Frye Art Museum Lets Social Media Followers Curate Show

Leopold Schmutzler, Woman in Costume (1910). Charles and Emma frye Collection, via Facebook.

Seattle’s Frye Art Museum is inviting its social media followers to become part of its curatorial team, reports the Seattle Times. The museum’s “You Be The Curator” initiative allows its followers to vote via Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr, where images of pieces the museum’s permanent collection of late-19th and early-20th century European paintings have been posted, on which works they would like to see displayed at in its galleries this fall. On any of these sites, a “heart” or “like” is one vote, and participants also have the opportunity to leave written comments, some of which will be displayed during the eventual exhibition. For those who like to keep it old school, ballots can also be cast at the Frye.

Voting ends August 22, and so far, engagement is high, with some patrons leaving extensive comments explaining the reasoning behind their selections. Regardless of whether or not you live near the Frye or plan to visit the collection, casting your vote is a fun way to test whether or not your tastes match up with those of others. And if it doesn’t? The mechanics of these social media sites only allow for one “like” from each user on a single image, but it’s totally possible that if you’re obsessed with, say, Alexander Max Koester’s Moulting Ducks (circa 1900), you could vote on it once through each social network, for a total of four votes. Just saying.


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