The Art of Pinning: Museum Pinners Worth Following

By Val Castronovo

Since its founding in 2010, Pinterest, the photo-sharing site that has become the third most popular social network after Facebook and Twitter, has been enthusiastically embraced by art museums across the country. A virtual bulletin board, Pinterest allows users — more than 70 million now — to set up “boards” to which they “pin” images of favorite things — in this case, artworks and artifacts culled from museum collections and archives.

Pinterest pages are now standard fare for art institutions, a way to promote their works and expand their audience — but also just to inspire.  Some boast hundreds of thousands of followers; others, mere hundreds.  Herewith a selection of some finely curated sites, including that of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, just named one of the 30 Pinners to Follow by Time Magazine in its 2013 roundup of expert users.  But first a look at some Pinterest pages from museums lining Manhattan’s Museum Mile:

 The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 http://pinterest.com/metmuseum/

 558, 919 Followers; 22 Boards; 1,252 Pins  (As of Sept. 9, 2013)

Note:  All figures for Followers, Boards and Pins in this article are subject to change

Favorite Boards:  The Cloisters; 82nd  & Fifth; Lady in Red; Connection/The Nose; Wicked Works 

Favorite Pin:  On The Cloisters Board: Former Met Director Philippe de Montebello’s world-class video tour of The Cloisters, commemorating this Upper Manhattan outpost’s 75th anniversary. Take in the medieval architecture and the glory of the unicorn tapestries. 

The Met’s Pinterest page offers a wide variety of lenses through which to view the richness of its collection.  Start with 82nd  & Fifth — a year-long series of mini-talks by 100 Met curators on the 100 works in the collection that inspired them.  Check each Wednesday for new installments about these transformative artworks. And get in the mood for Halloween by browsing Wicked Works, a board devoted to artistic renderings of spooky things — ghosts, skulls, witches, bats, vampires — you get the picture.

The Frick Collection

http://pinterest.com/frickcollection/

231 Followers; 14 Boards; 356 Pins

Favorite Boards:  Painting Highlights from the Permanent Collection; Art History’s Best Facial Hair; Clocks and Watches; Hats; A Girl’s Best Friend (it’s dogs, not diamonds)

Favorite Pin: On the Hats Board:  Titian’s Portrait of a Man in a Red Cap, c. 1510, oil on canvas; photo: Michael Bodycomb

Savor vicariously the splendor of Henry Clay Frick’s Gilded Age mansion and European art collection via this Pinterest page, which includes a “Fricktagram” board replete with Instagram photos (some illegal!) of the interior and exterior of this extraordinary building.  As one fan commented about an exterior view of the entrance on East 70th Street in Manhattan:  “That s [sic] how I like New york [sic]- classy, upscale and elegant.” See Clocks and Watches with items recently reviewed on SeniorWomen.com.  Museum gift shop devotees will also revel in The Museum Shop board — think tony mugs, totes and melamine plum blossom plates.