March 24--Museums and Twitter do not, at first, seem like natural allies. The former aim to be more or less timeless, representations of what is important and lasting and has been researched in depth. The latter is a steadily flowing stream of quick information bits.
But a Twitter promotion this week brings the two together and helps guide readers to some fascinating backstage cultural knowledge from museums in Chicago and around the world. It's Museum Week -- or, rather, #MuseumWeek -- on the social media platform, a campaign designed to push cultural institutions and also Twitter use.
The Art Institute, for instance, shared a video showing new discoveries made during a 2013 restoration of Caillebotte's "Paris Street; Rainy Day."
The Museum of Contemporary Photography shared a photo of "student workers prepping for a recent show."
The Museum of Science and Industry offered a picture of some of its model trains as a plug for its regular Wow! Tours.
Such individual tweets may not be life changing, but a collective look at the hashtag -- search "#MuseumWeek" on twitter.com -- gives an interesting look at museums worldwide. Twitter proposes that the more than 1800 participating institutions follow daily themes, denoted by a second hashtag. So Monday, for instance, was about secrets (#secretsMW) and Tuesday about souvenirs (#souvenirsMW); this allows folks in the global gallery to further refine their searches.
