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32 Museums Across NYC Are 'Trading Places' And Taking Fans With Them

During #MuseumInstaSwap, institutions are switching accounts and exploring each other's collections.
Priscilla Frank
By 

Arts and Culture Reporter, HuffPost

Angelo Hornak via Getty Images

On April 26, museums across New York City are switching Instagram accounts with one another for the sake of art lovers everywhere. The social media initiative, called #MuseumInstaSwap, hopes to introduce loyal followers of certain institutions to other local spots they have not yet explored.

It’s basically “Freaky Friday,” but with museums.

There are 32 museums participating in the campaign, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Jewish Museum, the El Museo del Barrio, the Met Breuer, MoMA PS1 and many more institutions that are must-visits for people living in or traveling to NYC.

During #MuseumInstaSwap, each participating organization is assigned a partner museum and, throughout the day, is encouraged to post photos from the other’s collection, giving peeks into rarely seen corners while drawing parallels to their own holdings.

Museums can sometimes feel like isolated, enclosed worlds, but they are in fact part of a significant network of New York art centers, engaged in constant conversation. The swap hopes to illuminate the connections between museums like the American Folk Art Museum and the Japan Society, or the New Museum and the Drawing Center, thereby enhancing the experience of both.

This year, most major New York institutions seem to be participating, though some historic havens like the Met are represented by their smaller outposts ― the Met Breuer. A few particularly interesting partnerships include the Museum of the City of New York and the Queens Museum, meant to illustrate the ways in which the two New York establishments approach the city’s history. The American Folk-Japan Society swap started the morning off by introducing their followers to the former’s stunning “Third Gender” show, now on view.

The social media initiative will hopefully introduce art lovers to new museums and collections they might not be familiar with, through the spaces they already know and love.

Follow #museuminstaswap today to get your full serving of art and museum history.

It’s here! #MuseumInstaswap 2017. This year we’re switching with the Queens Museum (@QueensMuseum). The Queens Museum was founded in 1972 and occupies the only surviving building from the 1939 World’s Fair, The New York City Building. It underwent an expansion in 2013 and now boasts multiple galleries in an enviably open and well-lit space. This picture is of what is the most recognizable item in the museum’s collection, Panorama of the City of New York. It was conceived by Robert Moses as a celebration of the City’s municipal infrastructure for the 1964 World’s Fair, and built by a team of over 100 over three years. When introduced, it included continuous lighting that cycled from dawn to dusk to night. In addition, colored lights highlighted the City’s municipal buildings – police precincts, firehouses, schools, hospitals, courthouses, libraries, public housing projects, as well as water, gas and electric stations. Another special effect? Moving airplanes arriving at and departing from LaGuardia Airport. In 1992, the original firm was tasked with updating the entire model, while the Museum was closed for a two-year renovation. Make sure to follow along with us and @QueensMuseum today to learn more about how our two museums celebrate NYC! #instaswap #NYC #quintessentiallynyc #seeyour city #Panorama

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Today is #MuseumInstaSwap day! We’ll be exploring works from @JapanSociety_NYC’s current #exhibition "A Third Gender: Beautiful Youths in Japanese Prints” and making connections between our two institutions. We hope you enjoy this unique exchange! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ “A Third Gender” is the first exhibition in North America dedicated to “wakashu,” the word for attractive young males who were considered neither men nor women, but who occupied a distinct and desirable third gender category during #Japan’s #Edo period (1603–1868). The numerous depictions of #wakashu in #prints and #paintings suggest their popularity and importance within the cultural fabric of the time. Featuring over 65 woodblock prints, “#AThirdGender” is largely comprised of works on paper, much like our two current #exhibitions #Gabritschevsky and #Zinelli. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ This late 18th–early 19th century “bijin-ga” (pictures of beauties) woodblock titled “Wakashu with a Shoulder Drum” is a great starting point in identifying wakashu through hairstyle. Having not yet transitioned into the role of an adult man—symbolized by the ceremonious removal of their entire forelocks—the wakashu can be identified by the small shaved spot on the crown of their heads. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Image: Wakashu with a Shoulder Drum, Hosoda Eisui (act. 1790–1823), late 18th–early 19th century, color #woodblock print, ROM, Sir Edmund Walker Collection, 926.18.701. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #museumlove #nyc #museums #japanese #worksonpaper #nycmuseum #JapanSociety

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It’s #MuseumInstaSwap and today @afamuseum is is taking over our account to show us what is on view at their institution at Lincoln Center! We will be introducing & drawing parallels between our our exhibitions and institutions all day long! We hope you enjoy 🤓! Like our current exhibition #AThirdGender, "Eugen Gabritschevsky:Theater of the Imperceptible" and "Carlo Zinelli (1916 ‒1974)" are the first major exhibitions focused on a particular subject matter- these artists’ works- in the United States. Both exhibitions illuminate these artists’ practices on works on paper. Eugen Gabritschevsky (1893–1979), was a Russian-born artist and scientist whose work relied on the “accidental image” that echo techniques and styles of surrealist artists. He once wrote that “there are some processes in art that engage the unforeseen, putting us in direct contact with the magical essence of nature.” Carlo Zinelli (1916 ‒1974) was a self-taught, Italian painter and a exemplary artist of art brut, a term coined by the painter Jean Dubuffet to refer to a range of art forms outside the conventional dictates of the art world. His works-often double sided-feature repetitions of his personal iconography, vocabulary, and format that link to his past. #gabritschevsky #Zinelli Carlo Zinelli (1916–1974) Untitled San Giacomo Hospital, Verona, Italy 1957–1958 Gouache on paper 19 1/2 × 27 1/2" Collection of Audrey B. Heckler Photo by Visko Hatfield © Fondazione Culturale Carlo Zinelli Eugen Gabritschevsky (1893–1979) Untitled Haar, Germany 1949 Gouache on paper

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A visit to the Neue Galerie (@neuegalerieny) is not complete without a long stop in front of Klimt's 'Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I' (also called The Lady in Gold or The Woman in Gold). ... You may recognize this stunning painting from the historical drama "Woman in Gold," starring Helen Mirren (@helenmirren) as Adele Bloch-Bauer's niece Maria Altmann, and Ryan Reynolds (@vancityreynolds) as lawyer Randol Schoenberg. The film is based upon the incredible true story of how Altmann, working in collaboration with Schoenberg, successfully sued the Austrian Government for the return of five Klimt paintings seized by the Nazis from the Bloch-Bauer family townhouse in Vienna during World War II. A treasure of the Neue Galerie collection, this 1907 painting by Gustav Klimt is the first of two portraits the artist painted of Bloch-Bauer. It has been referred to as the final and most fully representative work of his golden phase. It is on permanent display at the Neue Galerie as part of the largest Klimt collection in the U.S. * * * #MuseumInstaSwap #MorganLibrary x #NeueGalerie #Klimt #WomanInGold #AdeleBlochBauer #HelenMirren

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The Morgan Library and Museum (@themorganlibrary), located at Madison Avenue at 36th Street, is a veritable treasure chest! Home to illuminated, literary, and historical manuscripts, early printed books, and old master drawings and prints from the original collection of the financier Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913), today the Morgan also hosts major exhibitions every year across a complex of early 20th century buildings connected by a Renzo Piano-designed steel-and-glass pavilion. Swipe left for a slideshow of highlights from the Neue Galerie's private tour, including views from inside Mr. Morgan's sumptuously designed library and study (constructed by the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, 1902-06), a photograph of the Gutenberg Bible (1455, the first substantial book printed from movable type in the West, The Morgan owns three!), and a few snaps of our power lunch from the Morgan's café, hosted in the capacious Gilbert Court! #morganlibrary #museuminstaswap

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