MoMA relies on Twitter to poll the crowd on modern masterpieces.
http://www.psfk.com/2014/03/moma-treats-twitter-as-an-art-history-discussion-board.html

Why should the art critics have the final say? That’s a question that the modern and contemporary art establishment has been grappling with for a while. Museums like New York’s MoMA have the paradoxical role of both offering art up to the public view and keeping it ‘special’ by cordoning it off from the outside world. MoMA is recognizing the new functions of art and imagery on the internet now through a collaboration with creative agency POSSIBLE. Together, they’ve begun to disperse images of famous works in MoMA’s collection over Twitter and collect fans’ responses to them on the project’s central website, Art140.

John Tozzi for Bloomberg Businessweek

When Maxwell Anderson took over as director of the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) two years ago, he told the board he wanted to offer free memberships to anyone willing to share some data—even when it’s just their name and e-mail address. Anderson’s idea is novel in the staid world of art museums, but it echoes what companies such as Google (GOOG) and Facebook (FB) have long understood: Learning as much as you can about your customers’ behavior can be more valuable than the price of admission. “We’re trying to incentivize people to represent what they’re doing, where they’re going, and how they’re spending their time,” Anderson says.

Entry fees represent only a sliver of museum budgets except at a handful of global tourist destinations. At the DMA, admissions and entry-level memberships combined would have covered about 5 percent, or $1.2 million, of this year’s $24 million budget. Anderson is betting that by getting more people in the door and measuring their engagement he can use the information to persuade major donors, foundations, and the city—whose dollars make up the bulk of the budget—to increase their giving.

The Museum of Modern Art has plucked a former game designer from London to fill a newly created position aimed at defining and energizing its digital strategy.

The appointment of Fiona Romeo as director of digital content and strategy, announced Friday, is MoMA's latest move in a broader effort to engage audiences in the digital sphere. In 2012, MoMA created a position called director of research and development, in which Paola Antonelli has been experimenting with technology to reach audiences beyond the confines of the museum's physical space.

"The digital world is an essential part of the analog world—you can't even divide them," said Glenn Lowry, MoMA's director. "We realized there were dozens of digital projects we were developing, most often independently of each other. We need to start thinking seriously about pulling all these different strands together."