Since it was launched in 2010, photo sharing app Instagram has become one of the art world’s most influential platforms for social networking and marketing. Instagram has infiltrated every sector of the global art scene and has been embraced by everyone from artists to curators to gallerists.
This week Instagram takes another leap into the cultural sphere with the launch of an innovative curatorial exchange between ten London museums who are joining forces to celebrate their collections on Instagram using the hashtag #MuseumInstaSwap.
As the hashtag suggests, the #MuseumInstaSwap collaboration was a challenge to each of the ten participating museums to discover and photograph objects in a completely different museum that resonate with their own collections and themes.
The museums taking part are: The British Museum, Design Museum, V&A, Science Museum, Wellcome Collection, Natural History Museum, Horniman Museum and Gardens, Imperial War Museums, London Transport Museum, and The Royal Museums Greenwich.
After being sorted into pairs by pulling names out of a hat, the museum pairs visited each other to find and photograph objects for the project. Each museum will tell the story of their journey of discovery through the photos and captions they post on Instagram this week.
The #MuseumInstaSwap project is being championed by the Wellcome Collection and was inspired by a post on the Londonist website listing the ten best London museums to follow on Instagram based on the number of followers.
You can follow #MuseumInstaSwap on Instagram to discover what these museums found in each other’s collections.
The museums and their pairings
Horniman Museum and Gardens + Royal Museums Greenwich
Science Museum + Design Museum
London Transport Museum + Wellcome Collection
Imperial War Museum + British Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum + Natural History Museum
