The Museums of Instagram








Last year, my friends and I waited over 90 minutes to take a just one photo at the Google Flatiron Pop-Up store in Manhattan. As I looked around, I saw other teens waiting to take their own photos to take for Instagram. I realized that because of people like us, there has been a recent rise of Instagram museums (ie. Museum of Ice Cream, National Building Museum, David Zwerner Gallery, Infinity Mirror Rooms at the Broad Museum).

According to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the rate of visitation to art museums in the country has been steadily declining since the early 2000s, which is a major problem for museums and galleries. As a result, creators of these experiences have realized is that a lot of people want an interactive experience to take pictures of themselves, so they’ve created pop-up museum spaces that are geared toward online aesthetics and I.R.L. consumption. Museum-goers don’t just want to look at art – they want to be the art.

This leads to a domino effect: people go to the museum, take pictures, share those pictures, a bring in more visitors. Inarguably, it’s an effective business model; these kinds of museums are encouraging more people to engage with art who would never have gone to art museums otherwise. Those in favor of this trend argue that some people have a better understanding of art if they can participate with it rather than just looking at it.

Of course, it makes me think, if museums are meant to preserve works of art and its historical significance, this sudden new appreciation for contemporary art loses something. Are we really engaging with the art or simply the reproduction of it?

What do you guys think about interactive museums – are you in favor of it over traditional museums? Is Instagram killing our museum culture or reinventing it? And where do you all see the future of art museums going?


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- Sheryl

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