Monday, March 24, 2008

The IMA's blog

Earlier this month Tyler Green, of Modern Art Notes, had this to say about the IMA and their fairly new blog:

The Indianapolis Museum of Art might be the web-smartest museum in America, and its blog is one of my favorite daily reads. The posts are all over the place, from moaning about the city's lack of an art critic to Julian Opie dancing in snow.

And again this week he reiterates his approval with this statement:

Saying it again: The Indianapolis Museum of Art's blog is the best museo-blog out there. Who else is encouraging their community to create Wikipedia entries about works in the museum's collection? (The museum ought offer more than a link to wiki-ers. What about a t-shirt? Or a membership?)


Congrats to our friends and fellow bloggers at the IMA. Keep the bar set high and continue to have fun with your blog. After all, aside from being informative, blogs should have an element of ease and fun about them. I have been keeping up with their posts since they started. One of the great things about the IMA in its current state, is that simple statements, or suggestions like Tyler's concerning giving memberships or t-shirts to those "wiki-ers" who create entries about the IMA's collection, is that it may very well happen. I think it is this willingness to embrace newer ways to reach the public and listen to different views, along with keeping things youthful and fresh, that will continue to revitalize the museum and break the mindset that some people hold that museums are stuffy old places.

Congrats.

6 Responses to “The IMA's blog”

Liriodendron said...
March 24, 2008 at 10:16 AM

Hmmmm... never been there, but the last thing I need to do is to spend more time on the internet. Spring is coming!


The Urbanophile said...
March 24, 2008 at 11:56 AM

The IMA blog is nice. The IMA main entry on Wikipedia is simply one of the best for any musuem, though is probably too liberally sprinkled with unsubstantiated superlatives.

The overall design of the IMA web site is not good, however. Do this test: go to www.imamuseum.org and ask yourself where the link to the blog is.


Richard McCoy said...
March 24, 2008 at 12:49 PM

Thanks for the notice about the IMA Blog, Scott.

I'm a bit surprised to see that urbanophile thought the IMA has the best Wikipedia entry around. I'm not sure I agree, and I work there. I'd like to see a discussion of the buildings, and some more pictures.


I'm impressed with MoMA's entry, but mainly because it had links to individual entries about artworks in the collection. And I like the Getty's entry.

Don't get me wrong, though, there are a lot of museum entries that just aren't up to speed yet.


The Urbanophile said...
March 24, 2008 at 12:54 PM

Richard, I was mostly speaking, as I usually do, in reference to peer city museums. Check out the entries for the Columbus Museum of Art, the Speed Museum in Louisville, or the Cincinnati Art Museum for comparison's sake. Most of them don't even talk about the most important thing - the collections.


Anonymous said...
March 24, 2008 at 4:51 PM

Scott-Thanks for your shout out and all of your invaluable advice. We IMA bloggers are all big fans of On The Cusp.


Richard McCoy said...
March 26, 2008 at 1:35 PM

Yeah, you're right, urbanophile. Those entries could use some work. The CAM has such a great collection, too.

Hey, but check this out, I've negotiated a real incentive for making a Wikipedia entry about one of the IMA's outdoor sculpture:

http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/03/26/wikipedia-entries-its-just-lunch/


All Rights Reserved OnTheCusp.org | Blogger Template by Bloggermint