Are Art Museums Targeting Instagrammers?

June 10, 2016 2:30 pm

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Museums like the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, MoMA, and LACMA are turning heads with their immersive exhibitions. They’re generating both large crowds and social media followings. Some have started to wonder whether these exhibits have garnered popularity solely because of how Instagram-able the works displayed in them are. The Atlantic‘s Katharine Schwab discusses this theory:

“These exhibitions are often more akin to stadium concerts than museum shows, starting with the lines that precede them. They overwhelm the senses, offer a communal experience as opposed to a personal one, and provide fantastic photo opportunities while making friends jealous. It’s been particularly noted that ‘Wonder’ is an Instagrammer’s dream—the exhibition was trending on the picture-driven social-media app from the very first day it opened. Signs in the galleries actually encourage photography (unlike the typical notices requiring visitors to put their cameras away), which has resulted in 35,000 photos being tagged at the Renwick in the past three months. ‘Rain Room,’ too, has a powerful Instagram presence, with more than 30,000 images and videos posted to the app with the hashtag #rainroom.”

Read Schwab’s full story here. Check out some Instagram-worthy art exhibits below.

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A photo posted by Grace Nav (@gn27) on

A photo posted by JB_Bridgeman (@jb_bridgeman) on

A photo posted by Lo (@lorenpiretra) on

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