Read our recent post on the Brooklyn Museum going Web 2.0 about my fascination with a new membership initiative by the Brooklyn Museum. (The museum’s reply was by Will, who I am assuming is the same “Will, the Membership Guru” on the 1stfans homepage video.)
I decided to join, see for myself, and report back to you. There is a lot to be learned from creative online marketing (membership is a form of marketing) strategies in the art world like 1stfans. Things that other museums, galleries, and artists should be paying attention to.
In mean, think about it. These days, our museum memberships are the first things to be cut out of our budgets, aren’t they? But the Brooklyn Museum’s cheekiness has already won a new out-of-state member: me. Right now, this is the only museum membership I have. It was only $20, but they are the ones who got it.
So, what exactly does 1st friends offer?
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- mingle
at exclusive events during every Target First Saturday - access artist-created content
on our 1stfans Twitter Art Feed - receive updates
via Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, or e-mail - skip the movie lines
at Target First Saturday
- mingle
This is a great deal if you actually live near the Brooklyn Museum. But what about people like me who don’t?
That’s not a problem. The point here for me isn’t just joining, it’s learning about the ways that museums, galleries, and artists can use the internet to stay in circulation.
The question I want to experiment with is this:
Is it worth becoming members of museums we can’t visit?
I believe it can be. It just depends on how much of the life of the museum we can connect to virtually. I may not be able to visit exclusive events or skip the movie lines, but I am anxious to see if the artist-created content and the Facebook and Twitter updates are enlightening, exciting, or at least enriching.
Either way, it was only $20. And it’s a rather brave new experiment for them and I’m interested in seeing the results. I’ll let you know how it goes. And if you join, too, let me know what you think.
