Fill the Gap: Case 55B (July 09)

How do you truly involve the general public and ask them to engage, online with art?  If you are the Luce Foundation Center for American Art, you offer the public the ability to become “citizen curators.” The Luce Foundation Center occupies 20,400 square feet of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s space.  It is an open study/storage facility displaying about thirty-three hundred objects from the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In essence, it is visible storage for the museum. The Smithsonian American Art Museum lends work out, often for 12 months to other institutions, leaving gaps in the display units. The Luce Foundation Center is responsible for selecting the art that will fill the gaps.

What is the Luce Foundation Center doing? Crowdsourcing the art selection process, and opening it up to the public. Absolutely brilliant!

The Luce Foundation Center created a Flickr campaign to literally “Fill the Gap” in the gallery case. When there is a need to fill a gap, the Luce Center posts a photo on its Flickr site of a gallery case that has a “gap” in the art, includes the dimensions of the gap, and asks the public to search its online catalogue for ideas. Participants search for pieces on the Luce Center’s website – it has 41,000 cataloged pieces of art on its website – and suggest replacement pieces from the catalogue.

I thought this was such an innovative use of Flickr that I incorporated it into a previous blog post about arts organizations using Flickr creatively. I also contacted Georgina to learn more the campaign’s inspiration, how the Luce Center is utilizing the “Listen, Learn, Adapt” methodology during the campaign, and any advice she would give other institutions creating Flickr campaigns. She kindly answered all of the questions below:

Q. What is the relationship of the Luce Foundation Center to the Smithsonian American Art Museum?

A. The Luce Foundation Center is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, displaying around 3,300 works from its collection. Luce Foundation Center staff members are responsible for almost all operations within the Center, including making recommendations for the artworks that replace those that leave. If an artwork leaves for less than 12 months, we do not replace it. We simply put up a sign that tells the visitor where the artwork is (on loan to another museum, on view elsewhere in the building, or in the conservation center for treatment). We are storage, after all. However, if an artwork leaves for more than 12 months we do replace it.

Q. What was the inspiration for Fill The Gap?

A. The last year or so has been very busy, with over 40 paintings and objects departing long-term for a variety of reasons. As a result, there are some gaps that we don’t have the time to give the attention that they deserve, or we have tried to find replacements and have been unable to come up with anything with which we are happy. The inspiration for the Flickr “Fill the Gap” project actually came from a talk given by Clay Shirky at the Smithsonian 2.0 conference in January 2009, in which he talked about how Flickr is a great tool to facilitate communities. I realized that this would be the perfect environment for us to solicit the public’s help in filling some of our long-standing gaps.

Q. What are the objectives of the campaign?

A. Our objective is to have the public select works to fill gaps in the Luce Foundation Center display, while also revealing a little of how the museum operates.

Q. What would you consider the biggest successes of the campaign and the biggest disappointments?

A. The biggest success is that we have had participants making excellent suggestions and that we have successfully filled three gaps since the project’s inception. The biggest disappointment is that there aren’t more people joining in, but considering that we are asking people to invest quite a bit of time and energy, this wasn’t too surprising.

Q. What have you learned and how will you incorporate those lessons into the campaign as it continues?

A. Our intern Jessica Hass is working on a low-tech version that will be in the physical museum and will invite visitors to “vote” for their favorite out of around 20-30 possible replacements. We will then post the winning (and approved) object to the Flickr site.

Hopefully the project will evolve to offer different types of participation. Those that don’t have a lot of time might vote for an object based on a pool selected by us, but those that want to dig deeper would start from scratch with the entire museum collection to choose from. I definitely anticipate further modifications to both the online and on-site versions as we explore different ideas and gather feedback accordingly. No project is ever static in the Luce Foundation Center!

Q. Do you have advice for an organization using Flickr as a campaign  platform?

A. If you plan to solicit user content and comments, you need to assign at least one person to monitor and respond to these. People using social media tools like Flickr expect quick responses!

Georgina Goodlander is the Manager of the Luce Foundation Center at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  She manages all aspects of the Luce Foundation Center, from staff, visitor services, and public programs to interpretation and new media. Georgina and her staff are pictured in this photo, below.

Tierney Sneeringer, Bridget Callahan, Edward Bray, and Georgina Goodlander

What do you think about Fill the Gap? How has this campaign inspired you? What will you do with Flickr creatively?

There is so much more to photosharing than uploading images from the latest event!

Yes, everyone likes to see themselves online, but Flickr is so much more than uploading images from the latest event. Flickr combines the power of visual storytelling with the very nature of a social network – engagement and conversation. Three arts organizations (Houston Ballet, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and Luce Foundation Center for American Art) are innovating ways to use Flickr creatively, and in the process offering backstage passes to the organization, amplifying programming, and engaging stakeholders in real decision-making.

1. The Houston Ballet: Giving Fans a “Backstage Pass”

The Houston Ballet uses Flickr to offer a “backstage pass“  to all of its fans.  In particular, the ballet company offers its enthusiasts (and all Flickr browsers) visual insights into the organization’s activities and administration.

One of the more fanciful and wonderful Flickr photostreams comes from the Houston Ballet’s “Tour of Houston Ballet’s Warehouse.” What person doesn’t want to walk through the warehouse of the a famous production company?  Here is one of the photos:

This boat hangs from the ceiling of the Houston Ballet's warehouse

As described on the Houston Ballet’s Flickr Photostream, “this is a photo tour of our warehouse in Houston’s 5th ward. We hope you enjoy this behind-the-scenes look at our productions’ ‘home away from home’ when they’re not in use at Wortham Theater Center.”

The Ballet also has another great “behind the scenes” photo shoot – making head casts for a scene in one of their ballet. Here is a screen shot of the Flickr photostream for the “Marie” head casts:

What does this do? It offers Houston Ballet fans added value for subscribing to the Ballet’s photostream. It makes them feel special, too. How often does one get to look into the closet of a major ballet theater, or learn how they put their sets together? The Ballet has made their photostream an unique web destination for exclusive “backstage” information.

2. MassMOCA: Adding Dimensions to Current Programming

The Mass Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMOCA) uses Flickr to crowdsource a set of images for the Flickr Finds section of its blog. MassMOCA asks readers to upload photos of a specific topical nature to the MassMOCA Flickr site. They post a roundup of the best photos on their monthly Flickr Finds blog post. The photos usually relate to one of the concurrent exhibits. It’s a great way to create excitement around a current exhibit or an organization.

Here is a screenshot of a Flickr MassMOCA group message:

The blog post Flickr Finds: Tree Logic features selected photos from uploaded Flickr images of the “upside down trees” outdoor sculpture exhibit. Here is an excerpt from the blog post:

What does this do? It adds another dimension to exhibitions and creates enthusiasm on the Flickr and blogging platforms. It also extends the life of exhibitions and creatively engages fans. Lastly, it offers added publicity for MassMOCA: every photo uploaded to the MassMOCA Flickr group also appears on the photographer’s photostream and is indexed and tagged on Flickr as MassMOCA!

3. The Luce Foundation Center for American Art: Using Flickr for Crowdsourcing Decisions

The Luce Foundation Center for American Art is “an open study/storage facility displaying about thirty-three hundred objects from the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Here, our visitors can see works that would otherwise not be on view due to space restraints in our main galleries.” The Luce Foundation Center occupies 20,400 square feet of the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum’s collection.  According to the Smithsonian’s blog Eye Level, the Smithsonian American Art Museum lends work out, often for 12 months to other institutions, leaving gaps in the display units. They write:  “for this reason, we decided to open up this process and ask our online communities for help. Using Flickr, we can share a photo of a case (in the Luce Foundation Center) that needs a replacement artwork, provide information about all of the other works in the case, and challenge people to search our collections in order to find an appropriate substitution.

What a wonderful way to engage stakeholders in the decision-making process and offer them a “backstage pass” to the  art collection!

Here is an example of one of their photos from the Fickr photostream for Fill the Gap campaign:

Case 34B from Fill the Gap photostream

This is a screen shot of a part of the the comment stream related to this particular case (Case 34B):

In the end, a piece was selected by the Foundation from among the ideas submitted for Case 34B:

Case 34B - Gap Filled!

What does this do? It creates an interaction between static works of art and the fans who love the art. It makes everyone a “citizen curator,” and a stakeholder in the outcome of the Fill the Gap replacement selection. It creates enthusiasm and publicity for the collection of art. Most importantly, it utilizes the crowdsourcing aspect of social media to engage fans, create deeper connections between them and the organization, and…select art for exhibition.

Think about using Flickr to offer “backstage passes,” crowdsource ideas, extend the life of your programming, or engage stakeholders in real organizational decisions. What are you waiting for?

Does your organization use Flickr creatively? Do you know of one that does? Let us know by referencing the organization (and Flickr site) in the comment section below!