Silvia Filippini Fantoni is Director of Interpretation, Media and Evaluation at the Indianapolis Museum of Art
1. How did you live the #MuseumWeek experience? Did you notice any new dynamic in your institution since then?
What I like about #MuseumWeek is that from an institutional point of view it creates the opportunity for different departments of the museum to work together to create content and experiences around a specific theme. For instance, last year our videographer, photographers and archivist worked with the marketing department, which houses our social media team as well as curators, conservators and interpretation specialists to look for existing content and create new one around the proposed themes. #MuseumWeek also offers the opportunity for staff to think about and implement tools that stimulate our audience to share about their experience at the museum. Last year for instance, we gave out a number of free tickets to randomly selected people that posted from the IMA during #MuseumWeek. This strategy ended up being used again for other social media initiatives after #MuseumWeek.
2. During the event, was there the opportunity to invite specific audiences like fans, Instagrammers, artists, influencers acted upon…?
During #MuseumWeek we added signs at key places through the IMA to invite our guests to take part in the week. This way as we were revealing our secrets (#MWsecrets) we were inviting guests to do the same. We then make sure to respond and share those tweets on our timeline. We also incite some of the staff members that are more active on social media to post about the relevant themes and/or retweet @imamuseum and visitors posts. We’ve also worked with local media to amplify our efforts.
3. What is the benefit for your institution to be on Twitter?
Twitter allows us to engage with our audience in a number of ways. We use it to promote our events and exhibitions, but also to educate our audience on artworks and other little known facts. From a marketing perspective, we use social media as key way to reach targeted audiences that may be interested in happenings at the museum that they would not have otherwise known about. Twitter also offers the opportunity for our audience to become part of the museum experience. An example is that our #IMAWurm campaign. Last year, contemporary artist Erwin Wurm installed a number of his “one minute sculptures” at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, inviting visitors to use props available and pose on a platform for one minute. As part of the experience we also asked visitors to take photos and videos of their friends and family posing and post them using the #IMAWurm. The live feed of images and messages posted were projected on a screen near the entrance, thus making the visitors an integral part of the museum experience. Another example is #IMAfollowthestars, a social media-based search and selfie experience which will launch at the end of April. In celebration of the Indiana Bicentennial artworks, exhibitions, and trees with an Indiana connection will be identified using a star icon across our campus. #IMAfollowthestars will invite visitors to look for the star icon, take a snapshot or a selfie and share it with the hashtag #IMAfollowthestars. All #IMAfollowthestars posts will be projected at the entrance of the museum where the project is introduced. Amongst all the post, we will select a monthly winner who will receive a $50 gift certificate to the Museum Store.
Interview by @ljaubertie and @julie_scheffer
