Museums get the wrong end of the (selfie) stick

Several galleries and museums have banned selfie sticks because of the danger they present to artworks.

18 Feb 2015

Gina Fairley

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Visual Arts

Many galleries love selfies.They are a great way to get the public to engage with the artwork and to provide free publicity by sharing an image taken at an exhibition on social media.

But selfie-lovers increasingly come with selfie sticks, something galleries do not like at all. The sticks are long, hard to control and potentially dangerous to artworks.

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Gina Fairley is ArtsHub's National Visual Arts Editor. For a decade she worked as a freelance writer and curator across Southeast Asia and was previously the Regional Contributing Editor for Hong Kong based magazines Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. Prior to writing she worked as an arts manager in America and Australia for 14 years, including the regional gallery, biennale and commercial sectors. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW. Twitter: @ginafairley Instagram: fairleygina