Have you ever taken a selfie in a museum?
If not, today is the day to do it! Because today is Museum Selfie Day. There was a time when taking photographs in museums was banned and frowned upon; however, with the changing technology, museums and galleries are also turning into Instagram-worthy spaces. This trend invites you to go to a museum and take a selfie on January 18th!
How was ‘Museum Selfie Day’ founded?
The Museum Selfie Day is dedicated to celebrating art, culture and museums by sharing selfies taken in front of artwork or in museum spaces. The day was created in 2015 by Mar Dixon, a project coordinator in London who runs a website about museums and art. She started the trend by posting museum selfies with the hashtag #MuseumSelfie, which turned into an online phenomenon. Museums also began to participate in the trend by letting their visitors use their phones on January 18th.
In her CNN interview, the founder of the day, Mar Dixon, says that “Today is about being happy, having a good time, and getting involved. Even if one person goes to a museum today who never goes, just to be a part of this hashtag experience, isn’t that great?”
How we appreciate art and history changes with technology
According to Gensler’s Museums Experience IndexSM report, visitors under 35 (Millennials and Gen Z) visit a museum’s website or social media before going to the museum itself at a much higher rate than Boomers.
Platforms such as TikTok hold excellent marketing potential for museums as social media platforms are great ways for art organisations to engage with their audience. For instance, museums like the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Le Gallerie Degli Uffizi in Florence post engaging TikTok videos that feature historical paintings with voiceovers of funny pop-culture moments.
Days like Museum Selfie Days create a perfect opportunity for people to connect ancient paintings and artefacts of the world with the age of innovation and technology. How we perceive and relate to history and art also changes forms with the mindset of millennials and Gen Z, who want to create engaging and Instagram-worthy content even through their interactions with art.
The significance of Museum Selfie Day
The significance of Museum Selfie Day is twofold. Firstly, it encourages people to visit museums and engage with art personally. By taking a selfie in front of a piece of artwork, individuals can connect with the work personally and create a memory of their experience. Moreover, Museum Selfie Day is a marketing opportunity to promote museums and art to a broader audience through social media platforms.
