Museums are fly!

At Museums Association 2014  we spoke extensively about  what we thought was hot and what was not in museum social media. We know plenty of institutions accounts are doing fantastic things but we also wanted to showcase heritage social media accounts that were going the extra mile to enhance engagement. 

For example:

Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci (c.1503) / Super Bass, Nicki Minaj

Fly Art productions is not a museum, nor a gallery or even a blog. It’s a tumblr page (http://flyartproductions.tumblr.com/) dedicated to  connecting rap lyrics with art history. Really what this team is producing is nothing more than a bit of basic photoshopping, but the lyrics match up to the images pretty well.When can I expect to see these in a London gallery?

The Doctor (1887), Sir Samuel Luke Fildes / Niggas in Paris, Kanye West & Jay-Z

Black form painting no. 8 (1964), Mark Rothko / Run This Town, Jay-Z ft. Kanye West, Rihanna

I often ask myself what would Beyonce do? Well in museums it seems Bey loves a good pose with the exhibits, on a recent trip to the Lourve she and Hubby Jay Z's celeb status bought further attention of the iconic painting of  the Mona Lisa, and it caused an internet storm and meme producers went into overdrive photoshopping comical versions of the visit. If only I could take a #museumselfie to that level! 

The Original 

The frenemies Kimye.

99 problems and Mona Lisa will be one

Mean Girls 2004 LACMA Snapchat 

There is no doubt that these approaches are entertaining, can we apply this use of celebrity contemporary culture to Museums? Would this be a way to further engage younger audiences into the sector? Thus far, I am not aware of any UK Museum using this  approach to capture an audience but two American institutions are doing just that. 

LACMA snapchat

LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) have embraced the late night social media app snapchat, and thankfully they're not using if for broadcasting naked selfies of the staff! Highlighting the collection and referencing objects to film quotes, songs and pop culture phrases they have rocketed the museums social media into the forefront of contemporary engagement. 

Then there is museum hack, we can't deny that we love the snark and balls of this tour guide collective in NYC. Not only are they offering an alternative view of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and American Museum of Natural History their social media presence is enlightening. 

Museum Hack know hows to say it. 

Is this in response so some intense audience research or just social media teams keen to impress their peers? There is now doubt its good practice for communication teams to tailor their social media output to the media platform. Nonetheless, its fun, engaging and snarky a combination that is always going to go down well at The Ministry!! But we want more and we want to see it happen in the UK museums!  Come on guys lets see you do a bit of cheeky meming!



Get involved or find more impressive engagement here:

• @flyartproduction on Instagram
• @museumhack on twitter
• LACMA on snapchat
• http://beyoncearthistory.tumblr.com/