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Instagram and the museum experience: theorising the connection through aesthetics, space and sharing

ABSTRACT Many museum or art gallery visitors record their experience through social media platforms. Instagram is a case in point. Instagram is an application for mobile devices where people post images and comments, sharing their experiences in different places, with different people. This paper shares data from a project exploring people’s art gallery visitations and how they engage with Instagram in such spaces. The research aimed to answer the following research questions: What are the current practices of art gallery visitors using Instagram? and why do visitors use Instagram to experience the art gallery? Findings showed people use Instagram in art galleries for a range of reasons and these include to extend and evolve their aesthetic experience, to share their experience, and to mediate gallery space. The significance of these findings may influence decisions made by gallery curators to enhance visitor experience as well as people’s expressive response to artworks.