New York Museums Are Swapping Their Art on Instagram

Last year, 10 London museums traded collections virtually by posting Instagrams from their collections. Today, the #MuseumInstaSwap movement comes to New York City. The 18 participating museums, including the American Museum of Natural History, Museum of Modern Art, The New Museum, Queens Museum, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art are sharing works from each others’ collections to draw connections between each cultural institution’s separate holdings.

“A good life is found only where the creative spirit abounds, where people are free to experiment and create new ideas within themselves,” —Aileen Osborn Webb, founder of the @madmuseum. Mrs. Webb’s spirit still infuses the museum’s mission and programming, much in the same way Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s vision animates the Whitney to this day. Follow @madmuseum for their take on the #NewWhitney. #MuseumInstaSwap

A photo posted by Whitney Museum of American Art (@whitneymuseum) on Feb 2, 2016 at 6:12am PST

“The swap we thought was great because it allows us to make connections between all these amazing institutions we have in the city,” says Kimberly Maul Green, Social Media Manager for the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, who organized the New York City swap. “There are so many [museums and cultural institutions in New York City] and they all work with a range of different art, history, culture, and science.” She adds, “Being able to find a different perspective for looking at the exhibitions and collections is always a unique challenge for institutions and this kind of partnership allows us to do that in a fun way.”

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We’re partnered with @cooperhewitt for #MuseumInstaSwap, and we found some interesting connections between the design museum and #intrepidmuseum. One is this drawing by industrial designer Donald Deskey of an airplane design from the 1930s, commissioned by Procter & Gamble, which also hired Deskey for branding and packaging of notable products like Crest toothpaste. In the mid-20th century, companies often called on artists to design unique paint schemes for planes, including some camouflage designs! Follow along all day as we share interesting connections, cool objects and beautiful images from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum! #nyc #museums #design #history #designmeetshistory

A photo posted by Intrepid Museum (@intrepidmuseum) on Feb 2, 2016 at 5:48am PST

Don’t be confused. This is the ‘Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I’/’Woman In Gold’ by Gustav Klimt, on view at The Neue Galerie New York (@neuegalerieny). We’re paired up in the #NYC #MuseumInstaSwap challenge so tomorrow we’re sharing images from them relating to the African Diaspora and they’re posting images from us. The Neue Galerie focuses on early twentieth-century #German and #Austrian art and design and we’re so excited to show you the connections we made. Stay tuned. #womaningold #gustavklimt #neuegalerie

A photo posted by MoCADA (@mocada_museum) on Feb 1, 2016 at 7:52am PST

#MuseumInstaSwap pairs institutions with very different missions. The Queens Museum, for instance, whose focus is borough-specific, is paired with the encyclopedic Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Studio Museum in Harlem, which shows contemporary black art, is paired with The Jewish Museum, whose charge is to exhibit contemporary Jewish artists.

To kick off the campaign, The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art, which highlights work by artists of African descent, shared Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I painting from the collection of the early 20th century German and Austrian art and design centered Neue Galerie. In return Neue Galerie shared a still from the film Inzilo about the South African bereavement tradition by artist Mohau Modisakeng.

Please join us tomorrow, February 2, for New York City’s first ever #museuminstaswap, a day-long campaign wherein 18 major New York City-area institutions pair off to celebrate one another’s collections and exhibitions. For this project, the Neue Galerie has partnered with the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, also known as MoCADA (@mocada_museum). MoCADA, located in the heart of Fort Greene and just a stone’s throw from BAM and Barclay’s Center, is the first museum of its kind in New York. Pictured here: a film still from “Inzilo” (2013), a short film by the artist Mohau Modisakeng about the South African bereavement tradition. #mocada #museuminstaswap #africanart #contemporaryart #fortgreene #nyc #mohaumodisakeng

A photo posted by neuegalerieny (@neuegalerieny) on Feb 1, 2016 at 1:12pm PST

How could we resist? We’re kicking off our #MuseumInstaSwap with a piece by Pablo Picasso. The natural world can inspire us in unexpected ways, and #Picasso’s “Bull’s Head” 1942, is as striking as any fossil skull, despite being made from a bike seat and handlebars. @themuseumofmodernart’s exhibition, “Picasso Sculpture” closes February 7. Check out their feed for pics of the @AMNH!

A photo posted by AMNH (@amnh) on Feb 2, 2016 at 6:22am PST

The digital swap showcases the participating collections in a way that draws diverse links between art history and the institutions that contextualize it. “I would really love to see the museum Instagram swap expand the reach of our collections,” Green tells The Creators Project. “A lot of museums are still working to get their collections digitized and their not necessarily accessible to everyone so having projects like this really allow us to help people learn and be inspired by the art.”

To see more of the works shared, check out #MuseumInstaSwap.

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