Feb 05 2009
Crowdsourcing the Smithsonian: There are prizes!
Fifteen museums and cultural institutions (including the Smithsonian American Art Museum) are participating in Wikipedia Loves Art , a scavenger hunt/content-building contest that looks like a whole lot of fun. Check out the Flickr group and rules here.
Some of the prizes that looked most toothsome to me:
- Indianapolis Museum of Art
The photographer with the most points (who shot at IMA) will win a fabulous prize package that includes a FREE iPod Touch, a fabulous IMA Blog t-shirt and a limited edition IMA Blog Rubik’s Cube.
- Museum of Modern Art
Private after-hours tour for up to 10 people guided by an art historian.
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
The winner(s) will receive a boxed set of books from our “Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum” series. In addition they will receive a special American Art Museum tote with an imprinted design based on our Kogod Courtyard roof, a tie featuring our building, a boxed set of museum note cards, and a copy of our publication Temple of Invention, about our historic building.
What are you waiting for? Get out there with your camera, and don’t forget to include me when you win that free membership or iPod! (Thanks to Jeff Gates over at the Smithsonian Eye-Level Blog for this one!)
A (somewhat) similar local project is happening on Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio at Gallery Hop in the Short North. Several shops will be holding a photo scavenger hunt using Twitter, with gift certificate prizes. I didn’t find any information about what they’ll do with the pictures at the end, but it’s still a neat way to get patrons participating. Follow the Tweets here.
These are pretty low-budget ways to get tech-savvy folks involved that might otherwise never set foot (virtually or otherwise) in your establishment. Could you make this work for your institution, too?