University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Social media as a tool for increasing access to art

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Social media as a tool for increasing access to art

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Content SOCIAL MEDIA AS A TOOL FOR INCREASING ACCESS TO ART
by
Jordan Bradley
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ANNENBERG SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM (THE ARTS))
May 2020
Copyright 2020 Jordan Bradley

ii
Acknowledgements
I am deeply grateful to all those who have helped bring this project to fruition. Thank
you, Tim Page, for guiding me through this project. Your expert advice and encouragement gave
me the confidence to envision this paper from beginning to end.
Thank you, Sasha Anawalt, not only for your crucial direction and recommendations, but
also for supporting my academic goals these past three years. I am so thankful for your
unwavering support as I navigated the challenges of being a part-time student and full-time
university employee.
Thank you, Amelia Jones, for your invaluable insight and for encouraging me to think
critically and fairly about the institutionalized conventions and structures surrounding us that we
too often take for granted.
Thank you to my best friend, Hannah Sur, for being there for me at every hour of the day.
You made me believe I could be in this program and you’ve been my biggest cheerleader ever
since.
And lastly, thank you to my parents, Julia and David Bradley, for the lifetime of support
and encouragement that has led me to this point.

iii
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ii
Abstract iv
Introduction 1
Part I: The Art of Social Experience 4
Part II: The Made for Instagram Museum 14
Part III: Social Media as Educational Tool 17
Conclusion 20
Bibliography 21

iv
Abstract
This project explores the use of social media as an instrument to foster increased
accessibility to the arts, studying how social media is implemented today to increase viewer
engagement and encourage new ways of seeing within art spaces. Focusing on four Los Angeles
based art institutions, Flutter Experience, the Broad, the Marciano Art Foundation, and the Getty,
with its online app, Getty Unshuttered, this paper analyzes the successes and pitfalls of the use of
social media as an interactive tool.
Written prior to the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic that has altered much of the
way we interact in participatory and community spaces, some of the topics discussed here
regarding participation and accessibility may already appear outdated. While it is too soon to
know exactly how this pandemic will change the future of our social landscape, it will
undoubtably have a lasting impact, necessitating further exploration on the topic of art
accessibility in general and more specifically its intersection with social media.

1
Introduction
Historically, the creation of art has been controlled by structures of power that have
produced art for a specific and elite audience. Monarchs, the Catholic Church, wealthy
aristocrats and patrons, national governments, and boards of trustees – these are some of the
many entities that have controlled what art is and how it is framed for others to view.
We often take for granted that museums present themselves as the exhibitors of truth, but
they are far from impartial, rather, they have their own complex webs of goals and interests. In
their anthology, Grasping the World: The Idea of the Museum, art historians, Donald Preziosi
and Claire Farago explain this construction: “The museum is not only a cultural artifact made up
of other cultural artifacts; museums serve as theater, encyclopedia, and laboratory… As such,
museums are ‘performances’ – pedagogical and political in nature – whose practitioners are
centrally invested in the activity of making the visible legible.”
1
Museums, like history books,
are created by individuals with a certain perspective and goal. Each aspect of the museum works
to tell a story furthering that goal, performing its role in the overall narrative of the museum.
In today’s digital age, social media has become a new platform for museums and cultural
institutions to communicate their story. Importantly, social media has the potential to connect
more people to museums and to pioneer new methods of appreciating and engaging with art, as
well as influence how art is made, distributed, and exhibited.
Many of the traditional performative aspects of museums have served to construct
barriers, demarcating cultural spaces as sites for an elite audience. Some of these elements persist
today. For example, museum architecture often commands reverence, signaling the value of the
objects within. These signals are often marginalizing, preventing some from accessing art spaces.

1
Donald J. Preziosi and Claire J. Farago, Grasping the World: The Idea of the Museum (Hants: Ashgate, 2004), 4-5.

2
“A lot of people feel that they have to have a certain level of knowledge to go into a museum,”
says Katie Antonsson, Digital Communications Manager at the Hammer museum in Los
Angeles. “When you look at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, The
Philadelphia Museum of Art - they're all built in these neoclassical styles to indicate that they are
templesque and therefore a sacred place of learning. That's been baked into museum culture.”
Antonsson, who champions museum accessibility, acknowledges that even at the Hammer,
where there is no longer a financial barrier to entry (the museum made its admission free in
2014) there is an inherent intimidation barrier, as with any museum. These barriers are one way
that art spaces are made inaccessible to viewers, contributing to public dissatisfaction and
disenchantment. A social media presence can break down this barrier, drawing visitors into the
museum digitally, before they are even confronted with the museum’s façade.
In her 2010 book, The Participatory Museum, Nina Simon, Executive Director of the
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, shares some of the most common reasons for public
dissatisfaction with museums. Among these grievances are the complaints that the institution
never changes, is too authoritative, does not allow for alternative perspectives, and is not a space
that is conducive to social interactions. Simon advises that to combat all of these complaints,
museums can strive to become more participatory. She believes that museums can maintain
relevance in contemporary life “by inviting people to actively engage as cultural participants, not
passive consumers.”
2

Again, social media can serve as a tool in this situation, encouraging participation in
cultural institutions. Just the existence of a museum’s social media account has become
necessary for museums to maintain a standard of public accessibility. Says Antonsson, “Can you

2
Nina Simon, The Participatory Museum (Santa Cruz, California: Museum 2.0, 2010), ii.

3
imagine if [a museum today] didn’t have social media? Say [the museum] thought that they were
above social media. How scared would you be to go there?”
Whether due to intimidation or the desire for increased agency, contemporary museum
visitors are demanding more of institutions. In Simon’s opinion, today’s visitors expect “the
ability to respond and be taken seriously” and “the ability to discuss, share and remix what they
consume.”
3
Social media allows for the discussion, remixing, and sharing of visitors’ art
experiences. Of the many Los Angeles based art institutions, the following four exemplify some
of the different ways social media is being used as a tool to respond to visitor demands: the
Getty, with its online app, Getty Unshuttered, contemporary museums the Broad and the now
closed Marciano Art Foundation, and the pop-up style art gallery Flutter Experience. By taking a
closer look at each case study, we can assess the degree to which each of these institutions
succeed in creating more accessible art spaces.

3
Ibid.

4
Part I: The Art of Social Experience
The desire for participatory experiences may be the driver behind a slew of pop-up art
“museums” that have appeared within the past few years. Instagram users are likely familiar with
these temporary spaces like 29Rooms, the Museum of Illusions, Color Factory, and the many
others that have become ubiquitous on social media. The most notable of these spaces may be
the Museum of Ice Cream, which first opened in New York in 2016 before traveling to Los
Angeles the following year. The Museum of Ice Cream, which refers to its spaces as
“experiums,” opened a permanent location in San Francisco in 2017 and a second in New York
in 2019. As of August 2019, the company is valued at $200 million according to the Wall Street
Journal.
4

These experiential museums share common features. They all offer tangible experiences
that are easily converted into intangible social media fodder, like a pool of pastel sprinkles you
can literally dive into or rooms designed to give the appearance that you’re walking on walls or
dangling from the ceiling. Unlike traditional museums, these spaces ask visitors to touch the art
and to become part of the exhibit. The role of the artist or creator of these exhibits is another
point of diversion from the format of traditional museums. When mentioned at all, the artists
whose work is featured in these experiential “museums” are typically referred to as collaborators,
the same term used to refer to corporate sponsors and non-profit partners, and their presence as
creators takes a backseat to the experience itself. Unlike traditional art spaces, the Museum of Ice
Cream doesn’t mention artists or creators, referring only to the rooms as instillations, concepts,
and exhibit spaces.

4
Katie Roof, “Museum of Ice Cream Valued at $200 Million,” Wall Street Journal, August 14, 2019.

5
Flutter Experience is an experiential exhibition space that tries to marry the success of
these trendy social media photo ops with experiential contemporary art. The permanent gallery
space, which opened in June of 2019 on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles, features a rotation of
temporary installations and aims to provide an immersive art experience to visitors. Unlike
similar spaces, Flutter focuses on the contemporary artists who have designed each of the rooms
in their inaugural installation. The artists’ bios are featured prominently on the website and
printed on handouts available onsite. According to their website, Flutter’s mission is to “make
art accessible and fun” and to “promote kindness and tolerance.” Of course, for Flutter
Experience, like 29Rooms or the Museum of Ice Cream, social media is at the crux of this
mission. Speaking to social media’s important role, Brian Moran, the Gallery Manager at Flutter
Experience says, “It's impossible to ignore, so we really encourage people to embrace social
media but also comment on it in some way.” Flutter Experience encourages visitors to engage
with the gallery through social media, using signage throughout the space and gallery docents to
remind visitors to post their photos and tag Flutter’s Instagram account or use the hashtag
“fluttering.”
Flutter goes beyond acknowledging the importance of social media in their experiential
space: they advocate for the power of sharing images of art on social media. “We believe in the
transformative power of art,” reads the Flutter Experience website. “By consuming and sharing
meaningful visual content, you can help us make social media a healthier, happier place. Just
follow these two simple steps today. Follow five artists today. Share art that you love.” This
strategic call to action dovetails with Flutter’s partnership with the Born This Way Foundation,
established by Lady Gaga to promote teenage mental health and wellbeing.

6
Ingeniously, Flutter Experience positions social media as a powerful tool, encouraging
visitors to share their Flutter photos not simply for accruing cultural capital, but to add positive
dialogue to an increasingly controversial social media landscape. “With the mental health crisis
and the importance that everyone places on social media, our goal is to make a place that
promotes kindness and wellbeing. Which is something social media doesn't always do,” says
Moran. “There's tons of research that shows that the art that you visually consume can alter and
improve your mental state. We just wanted to create a space where, for an hour or two, you could
come in and experience the art and hopefully feel a little lighter, a little happier.” No matter the
space’s effect on visitors’ mental and emotional state, a day spent at Flutter Experience might
indeed leave your Instagram feed seeming lighter and happier, each photo serving as free
marketing for the gallery.

***

To better understand the “experium” trend, I visited Flutter Experience and brought along
my friend, Roger, to prevent myself from merely acting as a fly on the wall. Despite being a
relatively new space, Flutter Experience looks at home alongside the boutique shops and hot
yoga studios on La Brea Avenue. Outside the subdued millennial pink storefront are two yellow
chairs sitting in the middle of the sidewalk facing a large window in the gallery that reads
“Where art and happiness meet.” The chairs, though solid, appear to be the consistency of
shaving cream freshly dispensed out of an aerosol can. Their absurd presence indicates to
passersby that this is an art space and beckons them inside.

7
Walking into the gallery, we are greeted by a host who explains we will be escorted
through the interactive rooms, each space created by a contemporary artist responding to the
theme “play date.” Before passing through a set of black velvet curtains to enter the next space,
we scan our $35 mobile tickets and are asked to take off our shoes, to protect the hand painted
floors inside.
Stepping into the first room, titled, “You Are Seen” by artist Elise Peterson, I am
immediately disoriented. Every surface of the room is reflective, from the mirrored floor to the
silver wall paper dotted with cut-out eyes. Floating silver foil balloons gather in the corners, their
circular forms pressed against the ceiling. I step gingerly toward the center of the room, as if I
might literally step on the balloons mirrored on the floor. I’m glad I brought a friend. In spite of
(or maybe because of) years of studying art, it goes against my instincts to transgress the laws of
traditional art spaces. Sometimes tangible accessibility is still impeded by ingrained tradition and
taboos. Emboldened by Roger’s presence as my partner in crime, I walk to the center of the
space to inspect two silver chairs facing a video projected on one wall. A docent slips through
the curtains to explain that the room is a celebration of black culture. The eyes on the walls
belong to black women artists and friends of Peterson. They are embodied in the space,
reciprocating our gaze, bearing witness, and reminding us we are being watched.
Peterson complicates our presence in this play date. As we play, framing selfies so as to
capture the endless repetition of silver balloons and piercing eyes, Peterson asks, “at whose
expense?” Though the patterns and reflective surfaces provide fun effects for photographers to
play with, this is not the light-hearted Instagram background I was expecting. With a live docent
sharing information about the work, it becomes impossible to ignore or remain ignorant of the
content. Image-making in this context, especially self-imaging, takes on new meaning as

8
photographers become explicitly aware of the content they capture and reproduce via social
media. Peterson’s room sets the tone for the rest of the experience. This will not just be a series
of meaningless backgrounds. Meaning and interactivity are inextricably tied.
As Roger and I continue our journey through the remaining rooms, the theme of play date
becomes more readily apparent. Katie Stout’s room, “Sphynx For My Garden,” directly calls on
visitors to engage with social media. Two corners of the room are devoted to selfie backdrops: an
archway and a selfie wall each constructed of trash collected by the artist. Adjacent to the trash
structures stands a winged sphynx sculpture, its cartoon like features reminiscent of childhood
arts and crafts. Says Moran, “Katie Stout's room touches on the myths and illusions of social
media. There's this irony in her work, where she collected all this trash for you to take pictures
with, but she wants you to take pictures with it, she wants you to take selfies and not take social
media seriously.” Stout’s sculptures incorporate both whimsy and a dark irony and invite
viewers to picture themselves within a jovial critique of societal values and the idols and images
we venerate.
One wall of Stout’s room opens to a narrow hallway where the walls are papered with
watercolor images of naked female figures. They are bold and playful, brightly colored, and of
many shapes and sizes. Their breasts and vaginas are painted frankly and conspicuously. Some
are dancing, reclining, and stretching. Some might be doing yoga or gymnastics, leaping or
posing. Some are rendered just as faces with multicolored rouge and lipstick. Giant cartoon-
shaped stuffed limbs protrude from the hallway walls, grazing my shoulders as I walk through to
a small annex at the end of the hall. Piled in the corner are life-sized stuffed dolls or body
pillows, the three-dimensional counterpart of the watercolor figures. Like the characters on the
walls they are naked. Their amoeba forms sport yarn for hair and tasseled fringe around their

9
edges like flagellum. Images of the uninhibited female body, at once playful and sexual,
surround us. We are forced to consider our own bodies in relation to those of the pillow dolls as
we pose with them, laying upon the pile. I’m particularly aware of my own gendered
positionality in this space, especially in comparison to Roger’s. He offers to take my photo with
the pillows but abstains from taking any photos of himself in this room. Not only are the objects
in this room physically accessible, but perhaps by asking visitors to document their own bodies
in the space they become more accessible conceptually. Through physical engagement and its
documentation, we encounter different degrees of comfortability that may go unnoticed when the
idea of self-imaging is not present.
Stout’s room is one of many that offer tangible experiences, but not all of these translate
well to social media or photographic documentation. For every interactive made-for-Instagram
room, there’s another environment that can’t be as easily captured. Jacolby Satterwhite’s virtual
reality room, for example, isn’t exactly a prime photo op, unless your goal is to capture your
friends stumbling around and flailing their arms as they look for a seat while blindfolded by the
VR headset. While the experience isn’t recordable in the same way that many of the other spaces
are, it does serve as an interactive environment that engulfs the viewer, placing her within what
appears to be an intergalactic spaceship surrounded by computer animated dancers pulsing,
voguing, and breaking to a repetitive drone like soundtrack. This room stands apart from the
others. As a virtual experience it is impossible to simultaneously document yourself and the art
you are watching, but by placing the viewer inside a virtual space and allowing user-controlled
capabilities, Satterwhite’s VR piece offers a different avenue of accessing this medium.
As Roger and I pass from room to room, rearranging pastel colored shapes on a Velcro
wall, creating a sound bath with life-sized chimes, applying glow-in-the-dark face paint and

10
taking our fair share of selfies, I’m trying to piece together this idea of accessibility. Traditional
art spaces have certain barriers to entry. Many museums are constructed as temples of
knowledge, spaces that house a specific history and seem to demand prerequisite knowledge of
art or at the very least ways of looking at art. In the most basic sense, Flutter claims accessibility
by being the opposite. Here, the “rules” of how to look at art are blurred. “We're certainly not the
first place to try to make art accessible and fun but I think that's where art is moving,” says
Moran. “Maybe standing by, looking at [art] is not enough for this generation and the generation
that will come after us.”
While spaces like Flutter Experience do seem to be responding to visitors’ desire to
interact with tangible experiences in the offline world, this is clearly not the only motivating
factor behind so called “experiums.” These spaces also provide visitors with ample fodder for
building their online presence by sharing photos and videos documenting their experience. It’s
not simply the tangible interaction that drives viewers, but also the social media interaction that
unfolds after the visit.
Flutter Experience claims to be making art more accessible by granting visitors physical
access to the artwork in their space, despite an entrance fee that may prove prohibitive for some
visitors to enter the gallery at all.
5
But for those who can, does the ability to physically interact
with art necessarily correlate with increased access to understanding a work of art conceptually?
I would argue yes, at least when an integral aspect of the work involves the viewer’s specific
positionality. Documenting your own body interacting with a space can fundamentally shift the
ways we see and encounter this space. Searching for the perfect Instagram angle heightens the
subject’s awareness of their own subjectivity and can open the door to a different understanding

5
According to Moran, Flutter Experience offers discounted rates of $25 for students with ID and student group rates
of $5 per student. These discounts are not advertised online or at the gallery.

11
of an artistic environment. On the other hand, not all artwork is meant to be experiential. The
ability to touch an oil painting would not likely factor into the viewer’s conceptual experience of
the work.
Increased accessibility can also have its downsides. The chaotic environment of viewing
Leonardo’s Mona Lisa has become almost as well-known as the painting itself. As technological
advances have made it possible for anyone to create and share images instantly, documentation
of a cultural experience has become central to the experience itself, but often at the expense of
prolonged connection with an art object or other means of traditional art appreciation. In addition
to battling crowds, some museum experts fear that viewing art primarily through smart phone
photography only allows for superficial connections between art and viewer. In 2015, the
Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam asked their visitors to refrain from taking photos and to draw the art
in their collection instead. Their #startdrawing initiative aimed at creating a sustained
relationship for viewers whom the museum administration felt were often distracted or
unengaged.
A 2013 study by psychologist Linda Henkel shows that concerns over lack of
engagement may be merited. Her study, published in Psychological Science, shows evidence of
what Henkel calls the “photo-taking impairment effect.”
6
Participants were asked to observe a set
of objects, photographing some and simply observing others. The study revealed that
participants were better able to recall the objects they had only observed rather than those they
had photographed. This indicates that we rely on the photos we take to store memories on our
behalf, like an external hard drive. If we later access those memories through the photos, they

6
Association for Psychological Science, “No Pictures, Please: Taking Photos May Impede Memory Of Museum
Tour,” December 9, 2013.

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become a mediator of the original object itself. We are no longer connecting to the original
object, but rather its stand-in photo-as-memory.
Perhaps the most egregious example of the pitfalls of technological accessibility is the
recurring story of visitors so preoccupied by their pursuit of a great selfie that they carelessly
damage the art they are trying to capture. In 2018, Vice estimated that upwards of $1.5 million
worth of art had been damaged due to selfies since 2014.
7

Perhaps for good reason, the technological accessibility of Flutter Experience isn’t
translatable to most traditional art spaces. And it doesn’t need to be. Both types of spaces serve
their own purposes. Flutter Experience isn’t necessarily more accessible than traditional art
spaces. It’s certainly more tangible, more interactive, and easily rendered through photography.
What Flutter does provide are different access points to art which may appeal to visitors who
don’t find other more traditional spaces as welcoming, digestible, or interesting. Flutter attempts
accessibility from a few different vantage points and while not every attempt achieves every
definition of accessibility (the price alone is a significant barrier to entry for many) the
limitations of Flutter’s accessibility are as insightful as its successes.
Accessibility is not a check box, but, rather, a negotiation. Ease of access is dependent
upon myriad personal and cultural elements, including physical ability, socioeconomic status,
and education level, among others. Because accessibility differs from person to person, it is
challenging for institutions to accommodate everyone’s needs and preferences. There is no
simple solution that would make a space perfectly accessible, instead institutions have to
continuously navigate an ever-changing terrain of technology, constantly assessing the degree to
which their space and ideas are open and available to their constituents.

7
Emma Specter, “The Quest For Selfies Has Cost the Art World At Least $1.5 Million,” Vice, November 7, 2018.

13
In its attempt to make art accessible, Flutter Experience demonstrates that not all art can
or should be made accessible in the same ways. While other experiential museum spaces place a
greater focus on the visitor’s experience than the artists and their exhibits, Flutter Experience
successfully capitalizes on this phenomenon while keeping contemporary art an integral aspect
of the space. Because of their marketing tactics, Flutter Experience may be reaching new
audiences. “I don't know if everyone that is in our space will go to LACMA or MoMA and
experience art that communicates the same message [that the artwork at Flutter Experience
communicates,]” says Moran. “So, if this format is allowing people to absorb the art then I think
it’s only doing better for the world.”

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Part II: The Made for Instagram Museum
It’s not just experiential galleries and pop-ups that have capitalized on social media
technology in recent years. Los Angeles institutions featuring modern and contemporary art, like
the Broad Museum and the now defunct Marciano Art Foundation, have made a point to
incorporate social media as a focus of their visitor experience. The Broad, which opened in 2015,
and the Marciano Art Foundation, which opened in 2017 and abruptly closed in November 2019,
both featured galleries readymade for smartphone photography. The second floor of the Broad,
which houses the permanent collection, is light and airy, with white walls and concrete floors
that give the space a crisp, clean vibe, as if there isn’t a speck of dust in the whole building.
Natural light permeates the gallery through a series of patterned crenellations in the outer wall of
the museum. The collection is comprised of many large-scale and well-known works, from Jeff
Koon’s Tulips to Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans, and Barbara Kruger’s iconic text and images,
all of which render beautifully in a simple iPhone snapshot.
“I’ll admit, I didn’t understand the selfie thing at first,” founder Eli Broad said in an
article for the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2016. “Instead of facing the artwork and taking in
its power, I kept seeing visitors turn around and pose in front of the art instead. A visitor services
associate… gave me an interesting perspective. She said today’s youth are driven to share their
experiences, to capture them and then relive memorable moments every time they look at that
photo. And she made the case that those visitors might have a greater appreciation of the artwork
by sharing it with friends and family and by appreciating it over and over. By understanding and
accepting the different ways people interact with art, museums can become more welcoming and
more relevant to diverse audiences.”
8

8
Eli Broad, “Reframing Los Angeles,” Los Angeles Business Journal, May 30, 2016.

15
While Eli Broad may have been surprised by his collection’s selfie-appeal, his staff
clearly is not. The Broad museum’s social media account encourages selfie taking, reminding
visitors to tag the museum for a chance to be featured on their account. The Marciano Art
Foundation used a similar model, before the museum’s sudden closure following their workers’
attempt to unionize. Like the Broad’s building, the former Scottish Rite Masonic Temple had
been renovated to feature diffused natural light and large galleries. The Marciano Art
Foundation’s space was similarly bright and open, with exposed concrete floors and white walls
that allowed the large contemporary art works to stand out. The museums’ social media
strategies are essentially identical, supplementing the institution’s photos and reproductions with
content generated by visitors. Most importantly, both museums were built from the private
collections of their founders, who, thus, are able to maintain the association of their personal
name and brand with their collections while enjoying tax-exempt status established through their
foundations.
The Broad and the Marciano Art Foundation’s collections of contemporary and modern
art translate well to social media, helping these institutions appeal to younger visitors. By
aligning themselves with the visual language of younger generations, these museums are
reaching new audiences and allowing them to connect with artwork in contemporary ways. Still,
it is important to remain critical of the ways visitors become instrumentalized by institutions
whose founders stand to gain from every photo of their collection that circulates the internet. In
the wake of the Marciano Art Foundation’s closure, it is difficult to ignore the fact that these
made-for-Instagram museums function to generate free marketing, increasing the value of the
institution itself, the art within, and the museum’s namesake. In order for private museums to be

16
considered non-profits, they have to provide a demonstrable public service. In the case of the
Marciano Art Foundation, what public is served by an indefinitely closed museum?
Access to collections like Eli and Edythe Broad’s, which might otherwise be kept in
storage and out of the eyes of the public, is perhaps in and of itself a profound public good. But
what is to prevent this private museum from abruptly closing its doors? When a private
institution would rather cease operating all together rather than allow its employees to unionize,
we must keep a critical eye on the methods these institutions employ in the name of public
service.

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Part III: Social Media as Educational Tool
The J. Paul Getty Museum is a public resource - an educational institution as much as a
traditional museum. One of their many educational initiatives is Getty Unshuttered, a program
that began in 2018 as an 8-week onsite mentorship created to benefit local Los Angeles teens
from underserved communities. In addition to transportation and food, the Getty provides access
to professional cameras and photography equipment along with the photography skills and
lessons needed for participants to become digital and visual storytellers. Placing an emphasis on
social activism, the program aims to provide teens with a platform where they can share their
voice, particularly by advocating for social issues through their photography.
In order to extend their reach beyond the onsite classroom, the Getty created the Getty
Unshuttered app, a digital version of the class now accessible to anyone with a smartphone. Like
the original mentorship program, the app is geared toward teen photographers and emphasizes
social activism. The social media platform establishes the potential for a more expansive
community to share content and support each other’s projects. “We know that a vibrant arts
education in high school can be a strong booster for academic performance,” says Eric
Bertellotti, Head of Interpretive Content at the Getty. “Yet the number of LA County high
schools that have such programs is very small. It wouldn’t be possible for us to have one-on-one
educational engagement with so many thousands of students through traditional means. So, our
ambition is to connect with young artists digitally and to push how far we can go with digital
engagement and digital learning tools, and to provide tools for underfunded teachers to do the
same.”

18
The basic interface of the Getty Unshuttered app is similar to Instagram. There’s a main
feed featuring the photographs that people have posted along with the given title and description.
Unshuttered also includes a “Skills” tab with lessons on photography fundamentals. There are
five skills available, Perspective, Composition, Shot Size, Lighting, and Portrait. Within each
skill are five short instructional videos, less than 15 seconds each, that give an overview of basic
photography tips and tricks, from how to use the rule of thirds to how to frame a good selfie.
After watching a skill video, users are encouraged to submit their own photo using the lessons
learned in the app. Users can tag their photos with the different photography skills that helped
them form the image, like “Candid.” “Composition,” and “Movement.” Submitted photos appear
on the main feed for other users to “like” and can be added to the photographer’s portfolio to
showcase up to 20 photos. Users can earn trophies for mastering skills, receiving likes, and
submitting photos. The Getty then highlights certain submissions by choosing a “Picture of the
Day” and tagging photos “Getty Pick.”
On June 26, 2019, the Getty Center hosted Unshuttered Live, an after-hours event
showcasing some of the photos submitted to the Unshuttered App. Local teens took over the
Getty Center campus, watching as their photos were projected against the walls of the Getty,
dancing to music from DJs, and peeking into the Getty galleries. The event also marked the
opening of LA #UNSHUTTERED, a special exhibition of works from Los Angeles teen
photographers on view at the Getty from June 26 through January 20, 2019.
Despite its Instagram-style interface and the success of the Unshuttered Live event and
the exhibit LA #UNSHUTTERED, usage of the Unshuttered app is somewhat sparse with about
11,500 accounts as of December 2019. According to the Bertellotti, the app has been
downloaded over 27,000 times, but new photos appear on the app’s feed infrequently,

19
approximately a few hundred a week. Most users have little to no likes on their photos, a sign
that there is not much interaction between users. Perhaps most telling is the content on the Getty
Unshuttered’s Instagram account, encouraging followers to post Instagram photos with the
hashtag #unshuttered as an alternative to joining the Unshuttered app. They use Instagram stories
to illustrate some of the skills taught in the app, occasionally using images from the Getty’s
collection or of the Getty campus as examples.
Despite mirroring the basic infrastructure of one of the most popular social media apps,
the Getty Unshuttered app is still in the early stages of gaining traction among users. With fewer
than 1,200 followers, the app’s Instagram page is only marginally more successful (in
comparison, the Getty Museum’s main Instagram account has over 360k followers). The Getty
Unshuttered is a promising digital educational tool that provides free, basic photography training
and a space to share portfolios with a supportive community, all using the interconnecting
capabilities of social media. And the program has plans to expand: “In 2020 we’re adding
significant outreach to teachers, including new teaching tools and curricula,” says Bertellotti.
The program has strong potential to increase accessibility to arts education and continue to
provide a space for young artists to create and share their work. Yet the breadth and widespread
success of the Getty Unshuttered program will be contingent upon the app’s usage and growth.

20
Conclusion
Social media presents museums and cultural institutions with new capabilities of
connecting with visitors. As a form of participation, social media can influence how visitors
interact with art, at times drawing their attention to the physical experience of a space.
Nevertheless, not all art lends itself to this kind of participatory experience and social media can
be a factor in distancing a visitor from the art surrounding them, as Linda Henkel’s photo-taking
impairment study suggests.
As much as visitors of spaces like Flutter Experience and the Broad want an offline, in-
person experience, they also want to document and share this experience online. This tendency
might increase the number of people who see art by connecting more people with digital images
of art collections and influencing them to visit art spaces in person. At the same time,
encouraging visitors to interact through social media by taking photos in the gallery and sharing
them online is also profitable for the museum or gallery itself. The blurred lines between
personal social media and marketing are worth keeping a critical eye on, as social media
opportunities are not purely for the benefit of the visitor. Social media technology is also a
burgeoning educational tool, as exemplified by the Getty Unshuttered app, providing online
audiences with lesson plans and access to a community of students and artists.
The most tangible art spaces and the most prolific social media accounts do not always
indicate the most economically or conceptually accessible cultural institutions. Still, social media
technology is pioneering new methods of access that can potentially lessen the impact of long-
standing barriers to cultural institutions, making way for new approaches to experiencing and
sharing a form of cultural expression once reserved for the elite.

21
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Asset Metadata

Creator Bradley, Jordan (author)

Core Title Social media as a tool for increasing access to art

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Specialized Journalism (The Arts)

Publication Date 04/08/2020

Defense Date 04/06/2020

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Art,art accessibility,experiums,Instagram,OAI-PMH Harvest,social media

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Page, Tim (committee chair), Anawalt, Sasha (committee member), Jones, Amelia (committee member)

Creator Email jabradle@usc.edu,jordanabradley@icloud.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-280525

Unique identifier UC11674964

Identifier etd-BradleyJor-8253.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-280525 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-BradleyJor-8253.pdf

Dmrecord 280525

Document Type Thesis

Rights Bradley, Jordan

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA