Buell 1

Elizabeth Buell
ENC 3315
September 28
th
, 2014
Assignment 2
LACMA Enters the World of Social Media
Museums are boring. Art is not an important subject to be educated in. At
least that is what I, as a college student, hear on a daily basis about art museums and art
history in general. Museums have always had a stigma of being boring or uninteresting
to the younger demographic. It is a lot harder to appeal to the younger generation because
unless they have particular influence in their life, they do not traditionally grow up
appreciating the arts. Recently, there has been a big push into to world of social media
because companies are trying to appeal to a younger demographic. Social networking
sites like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat have become very popular in
recent years and companies have taken note of this. Snapchat is a mobile app which lets
users share images or videos that disappear after a few seconds. (Gross). The image or
video is only available to view for up to 10 seconds, thats what makes it so popular. The
Los Angles County Museum of Art has been very active in using social media and was
the first museum to turn to snap chat to help build public relations. They have put up
hilarious images pairing a work of art in their museum with a joke or a pop culture
reference. Some include lyrics from popular songs and quotes from movies like Mean
Girls. This idea is not only innovative but it paints the whole museum and art history
world in a new light.
Buell 2
ArtNet News wrote an article on LACMA and their recent snapchating, saying
the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art (LACMA) was the first museum to adopt the
app, using it to showcase their collection with the addition of slang-infused captions
referencing Internet memes and other pop culture touchstones sure to hit home with the
under-30 crowd. Another site called HyperAllergic, wrote an article about LACMA.
They said things such as But why would this museum decide to join this particular
social network? Maybe because its the fourth most popular with US teens (behind
Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram)? According to one stat, 43% of 12- to 24-year-olds
use Snapchat at least once a day. These articles just reaffirm the fact that the main goal
of this reach toward social media is to encourage younger people to get involved in the
arts. After LACMA set the example, many other museums such as Georgia Museum and
High Museum of Art, joined snapchat or upped their social media game.

Buell 3
Two snapchats, pictured above, were posted to the LACMA account and quickly
become popular after the word spread about their account. The image on the left is The
Shade by Auguste Rodin, a French sculpture from the 1880s. Its paired with a text
saying all the single ladies this is a lyric from a popular Beyonc song called Single
Ladies. The song also has a dance that goes along, this dance is similar to the
positioning of the sculpture, which is why it was funny amongst people who got the
reference. The second image is a work from Pablo Picasso titled Weeping Woman with
Handkerchief. Its funny because the text says Mondays, amirite? meaning the
woman picture is weeping because its Monday and its the start of the week. Along with
these, there are well over 30 images with funny sayings and quotes that they post
periodically.


Buell 4

Works Cited
Gross, Doug. "Snapchat: Sexting Tool, or the next Instagram?" CNN. Cable News
Network, 10 Jan. 2013. Web. 28 Sept. 2014.
Munro, Cait. "Museums Have Discovered Snapchat." Artnet News. Artnet Worldwide
Corporation, 26 Aug. 2014. Web. 28 Sept. 2014
Probus, Jessica. "You Need To Add This Art Museum On Snapchat Right Now."
BuzzFeed. Buzzfeed, INC., 21 Aug. 2014. Web. 28 Sept. 2014.
Vartanian, Hrag. "LACMA Is the First Museum to Join Snapchat." Hyperallergic RSS.
N.p., 21 Aug. 2014. Web. 28 Sept. 2014.
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