Guggenheim Logs on to YouTube

Posted on 21. Jun, 2010 by Glow Images in Interesting News, Recent Posts

The Guggenheim Foundation is teaming up with YouTube for a project designed to give budding artists a chance to shine. Artists can submit their work through YouTube for the chance to be featured in a video-art exhibit in all the Guggenheim’s museum. The project has been coined “YouTube Play”.

They are encouraging everyone to get involved, even those who do not consider themselves to be “artists”. Wider ranges of experience and training will promote an almost unfathomable variety of entries. Nancy Spector, deputy director and chief curator of the Guggenheim Foundation said, “We’re looking for things we haven’t seen before.”

Things we haven’t seen before! That is a bold statement and a breakaway from traditional art museum biases. High art is embracing the common man, or at least the possibility that the common man can create something uncommon.

There are some that think this cheapens or undermines true art. Especially, among those who believe that art is for artists, curators, and museums, there is worry that what makes it to the public will be not be up to the traditional high standards of museums.

On the other side, the Guggenheim sees this as way to discover new talent and artworks that may have otherwise been overlooked. They also believe that because this is only one their many programs, the Guggenheim will retain its tradition of quality.

Besides, it’s not as though “Man Getting Hit by Football” or “David after Dentist” will be chosen. Guggenheim curators will review the thousands of entries and narrow them down for a panel of nine professionals. This panel will then narrow it down to the 20 entries that will be featured in the museum exhibits.

For more details about the YouTube Play project, visit http://www.youtube.com/play or check out this article from the New York Times.

This is a daunting task for the Guggenheim to take on, but the results could be brilliant. You don’t have to be Da Vinci to be an artist. So get out there and get your cameras rolling!

Tags: art, artists, Glow Images, glowimages.com, guggenheim, museum, stock images, stock photography, stock photos, youtube, youtube play