Secret places, little known details and behind the scenes moments are being revealed on social media as part of Museum Week. Haven't heard of it? No worries...Museum Week is an online only event taking place on Twitter and Instagram to draw attention to museums and museum experiences worldwide. #MuseumWeek is being held from March 28 to April 3, 2016. To make the social media event a fun one, there's a different theme for each of the seven days.
Monday (March 28) was secrets and behind the scene glimpses at museums (#secretsMW); Tuesday (March 29) revealed people important to the museum (#peopleMW) and Wednesday's focus (March 30) was on the architecture, gardens and neighborhoods of the museum (#architectureMW).
Attention today (March 31) is directed to cultural heritage (#heritageMW); Friday (April 1) reveals innovation projects and research reaching toward museum goals (#futureMW); Saturday (April 2) focuses on stories providing insight into the museum's collections (#zoomMW); and Sunday (April 3) wraps up the week with a focus on what museums love most about their institution (#loveMW).
So far, there have been 98,859 tweets and 304,328 retweets as of March 23, 2016, according to #MuseumWeek's website. (Yes, they have a website and a multi-color logo!). As of today (March 31, 2016), the Twitter site had 108,000 followers and there were 16,049 followers on Instagram.
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Posted by Paris Je t'aime on Twitter: #MuseumWeek kicked off! Get backstage access to museums across the globe on Twitter, Periscope, and Vine all week!
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The social media campaign was launched in France and has participants around the world. A quick scan of #museumweek revealed contributions of all kinds ranging from people visiting museums; publications sharing stories revealing museums; photos of museum exteriors; programming previews and coverage; historical records revealing the past; behind-the-scenes snapshots showing the small details needed to make the museum run and more.
In 2015, there were 2,825 institutions that signed up to participate, according to MuseumWeek's website. In 2016, so far, there are 3,500 museums from across the globe.
If you want to make sure your favorite museum is included, tweet images to @museumweek and include #museumweek and any of the special topics that may apply. It's a fun way to show off your own museum stories as well discover museums that goes beyond what's possible from a single point of view.
In the United States, a partial list of participants includes @guggenheim; @rubinmuseum; @bocamuseum; @carnegiehall (which currently has an exhibition of Louise Peabody's works); @MFABoston; @prattmuseum; @Roseartmueum; @StormKingArtCtr; @thebroad; @newmuseum; @brooklynmuseum; @walkerartcenter; @HarvardMuseum; @NasherMuseum and more.
The Parrish Art Museum and Guild Hall in The Hamptons are both on board and will be contributing daily for #MuseumWeek. Search for their posts at @parrishart for The Parrish on both Instagram and Twitter and for Guild Hall @guildhall on Twitter and #guild_hall on Instagram.
Following are a few images to get your museum hunt started:
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Posted by The Getty on Twitter: "join us for a special #MuseumWeek Periscope to talk about our tiniest book https://www.periscope.tv/thegetty"
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Posted by the Noguchi Museum on Instagram: "Our exhibitions team still uses this hydraulic lift, here with #IsamuNoguchi and his crew during installation at his Stable Gallery show in April 1959. #Noguchi is second from left, behind his sculpture 'Garden Elements.' #secretsMW #noguchiarchives"
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Posted by Moma PS1 on Instagram: "Today #MuseumWeek kicks off on Twitter with a day dedicated to sharing behind-the-scene glimpses of our museums. Here, a visitor blithely strides by one of the many hidden #MoMAPS1 gems. "Selbstlos im Lavabad (Selfless in the Bath of Lava)" by Pipilotti Rist, is one of our long-term installations, embedded in a hole within the floorboards of our main lobby. The video presents the artist crying out "I am a worm and you are a flower!" audibly as she swims nude in an incandescent lava bath. When it was exhibited in Zurich in 1994, it was placed at the foot of a Madonna and Child sculpture to emphasize the religious notion of damnation. Follow along all week on #Twitter for more Museum Week fun! #secretsMW #hiddengem #PipilottiRist @MuseumWeek"
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Posted by Jim Moske on Instagram: 'Hundreds of artworks, like this Tiffany vase, were given to @metmuseum by anonymous donors #MuseumWeek #mwsecrets"
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#MuseumWeek 2016 takes place from March 28 to April 3, 2016 on Twitter. For details, search the hashtags on Twitter or visit www.museumweek2016.org.
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