The number of museums and cultural organizations around the world is growing at an exponential rate. As a result, it is essential that both old institutions and those new on the map have a strong identity, online presence and maintain interest among local and international audiences alike. Concurrently, cultural organizations strive to maintain a sense of authority and credibility. These pressures have added to the tension that has emerged between traditionalism, which uses the physical museum space and traditional media as the medium with which to communicate, and the curators and museum administrators, as the editors and publishers; and modernism, which embraces media practices outside the museum walls, including social media, which increasingly places control in the hands of the visitor. Where the democratization of museums was once viewed as a threat to these institutions, in many cases, so is new media. This paper will address the importance of incorporating social media into the marketing plans at museums: it will also distinguish social media from new media to highlight the ways technology is transforming our experience of both art and museums. Finally, it will examine a new genre in art, New Media Art, which is a product of the post-media condition in which we live, and exists in the intersection between art and science. The paper will conclude by positing that museums should capitalize on this cutting-edge genre and collaborate with New Media artists in order to leverage their cultural capital and find innovative ways to promote their brand through participatory, experiential installations that inspire activity in virtual and real spaces. In summary, this paper will propose that New Media Arts practices should be incorporated in social media strategies, both to facilitate the creation of the ‘third place,’ or online community with open source potential, and to reassert the museum as an institution with cultural relevance and leadership par excellence.
Key words: museums, art marketing, social media, new media, New Media Art, the third place, networked culture, networked information environment, post-media condition
