When Polish art historian Zuzanna Stańska considered what she could do to make the art world less stuffily academic and more accessible, building an app felt right. She had the requisite knowledge and she’d already been creating apps for museums, so bootstrapping her own art-focused app wasn’t too much of a stretch. In 2012, DailyArt hit the app stores, and with it, an elegant solution to an industry-wide problem: getting more people to engage with fine art, no PhD or a VIP pass to Art Basel necessary.
While art apps come and go, Stańska’s has likely had such staying power because it turns interacting with art into a relatively quick daily ritual. Every day, users are presented with a single work of art and a concise but compelling backstory—some written in-house by DailyArt’s team of art historians, others provided by institutions. They can, of course, dig more deeply into a work or artist or movement if time permits. If it doesn’t, the app will serve up another bite-sized bit of art history the next day and every day after that.
Stańska initially launched DailyArt in English, but user adoption took off once she started adding more languages. Today, users can access the app in twenty-four languages, and while the lion’s share of downloads come from China and the U.S., there are more than 800,000 active users all over the world. Stańska has leveraged the app’s global reach to build relationships with institutions like the Louvre, the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum and Denmark’s Skagens Museum, working with them to highlight works in their permanent collections and to promote temporary exhibitions. She has also built relationships with gallerists to seed the app with more contemporary art.
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Apple recently took note of Stańska’s work, naming DailyArt a 2024 Apple Store Awards winner for cultural impact. Four years in, she’s expanded the app into a full-fledged ecosystem—there’s a digital magazine, an art lover’s marketplace, city guides and a suite of courses designed to make the art world a little less impenetrable—that is quietly reshaping the way some people consume and appreciate art. What she’s offering are bite-sized art experiences that transform art appreciation into a daily ritual instead of a rarefied event, and in doing so, she’s built something museum directors and curators have been chasing for years: an audience that isn’t just interested in art but actively coming back for more.
In an era where curators and critics alike are lamenting the fact that attention spans are growing ever shorter, some may see Stańska’s approach as exactly the opposite of what the art world needs. But there’s no denying the appeal of pouring over a Renoir at breakfast or reading about a rising artist while waiting in line at the supermarket (the app made the Observer Short List in 2017). DailyArt offers access without ulterior motives—first and foremost, it’s about helping more people engage with art. Observer connected with Stańska to find out more about her motivations and what’s next for the app.
Helping people access and learn about visual art is clearly important to you. Why are you so passionate about helping people broaden their horizons in this area?
Art is an incredible way to connect with history, culture and human emotions. But for many, it can feel intimidating or inaccessible—wrapped in complex academic language and rarely taught at schools. My goal has always been to break down these barriers and show that art history is for everyone. Whether someone is an art historian or just casually curious, I want to provide a simple, beautiful and inspiring way to explore it. DailyArt is about making art a part of everyday life, just like checking the news or weather.
In researching the app, I learned about DailyArt Magazine. Tell me a little bit about that project first—how it started and why?
DailyArt Magazine was born in 2016 (four years after the app) out of the same mission as the DailyArt app—to make art history engaging, accessible, and enjoyable for a global audience. It started as a natural extension of the app, allowing us to go beyond daily doses of art and dive deeper into fascinating stories, movements, and artists. While the app offers bite-sized art history, the magazine allows for long-form storytelling, uncovering lesser-known narratives, thematic explorations and artist deep dives. We wanted to create a space where art lovers, regardless of their background, could expand their knowledge and appreciation beyond traditional museum walls.
What does an app do that a website can’t?
I chose to develop an app because in 2012 I was fascinated by how smartphones became a part of our everyday lives and a device that many people rely on. The app offers a more personal, seamless and immersive way to experience art. Unlike a website, an app can be a daily habit—a push notification reminding users to take a moment for art. The App Store serves as a portal for discovery and culture, with the mobile format making it instant, portable and always available, whether someone is commuting, taking a break or visiting a museum (especially with our features helping to explore the museum collections more deeply). The app’s structure allows for a curated experience—presenting art in a focused, distraction-free way that a typical website might not.
What can you tell me about the primary audience of DailyArt? Who are your users, and how are they using the app?
DailyArt has a global and diverse user base, ranging from casual art lovers to students, educators and museum professionals. Our users often fall into a few main categories: busy art lovers who want to incorporate a little culture into their daily routine—especially when they can’t visit museums often for various reasons… Students and educators who use it as a resource for learning and teaching… and museum-goers and travelers who use it to deepen their understanding of the artworks they encounter. Many users enjoy the daily notification as a ritual, while others explore the archives, genres and collections to discover art that speaks to them.
Are new artworks still being added?
Yes! Currently, there are over 3,500 artworks in the DailyArt database. We present one piece of art every day, so we add new artworks regularly, ensuring a fresh and diverse selection of not only work by very popular artists (like van Gogh, Monet, etc.) but also artists known regionally but not internationally and artists forgotten by academic art history: women, artists of color, Indigenous artists and LGBTQ+ artists. That’s part of why DailyArt was named a Cultural Impact winner in Apple’s 2024 App Store Awards. Having our work, which is incredibly accessible and inclusive to a wide audience of people, be recognized was especially meaningful.
Do you have any institutional partners working with you on the project, or are there plans to bring any on?
While DailyArt operates independently, we have been working with museums, galleries and cultural institutions for years to feature their collections and bring more attention to their artworks and exhibitions. For example, we have highlighted works from the Louvre, the Getty Museum, the Van Gogh Museum and dozens of others, bigger and smaller ones and known and lesser known. We are always open to new partnerships, and we love to collaborate with institutions to bring exclusive content to our users.
How do you see the app developing in the future? More art? More features? Do you have a list of dream updates you’d like to incorporate someday?
Expanding DailyArt is always on our minds. There are two main areas we’d love to develop. First, adding more art. We are constantly adding new pieces, and we want to further diversify our collection by including more non-Western art, contemporary pieces and hidden gems from smaller institutions. And second, in terms of our dream updates, I’d love to expand to Apple TV.
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