Audiences

Tell your museum stories as part of #MuseumFromHome

Vajiko Chachkhiani, Life Track, 2015, video installation at Old Paradise Gardens, London. Curated by Hayward Gallery for Art Night 2018.
Vajiko Chachkhiani, Life Track, 2015, video installation at Old Paradise Gardens, London. Curated by Hayward Gallery for Art Night 2018.

On 30 April the BBC will be celebrating and sharing the activities of museums and galleries across the UK. Here’s how to get involved.

Art Fund has joined forces with the BBC, along with the National Museum Directors’ Council, the Museums Association and the team behind #MuseumFromHome, to deliver a whole day of broadcast and social media activity celebrating museums.

On Thursday 30 April, bbc.co.uk/arts will be populated with livestreams, films and more museum content – and museums and galleries are encouraged to share their own content on social on the day using the hashtag #MuseumFromHome for the opportunity to be featured.

Whether it’s a video, blog, picture or simply a great story, the BBC will aim to highlight as much content as possible across their accounts.

We've also co-produced two short films with the BBC that will take audiences inside two exhibitions unable to open due to the crisis. The first of these uncovers the story behind one of the most influential punk albums of all time, The Clash’s London Calling. Taking place at the Museum of London and featuring personal objects, images, music and memories from the band’s history, the exhibition faced an early closure due to the lockdown.

The second, which would have been open at the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich, explores how the Art Deco style shaped the seaside of the 1920s and 30s, as a new age of mass tourism and modern coastal resorts flourished around the UK. Both exhibitions can be enjoyed in all their glory on BBC iPlayer from 30 April.

The aim of the day is to ensure that people can continue to have access to the museum collections and exhibitions they love, even when they cannot enter the buildings that house them – and to get everyone talking about museums.

We’ll be encouraging museums in our network to shout about the great work they’ve been doing and all the ways to engage with them from home, across their digital channels.

We'd especially like to refer participating museums and galleries to the Disability Collaborative Network's helpful guidance on creating inclusive social media content. Further information and resources on making digital content accessible are available via Stagetext and Vocal Eyes.

#MuseumFromHome will be the culmination of the BBC’s week-long celebration of museums and galleries, Museums in Quarantine – itself part of the broadcaster’s wider Culture in Quarantine initiative.