Hallway in Vatican Apostolic Library during #emptyVatican, captured by Livia Hengel
Half the museums and public spaces in the world, it seems, ban picture-taking…and the other half are too filled with visitors to make the pictures worthwhile. But the select few who know to watch for the #empty hashtag, as in #emptymet, #emptyROH and the like can find a paradise of interesting Instagram opportunities.
Perhaps you’d better start watching before everyone else catches on.
The movement was started by Dave Krugman, an Instagrammer who convinced (I’ve no idea how!) the Metropolitan Museum of Art to give him access after the day’s closing. He invited a few others, and they collected a host of views of the Met’s famous spaces and items, without the crowds. And the Museum got a host of new Instagram followers.
In London, Dolly Brown saw the shots, got the bug, and picked the Royal Opera House to ask for similar access. They were open to the idea, but at first not to the #empty tag; they explained that their space is never really empty. Brown convinced them that “the #empty movement is not that literal: it’s about linking social media to cultural institutions and providing access and insight to a younger audience who might otherwise not go to these places.”
This past week, another big institution went #empty—the Vatican. For exciting pictures from that event, in the Guardian (UK) click HERE For more about the other #empty events mentioned and about the movement itself, click HERE
