What do people notice when they visit museums and stand before a piece of art, looking? Today’s New York Times touched on the question in Michael Kimmelman’s commentary today on visiting Leonardo’s Last Supper — because crowds at the Santa Maria delle Gracie are controlled by limiting visitors to 15 minutes with the painting. Not that everyone wants that much, was Kimmelman’s point. (But they should…)
This gives me an excuse to visit the outcome of an experiment at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,* the results of which were announced a few weeks ago (when I was busy writing something else). But the story is fresh, unreported, I think, and so I’m back with it.
Earlier this year, the Met invited visitors to “submit a photo of one detail in a single work of art from the Met’s permanent collection that captures your imagination, along with a photo of the full work of art and your own brief text (approximately 50 words) describing why you find that detail compelling.” It was a contest — called “Get Closer” — and entries were accepted between February 25 through April 8, 2011. The Met then chose five winners from the entries, gave each one a one-year membership at the Met, and posted their pictures on the Met’s website.
You can see the winners here. Other submissions were posted on Tumblr here.
I don’t know the criteria for winning, but I actually prefer some of the other entries. I’ve posted two others here. (Admittedly, I would have cropped the first one in closer, to just the hand or even just the thumb.) But you’ll have to go to the Tumblr site to find out what works they are details of, and some other examples of details that engaged people.
But the point of the exercise is both clear and worthy. The Met is using social media to get people to spend more time with a work of art, to really observe.
This is one of these experiments that should not only be repeated at the Met, but also replicated at other museums.
*I consult to a foundation that supports the Met