Instagram Challenges
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The Museum Challenge
Users must recreate famous pieces of artwork at home, often featuring themselves in well known poses.
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The Argument
In March, the J. Paul Getty Museum, an art museum in California, presented the “Museum Challenge” on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. To complete the challenge, one must recreate any work of art using three objects they can find around the house. The museum suggests finding a good artwork to recreate by browsing the online Getty Museum collection, though it is not necessary that the participant use an artwork from the Getty’s collection. The museum recommends using at least three objects in your recreation, but adds that you can use as many as you’d like. You can also have as many people or pets in the picture as you want. [1]
While some people took a humorous approach to this challenge, others tackled it seriously and made amazingly realistic recreations of famous artworks. You can view these by googling “Getty Museum Challenge” or by looking at the Getty Museum’s social media pages. The #gettymuseumchallenge hashtag on Instagram has over 45,000 posts. There are also other museums doing similar challenges, such as the Pinchuk Art Centre in Ukraine who challenged artists to recreate their favorite oil paintings from the centre’s collection. [2]
This challenge has been extremely successful due to its popularity, variety, and encouragement of creativity. On its popularity, the challenge has amassed attention from various news organizations, articles, and artistic institutions. For instance, the challenge has articles written about it on PBS, the Washington Post, Forbes, Buzzfeed, CBS, Time, and the NY Times. This is much more media coverage than most social media challenges get. In terms of variety, this challenge can’t be beat. There are some recreations that are hilarious, some that are clever satires on the original works, and some that are somber and poignant. Some of the responses to this challenge actually capture the emotional intensity of the original work, and many of the recreations ought to be considered works of art in their own right. Lastly, this could be one of the most creatively inspiring social media challenges ever, as it encourages people to work with limited resources to make beautiful new art.
Counter arguments
The Museum Challenge hasn't really received much buzz outside of artistically inclined circles. Even though there were articles on some major media websites, none of the articles really went viral and it seems like the challenge's moment in the spotlight was very temporary. If longevity of a challenge is relevant to its success, then this challenge is not the most successful. Also, people who aren't familiar with museum art probably won't know the vast majority of the works that are being recreated in the participants' works. While a few participants in the challenge selected well known works, such as the Mona Lisa, many chose more obscure artworks. People who are unfamiliar with the formal art world may struggle to participate if they can't recreate a very well known piece with things around their house. Thus, if the amounts of people who can participate in and who can appreciate a social media challenge are relevant to the challenge's success, then this challenge is not the most successful.