Marble statue of a naked Aphrodite crouching at her bath, also known as Lely’s Venus. Roman copy of a Greek original, 2nd century AD. Royal Collection Trust/Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2015. (Photo courtesy of the British Museum)
The British Museum has become another arts institution to experiment with social media for tour alternatives.
In May, the museum provided its first Periscope art tour, using the live-streaming app from Twitter. Viewers got to see an after-hours live tour of the exhibition “Defining beauty: the body in ancient Greek art” moderated by broadcaster Dan Snow.
The video was shared on the museum’s Facebook page and then added to its YouTube channel the day after. The “trailer” was a 47-second video showing some of the artwork in this exhibition. The “Defining beauty”exhibition itself started its display on March 26 and will continue through July 5.
The Periscope experience could have been pushed a little further by incorporating a live Twitter feed as well; audience members did not get a chance to ask questions.
Just this week, the museum experimented with the medium again for the exhibit “Bonaparte vs. the British.”
Another museum experience
Compare that experience to the Tate Museum’s, which first experimented with the idea in August 2014. For a full week, the museum collaborated with RAL Space, a robotics company whose work also involves the UK Space Agency, to have robots tour the museum after hours.
By logging into the after.dark Web app, a few random people were chosen to have the full commentary by the museum.
Tips for other institutions
Other institutions are considering additional options. For example, several art museums are developing special events through the popular app Snapchat. Many viewers simply upload their live pictures or video, and the collaboration is shared for everyone.
All these forms of social media being brought into art institutions are a way of presenting art to those who might not drive down and see the show for themselves. In some cases, this is the only opportunity to see exhibits like these because of where one lives. Seeing the live stream, rather than static photos, gives viewers the chance to appreciate what they cannot see for themselves.