A few months ago, Arianna Huffington published a piece on the Huffington Post questioning the role(s) social media should play in the museum experience. “The danger of social media becoming the point of social media — connection for connection’s sake, connection to no end — is one museums need to particularly guard against,” Huffington writes. “Reducing the museum experience to more apps providing more data is just as laughable as reducing the experience of going to church down to parishioners tweeting: ‘At church, pastor just mentioned loaves and fishes, anyone have some sushi recs for later?’”

This week, Knight Foundation Vice Presidents/Arts Dennis Scholl responds noting, among other things, that: “arts organizations must find a way to meet their audience where they are. And increasingly where they are is on the web.”

Scholl argues that, while “nothing replaces seeing Picasso’s Guernica at the Reina Sofia or Van Gogh’s Starry Starry night at MOMA,” museums cannot ignore the 53 hours a week the average 14-year-old spends online. He cites MOMA’s iPod app, the Bechtler Museum’s “School of Paris” microsite and the Wexner’s Pinocchioisonfire.org site – noting that each invites the user to curate his own experience.

“These digital user experiences provide an ancillary, enriching opportunity for visitors,” says Scholl. “But equally important, a rich direct experience to those who don’t have access to the real thing.” Click here to read the complete article