Instagram and the museum experience: theorising the connection through aesthetics, space and sharing

ABSTRACT

Many museum or art gallery visitors record their experience through social media platforms. Instagram is a case in point. Instagram is an application for mobile devices where people post images and comments, sharing their experiences in different places, with different people. This paper shares data from a project exploring people’s art gallery visitations and how they engage with Instagram in such spaces. The research aimed to answer the following research questions: What are the current practices of art gallery visitors using Instagram? and why do visitors use Instagram to experience the art gallery? Findings showed people use Instagram in art galleries for a range of reasons and these include to extend and evolve their aesthetic experience, to share their experience, and to mediate gallery space. The significance of these findings may influence decisions made by gallery curators to enhance visitor experience as well as people’s expressive response to artworks.

KEYWORDS:

• Art gallery
• museum
• aesthetic experience
• Instagram
• sharing
• space

Acknowledgements

We thank the Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia, for providing access to the team involved in the Gerhard Richter exhibition The Life of Images.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adam Suess

Dr Adam Suess is an Adjunct Lecturer with the Department of Accounting, Finance, and Economics at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.

Georgina Barton

Dr Georgina Barton is a Professor of literacies and pedagogy at the University of Southern Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. She has experience as Acting Head of School, Deputy Head of School and Associate Head of School – Research. Her main teaching areas are English curriculum, literacy education, and the arts. Before being an academic, Georgina taught in schools for over 20 years and was an acting principal at a small primary school. She was lead teacher in literacy and also had extensive experience teaching the arts in schools. Her research covers English, literacy and the arts and she often uses creative and reflective approaches to support students' literacy learning outcomes. She has over 150 publications including a book titled Developing Literacy and the Arts in Schools which is published by Routledge.