Museum galleries—especially at those big, classic institutions—are often quiet places marked only by the sounds of muffled whispers, soft shuffling feet, and, between Monday-Friday, September-May, a school group or two winding their way through the halls, experimenting with the collective echo of their voices bouncing off the tall ceilings.
Love those quiet sounds and strolls?
Then you probably don’t need to read the rest of this post.
Want to encourage livelier conversations among your patrons?
Then check out this article from Quartz about six British museums that hung some fakes in their galleries and challenged museum goers to try and spot them.
Part of a British TV show called Fake! The Great Masterpiece Challenge, these museums—for a limited time only—challenged patrons to take a closer look at the works on their walls and identify which pieces among their collections were real, and which were fake.
Their goal? Get people to slow down in the galleries and spend a bit more time appreciating all the details that go in to a master work.
Taking it a step further
What else does this social experiment offer? Some new ideas for how you can encourage your audience to create connections with each other, to engage actively in the galleries, and to make new memories.
Read more about the museums that participated, and the grand prize for the best fake spotter at Quartz.