13 December 2019

LETS GET SOCIAL: A DISCUSSION OF MUSEUMS USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Heritage Moments | Carly Wolowich
Museum professionals are constantly questioning how to democratize the museum, yet many don’t realize that the answer could be potentially lying at their very fingertips. Not requiring a definition, social media is something all of us utilize or come into contact with daily. Engrained into our everyday routine, museum professionals are now faced with determining how to effectively utilize public digital platforms to support the museum and enact their contemporary mandates of inclusivity and engagement.

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As Carol Vogel notes, social media is turning museums into “virtual community centres”. On platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or any museum’s website, everyone has the opportunity to voice their opinions. Digital technologies create new possibilities for museums to utilize their collections and create value by reaching visitors in new and accessible ways. For example, by digitizing collections and archives, heritage institutions can expand audiences and share culture with original owners of objects now acquired by the museum.







On October 27, 1997, 126,000 of Ontario’s public school teachers, awalked off the job to protest, ‘The Education Equality Act’, which became better known as Bill 160. . Bill 160 which was put forth by the Mike Harris Tory Government consisted of cuts to as well as an overhaul of the education system, which by 1997 had already seen $1 billion cut from it. The bill would essentially take decision making control away from elected school boards, to the Government and its representatives. It stripped teachers of bargaining rights for things such as class size, took control over budgets, and permitted non-certified instructors to teach some programs. . With overall support from students as well as the public teachers would strike for two-weeks before voting to return to work, as they felt they had made their point. During the strike the provincial government would spend millions on attack ads framing the strike as illegal and teachers as selfish - a response to try and reverse public opinion. And by the end of the strike, Bill 160 would go through as intended, as Harris and his provincial Tories refused to back down. However, the situation left a bad taste in the mouths of many, creating a mistrust between the public and the Government. . In a 2007 article reflecting on the Bill 160 strike, Eileen Lennon who was President of the Ontario Teachers Federation at the time said, “although we did not defeat Bill 160, we won the hearts and minds of the public. We caused people to reaffirm their belief in and support for public education. We exposed the Harris government’s true agenda of wanting to centralize power and remove billions of dollars from public education. We talked about our students, about what went on in our classrooms every day. We talked about how much we loved our jobs and cared about our students’ achievements. We all spoke from our hearts and we were believable. We advocated for our schools and our education system. We were never prouder to be teachers.”. . 📸: “Bill 160 - Students, teachers, parents” Tony, Bock @thetorontostar . . . . . . #Toronto #osstf #ontario #teachers #onted #onpoli #cdnpoli #ontarioeducation #instaontario #torontoteachers
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Watch our expert conservator Lee Ann Daffner as she explores the sensitive chemistry involved in restoring one of the oldest photographs in the #MoMACollection, an 1842 daguerreotype slowly being engulfed by tarnish. Head to link in bio for the full video and see the conserved photographs in Gallery 502! Within two years of the invention of photography, Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey, a French aristocrat, assembled a team to travel the Mediterranean and make over a thousand images of the region’s cities, people, and ruins. These early daguerreotypes projected images directly onto silver plates, like a mirror imprinting a reflection onto its polished surface. Akin to Polaroids, they were unique photographic objects that offered no convenient method of replication. The daguerreotype Daffner is restoring here captures two separate images—the Arch of Septimius Severus and Capitoline Lion in the Roman Forum. #MoMAMagazine #MoMAConservation #Conservation
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However, with many benefits, an issue many museums now face is having visitors disengage with such networking services when they are actually in the museum. As Thomas P. Campbell, the then director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art said, “we’ve got to keep people in a heads-up mode, to make sure they are looking at art”. I am sure many of us have experienced the ‘Mona Lisa Moment’ during our time in museums, as visitors can be seen fighting to take a photograph of a given object rather than view it with their own eyes. As noted by Philip Kennicott the ‘Mona Lisa Moment’ involves “the annihilation of one of the essential components for viewing art, which is extended individual contemplation”. While not only faced with logistical constraints such as the staff and resources to operate the constantly changing needs of social media platforms, heritage institutions must weigh how much the public should influence what goes on their walls, and how to invite social media usage in the museum space itself.

While attempting to spark a social shift in museums, social media engagement also possesses potential financial benefits for institutions. Advertising the museum and its various merchandise, being active on social media aids in building relationships with younger audiences who are also viewed as potential new donors and patrons to the museum. This implementation of social media for monetary gain is exemplified in the Art Gallery of Ontario’s recent crowdfunding campaign for the acquisition of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Room Let’s Survive Forever--now poignantly a hotspot for AGO visitors to take Instagram photos in. While the AGO did not raise its intended target of $1.3 million, $651,183 was raised from contributions made by more than 4,700 donors. Exemplifying a level of success in promoting material on social media, the AGO’s Instagram posts for the campaign also clearly exemplify the power and presence of users’ reactions. One user wrote on a post by the Gallery, “this is disgusting. What were the revenues from the exhibition? How much are you paying interns? Let’s see the books before we have this gofundme bullshit conversation”. While AGO staff were able to influence a wider audience to elicit donations, such comments reflect the inherent challenges of participating in such online platforms. With supportive comments also come the critical, but the question remains if museums are ready to listen.


The opportunity to involve new voices poses a necessary challenge for museums, in particular, art museums, as they must step down from their position of exclusivity. Heritage institutions are faced with dismantling the traditional colonial spaces that have persisted for centuries as they now share their historic practices with critical contemporary users. While it is visible that many museum mission statements now emphasize education and participation, rather than preservation and presentation, the organizational frameworks that have previously supported biased practices are being forced to actively change.

While seemingly mundane, heritage institutions’ interactions on social media must be critically analyzed as any exhibition or program physically inside the museum would be. While this article just scratches the surface to the necessary conversation regarding museums and their presence on social media I hope everyone will take a look the next time they are scrolling through their feeds to analyze and engage with what museums are putting out into the world wide web.

Also, if anyone has any recommendations of museum related social media accounts please comment them below!
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