Western world through thirteen works located throughout the Robert & Elisabeth Wilmers Building. Begin with the realism of Gustave Courbet in the mid-nineteenth century and conclude with the Pop art of Andy Warhol in the mid-twentieth century.

Featured Voices: 
• Janne Sirén, Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director 
• Joe Martin Lin-Hill, former Deputy Director 
• Cathleen Chaffee, Charles Balbach Chief Curator
• Holly E. Hughes, Godin-Spaulding Senior Curator for the Collection
• Tina Rivers Ryan, Curator 
• Julia Bottoms, artist 

Now Hear Me Out…

Don’t feel completely comfortable with contemporary art? Art is better with friends. Join Associate Curator Andrea Alvarez and local teacher and comedian Kevin Thomas, Jr. as they playfully discuss what they see, what they think they see, and what it all means.
 
Featured Voices: 
• Kevin Thomas, Jr., Comedian
• Andrea Alvarez, Assistant Curator 

Victory & Defeat

Legendary Buffalo Bills running back Thurman Thomas and artist Patti Thomas (“The Ghost”) have been married for more than three decades. Together they connect the trials and triumphs of artists in the Buffalo AKG’s collection with the ups and downs of the athletic world.
 
Featured Voices: 
• Thurman Thomas, former Buffalo Bills running back
• Patti Thomas, artist “The Ghost” 

ARTimals

Do horses know how to relax? Do monkeys make good pets? Learn about the animals in our artworks as the curators talk to an animal expert on this playful journey designed for our youngest audiences, their adults, and the young at heart.  
 
Featured Voices: 
• Cathleen Chaffee, Charles Balbach Chief Curator
• Holly E. Hughes, Godin-Spaulding Senior Curator for the Collection
• James Sevigny,  animal expert from the SPCA Wildlife Department serving Erie County

Spotlights

Hear the stories and perspectives behind the artworks from the artists themselves, museum staff, and other special guests. 
 
Featured Voices:
• Miriam Bäckström, artist
• Firelei Báez, artist
• Sebastian Behmann, architect, Studio Other Spaces
• Olafur Eliasson, artist, Studio Other Spaces
• Anselm Kiefer, artist
• Janne Sirén, Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director 
• Cathleen Chafee, Charles Balbach Chief Curator
• Holly E. Hughes, Godin-Spaulding Senior Curator for the Collection
• The Buffalo AKG Safety & Preservation Team (Jacob Thompson, Matt Connors, Marcelles Parker)  
• Andrea Alvarez, Assistant Curator
• Chrissy Hart, Director of Policy & Advocacy, Together for Girls

Glass Steel Stone: The Building

Learn what’s behind the design of the Buffalo AKG with lead designing architect Shohei Shigematsu of OMA New York, as he shares the vision that inspired the new and refreshed campus.
 
Featured Voices: 
• Shohei Shigematsu, Partner at OMA North America 
• Roscoe Henderson III, Officer, Buffalo Police Department  
• Olafur Eliasson, artist, Studio Other Spaces 
• Sebastian Behmann, architect, Studio Other Spaces 

Stop Look Listen: A Guided Soundscape

This journey offers opportunities for reflection and decompression in the museum with guided close looking by artist Julia Bottoms and an original musical soundscape composed by Art Processors.
 
Featured Voices: 
• Julia Bottoms, artist 
• Original immersive soundscape by Art Processors