2023-07-08 18:09:53
The technicians who work in the back room of the museums they tend to live oblivious to popularity. His is the discreet world of looms, easels and fine brushes away from the spotlight and gaze. However, a restorer Prado Museum recently experienced an unexpected minute of fame where I least expected it. In a Zara in the center of Madrid, about to enter a fitting room, a saleswoman assaulted her to ask her excitedly: “You restore paintings, right? I know you from TikTok“.
The anecdote the proud account Javier Sainz de los Terreros, responsible for digital communication at the Prado, and gives a measure of the power that networks have today to give and take away social relevance based on their codes and interests, which are far from those of traditional channels, and the sense of smell that the Madrid art gallery when positioning itself in these new digital storefronts.
With over half a million followers on TikTok (532,000 at the close of this edition, but without stopping) and almost four and a half million likes, the Prado It is the museum with the largest presence from all over the planet on the viral video platform. Adding your community of Instagram, Twitter y Facebook, It is the ninth art center with the most followers in the world, a success that the community manager explains by appealing to the challenge that they set themselves years ago: “There are a lot of people out there interested in art who, in addition, is a user of social networks. You have to find a way to reach them, but you have to do it like it’s done in these new channels.”
With this leitmotif, the Prado Museum has been polishing its digital transcript since 2012 and fighting, based on videos, messages, stories and streamings, the ancient air that, a priori, could envelop an institution with its tradition and tradition. The name of the center evokes solemn halls covered in oil-scented historic linens, but for its wide legion of digital followers it is synonymous with attractive art history classes served up in three-minute clips and fun virtual tours through the corners of the museum that a normal visitor cannot see, but the network can show.
To the most viral content that they have posted on their profiles – a TikTok video where they explain how to watch ‘El lavatorio’ by Tintoretto to see it correctly, which leads four millions of visits-, the Prado arrived by way of trial and error. “Our secret has been to experiment. Before they became popular twitter threads, here we already made them to show the history behind some paintings”, explains Sainz de los Terreros.
#PublicationsPrado “Spanish Masterpieces from the Frick Collection”, the exhibition catalogue. Edition by Javier Portús, curator of the exhibition and Head of Conservation of Spanish Painting up to 1800 at the Prado Museum pic.twitter.com/VrVvZ1tKaV
— Prado Museum (@museodelprado) June 29, 2023
If Twitter pulled Periscope and Zuckerberg launched Facebook Live, The museum did not hesitate to play with these tools, just as it began to do with all the possibilities that Instagram offered to its users. The key, says the network expert, has been find the tone suitable for each platform. “You have to show yourself spontaneous because you are not addressing art specialists but the general public that sees you from the mobile, but you must contribute rigorous information”comments about the direct who, for five years, has uploaded every morning to Instagram showing unknown stories about the museum, its staff and its paintings, and the more than 200 videos that it has edited and broadcast since 2020 on TikTok Bernardo Pajareswho joined the team in the middle of the pandemic.
Prizes
This effort to “humanize the Pardo” in the networks has been rewarded: this year, the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences has awarded a prize Webby –the Internet Oscars-, to the account of TikTok of the museum, calling it “the best global initiative in the field of art and culture”. In 2019 y 2016the art gallery was already recognized in these awards for the design of its website and for an initiative they launched, #10yearchallenge, which showed characters from their canvases portrayed with a decade interval.
#10YearChallenge The Infanta Margarita portrayed by Velázquez at the age of 5 in “Las Meninas” in 1656 and by Martínez del Mazo in 1665-1666, shortly before marrying her uncle Emperor Leopoldo I. She would die at the age of 21 due to the consequences of her fourth Birth #Prado200 pic.twitter.com/ZcSTUNACoE
— Prado Museum (@museodelprado) January 24, 2019
In the ranking of museums with greater presence in social networks published by the prestigious international media The Art Newspaper, this year two more Spanish centers have slipped into the top 20, apart from the Prado: the Queen Sofia of Madrid, who has 1.6 million followers on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and the Guggenheim de Bilbao, which adds up to a million and a half on these three platforms.
Witnessing a work of art in a museum is something Personal and non-transferable, but museums seem to have found a way to adapt that experience to a new format on the networks.
“For us they are an extension of the museum, like one more room, but virtual. They help us to bring the exhibitions to homes,” he says. Alex Moltóhead of digital communication at the Reina Sofía.
Most of the 824,000 users of Instagram who are subscribed to the profile of the Guggenheim do not reside in the Basque Country. “And many of them may never visit us, but they interact with us daily. The network offers them a new way to enjoy the museum,” he adds. Begona Martinez Goyenaga, from the marketing area of the Guggenheim. The center is already in itself a work of artbut the networks manage to break down its curved titanium walls.
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