Earlier in the year, Agora Gallery developed its online presence by moving into the world of social media. The blog, Agora Art, discusses trends and interesting news items from the art world and provides a forum for artists and art enthusiasts to share opinions, ideas and inspiration. Agora Gallery’s Facebook page is an excellent way to keep in touch with the latest events at the gallery, whilst the Twitter feed keeps followers up to date with recent developments in the global art scene.

In many ways, this was a symptom of natural growth and of Agora Gallery’s commitment to using the best of modern communication tools to share and spread news about the gallery, artists, and the wider art world. Social media has become increasingly prominent in the past year or so. It played a role in last year’s presidential campaign and continues to be utilized effectively by the current White House administration – FDR had a weekly radio broadcast, but the current President uses online video site YouTube to get his message across to the people. Twitter, which allows users to share information in updates of up to 140 characters, or ‘tweets’ – of which there are about three million a day – proved vital in monitoring the unfolding events surrounding the Iranian election protests. Social networks account for about ten percent of internet usage – particularly Facebook, which has a ‘population’ so large that if it were a country it would be the eighth most populated in the world.

Yet despite all this, many people still have difficulty in appreciating the benefit social media can have when it comes to the arts. Social media, they say, is either social, a way to keep in touch with friends, see their photos or videos or news, or media related, a way of sharing news or advertising products. It is true that social media is both of these things. But that doesn’t mean that it has nothing to do with art. On the contrary, these elements bear a crucial relevance to the arts world.

The fact is that publicizing events is as vital to arts organizations as it is to any other. It doesn’t matter how great your exhibition is, or how fantastic your performers are going to be, if no one gets to hear about it. For that reason if no other, it is important to participate in the online networks where so many people go to share news and find out what is going on in their town, city or holiday destination. Not accepting this reality risks alienating a powerful potential source of visitors, audience members and clients.

On the other hand, social media is primarily social. It is not enough – indeed, it may be counter-productive – merely to advertise products or performances. To use it properly, arts organizations must engage with their audience. With the growth of the internet, people increasingly demand personalization, a face behind the brand. They want to hear about how this exhibition was put together, what the thinking was behind this choice of music, or why those individuals were chosen to be involved with a project. And they discuss it, what they think about it, and why. Now, this is going to happen anyway – for example, within a week of the LACMA announcement in July that they were discontinuing their 40-year old film program, an aggressive Facebook campaign, complete with online petition, had been formed with over a thousand members (after which potential donors began coming forward and the project was given a new lease of life). People talk. They just do, it’s one of the things that makes us human – we all like to chat about our pet interests or favorite topics, and many of us are aware that we can find like-minded people who share those interests in online communities. That means that an art museum, for example, which doesn’t interact with these discussions comes across as forbidding and somewhat behind the times. On the other hand, one which participates in conversations, responds to ideas or criticism, and shows interest in people’s thoughts has a golden opportunity to assure their key audience that they are appreciated, involve new customers and gain fascinating, up to date feedback from people who will be happy to explain themselves, elaborate, or discuss.

This leads to the other aspect of social media which has such enormous potential value for the arts. The difficulty of getting people involved and enthused about cultural events or activities has long been a subject of concern in the arts world. Social media offers the possibility of both engaging new interest and developing new ways for people to interact with the material. Opera Columbus, for instance, hosted a special dress rehearsal of The Pearl Fishers during which audience members were encouraged to tweet their impressions, allowing them to play a more active role in the experience, share their discoveries, and concentrate more closely on the details of the performance. Lisa Minken, director of marketing, said that “the most rewarding thing was hearing people say [online], 'I've never been to the opera before; I love it' or 'I'm so surprised,'.” America’s National Symphony Orchestra also experimented with a performance of Beethoven’s Pastoral during which the conductor tweeted out comments on the part of the score being played, gave extra background to the piece, and tried to set the work in context. There were mixed reactions, which illustrated both the power of the technique in terms of generating discussion and the joy which some people felt at participating more in the performance.

With the growth of social media, it has become easier for people to view themselves in the role of producers, creators, as well as consumers or customers. This is particularly true of the art world, where the appropriateness of the new ability to build and form as well as appreciate is very obvious. MoMA’s new website, launched in March, not only links to the museum’s social media pages, but allows visitors to create online exhibitions and ‘collect’ works of art virtually as they walk around the gallery, using their mobile phone – so that they can view their personal ‘collection’ back home, on the website. The Brooklyn Museum’s site encourages visitors to explore their online gallery of artwork, resulting in a comment section well worth reading. Artists and art-lovers now have the opportunity to become involved and great creative with art that they see as well as with their own work. It’s a natural and very interesting transition. We should be aware of the new elements which social media brings to the art world, explore the possibilities it generates and welcome the opportunity to be part of developing its potential to the fullest. It has much to offer the art world, and, in turn, the art world has much of value to introduce to the wider world, in an open and engaging manner – through social media.

To get involved with Agora Gallery through social media, become a fan of our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/AgoraGalleryNY), follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/Agora_Gallery) and join in the discussion on our blog (http://agoraartgalleryblog.com/).