Palette

What It Does

Search real museum collections, build your personal art collection and curate your Palette. Create a canon Palette of your all-time top 8, or capture a unique palette for each museum visit.

All images are real screenshots from the app.

Palette app search screen showing Van Gogh paintings from the Met Museum

Discover

Search across museums

Palette app collection screen showing 39 tracked paintings

Save

Build your collection

Curate

Pick your top 8

Canon Palette

Your all-time top 8, shareable

Visit Palette

One for each museum visit, shareable

Connected Museums

Metropolitan Museum of Art · Art Institute of Chicago · Cleveland Museum of Art · Victoria & Albert Museum · SMK, National Gallery of Denmark

And growing.

Why I Built This

I'm Zoha. I'm a software engineer, and I'm new to art.

I grew up not going to museums. My family had a different way of life and art just wasn't part of the picture.

The first time I went to a museum was a school trip when I was 13 or 14. I didn't get it.

Years later, things changed. I found myself in new circles, surrounded by people who grew up with art, who had a different kind of cultural background, and they invited me to enjoy art with them. I'm one of the first in my family to have the space to explore things like this. I know it's a process. I know my relationship with art will always be different from someone who grew up with it. That's OK. I'm taking it one day at a time.

There is real value in expanding your horizons. Even if it feels awkward at first and you feel like an imposter. Even if you start going to museums just to look cooler. That's a valid first step. Maybe one day, one piece will touch you the way one touched me.

This is a personal project. I don't know exactly where it's going. For now, I'm building something I like.

The Spark

The Concert by Gerrit van Honthorst, a Baroque painting depicting musicians gathered around a table in warm candlelight — The Concert, 1626 — Gerrit van Honthorst — Galleria Borghese

The Journey Home by Matthew Wong, a vibrant triptych landscape with rich blues and yellows depicting a dreamlike path through nature — The Journey Home, 2017 — Matthew Wong — seen at the Van Gogh Museum

Art Belongs to Everyone

Palette is free. I want to keep it that way.

I believe technology can help make art accessible to more people. I'd love to help.

I'm a software engineer and I used AI as a development tool to build this. I'm transparent about that. I have my own boundaries about where AI helps and where it doesn't.

Like The logo. I made it in Canva instead of using AI for it. I use it as a tool but do rely on my own experience and expertise as a software engineer.

I think human art is more precious than ever, now that AI can generate images in seconds. The works in these museums are irreplaceable. Art also goes fay further than museums, I'm just trying to do what I can at my level for now.