museum secrets

If you don’t know by now. It is #museum week.

So for museum week, institutions are sharing their secrets (or just lesser known facts) This is being shared through through the hashtag #secretsmw. The social media collaboration is one of seven themed days for Museum Week, which is organised by Twitter and the French Ministry of Culture and Communication.

Now, we could go delve further into this particularly looking at how twenty-first century technology is changing these institutions but rather lets just look at what some of these tantalising tidbits are.

The Brooklyn Museum shared this archived image on Tumblr and Instagram showing their casts of European sculptures.

The rest are from Twitter and are the following:

The last few #secretsmw I want to share are actually vines and they are the following:

The Royal Institution’s A SECRET DOOR

And the Walker Art Centre’s travelling exhibition crates

How cool is museum week? What do you think of these secrets? Have you found any other museum secrets? Do you have any to share?

further readings:

https://twitter.com/hashtag/secretsmw

http://hyperallergic.com/192898/for-museumweek-institutions-share-their-secrets-online/

https://blog.twitter.com/2015/museumweek-2015-kicks-off-around-the-world

http://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2015/mar/23/its-museum-week-on-twitter

http://museumweek2015.org/en/

museum selfie day

Today marks the first anniversary of the #MuseumSelfie Day, an online endeavor developed and supported by Mar Dixon in conjunction with CultureThemes projects. On social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, users are encouraged to take selfies at museums, then post and share them online using the hashtag #MuseumSelfie. The purpose of the campaign is to showcase collections and to help create discussion about the objects and museums.

Inspiration: Check out some selfies from last year

The #MuseumSelfie encourages museum visitors to participate in the physical and digital spaces by selecting artworks or archaeological artefacts to be backdrops or buddies in their selfies. Participatory culture is fostered in the museum space allowing visitors to embody and experience the museum in a different way as they become content creators.

Emily Oswald best summarises ways #MuseumSelfie in terms of public engagement in museums:
• Positioning body and self within museum space and having an interpersonal connection
• Understanding relationship between artwork or artefact alongside creator/subject
• The image becomes a record, souvenir, a memory
• Inviting people to join in the museum whom do not traditionally engage in the space

Museums are increasingly using digital and social medias to connect with younger audiences. A recent study on online social networking conducted by the Pew Research Centre focused on the growth of sharing photo and video content. Its projects like #MuseumSelfie that seek to make museums relevant to the public by adopting online social networking behaviours and strategies.

We also want to see your #MuseumSelfie so on Instagram tag us @themuseumcollective or #themuseumcollective

helen

further readings
http://culturethemes.com/
http://mardixon.com/
http://publichistorycommons.org/museum-selfies/
http://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/gallery/2014/jan/22/museum-selfie-day-in-pictures

Duggan, M. 2013. ‘Photo and video sharing grow online’. Pew Internet.

Weilenmann, A., Hillman, T. and Jungselius, B. 2013. ‘Instagram in Museums: Communicating the Museum Experience through Social Photo Sharing’, CHI 2013: Changing Perspectives. Paris: France.