- Categories:
- Arts & Entertainment
- Tags:
- Activities
- Where:
- United States
- Date change rule:
- 3rd Wednesday of January
- Holiday emoji:
- 🤳
Museum Selfie Day invites art enthusiasts and casual visitors alike to capture their best museum-themed selfies every third Wednesday in January. This global trend, sparked by London blogger Mar Dixon, encourages a fresh, interactive way to engage with art and culture. Share your creative shots, explore new exhibits, and connect with fellow art lovers online!
Want to sponsor Museum Selfie Day? Learn how
Expected Museum Selfie Day Deals
While official 2027 promotions are still under wraps, Museum Selfie Day often inspires unique engagement. Many museums, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Smithsonian, relax photography rules and encourage sharing. Look for special events, guided tours with selfie stops, or even gift shop discounts on art-themed merchandise. Tech brands like Apple and Samsung might feature tips for better smartphone photography, while apps like Google Arts & Culture could highlight selfie-friendly exhibits. We will update this page with confirmed live deals as January approaches.
Platform Guide for Museum Selfie Day
Tag @nationaltoday_ and use #MuseumSelfieDay. Share your most creative and respectful museum selfies, highlighting the art or exhibit you’re with.
TikTok
Tag @www.nationaltoday.com and use #MuseumSelfieDay. Create short, engaging videos showcasing your museum visit, from finding the perfect spot to striking a pose.
X/Twitter
Mention @NatlToday and use #MuseumSelfieDay. Tweet about your favorite museum experiences, share your selfies, and engage with other art and culture enthusiasts.
Museum Selfie Day Hero
Mar Dixon
Museum Selfie Day timeline
Robert Cornelius, an American pioneer in photography, takes the first-ever photographic self-portrait.
An Australian doctor posts a photograph of his face with a punctured bottom lip after falling over, drunk, apologizing for the quality as it is a 'selfie'.
Italian media artist Alberto Frigo starts taking pictures of objects in his right hand.
The Sony Ericsson Z101 mobile phone first introduces the concept of the front-facing camera.
How Businesses Can Celebrate Museum Selfie Day
Local museums and art galleries can host special ‘Selfie Zones’ with optimal lighting and backdrops, or offer guided tours that highlight selfie-friendly exhibits. Photography studios or phone retailers could run workshops on capturing the perfect museum selfie, promoting their services or devices. Even local cafes near cultural institutions can offer discounts to visitors who show their museum selfie, creating a fun, community-wide celebration.
Museum Selfie Day FAQs
When is Museum Selfie Day?
In 2027, Museum Selfie Day will be observed on Wednesday, January 20, providing another opportunity to celebrate art and culture through a modern lens.
How many museums participate in Museum Selfie Day?
The event sees widespread international participation, with museums across more than 50 countries engaging their audiences. This includes art galleries, history museums, and science centers.
Who started Museum Selfie Day?
The concept originated with Mar Dixon, who sought to leverage social media to make museums more accessible and interactive, transforming the visitor experience into a shared online event.
What makes a good museum selfie?
The best museum selfies are creative, clear, and mindful of museum rules. Consider the background, avoid flash photography, and try to convey a personal connection to the exhibit or artwork.
Museum Selfie Day Activities
Pick a museum that is out of your comfort zone
We’re big fans of the classic museums that all of us have been too, but don’t forget the other 35,000 museums in America. That’s more than double the 17,500 museums that were open in the 1990's. It's a testament to the curators and dedicated museum staff all over the country who keep the things going. Make a genuine discovery with a museum you haven't been to yet.
Take a museum selfie
Admittedly this is a pretty out-there idea for celebrating National Museum Selfie day, but we’re going to run with it. Remember lighting. Remember to be creative. And of course, darling, remember your best angles. Hashtag it with the name of the day, and get that sucker online, because a selfie isn’t a selfie if nobody is there to witness it on social media. This is philosophical. You’ll understand it in due course, my child.
Check out the best museum selfies from all over the world
Major media has been tracking the evolution of Museum Selfie Day since it started, and that means if you take a really good one there’s a good chance you might even make it on CNN’s website. Some of the pictures are so good that at some point, there may have to be a museum of museum selfies, in which you could take a selfie, and then post THAT online—leading to a museum of museums of museum selfies. Again, it’s philosophical. But museums are intended to broaden our minds!
Why We Love Museum Selfie Day
It’s an opportunity to be creative
Whether you’re posing with your favorite dinosaur skeleton or Photoshopping yourself into a famous painting—whether you're making light of a serious topic or making serious with a light one—there are only a few museums in the world where taking a selfie really is inappropriate. We really like the “selfies” where people pretend that an exhibit of, say, William Shakespeare, took the picture themselves.
It brings museums to life
But not like that Ben Stiller movie, “Night of the Museum.” Exploring a museum with social media in mind gives you the opportunity to connect to its exhibits with your friends and networks. It gives the exhibits themselves broader reach rather than being stuck in time. Mark Zuckerberg has often spoken about the desire for Facebook to connect people to things broader than themselves—this is a perfect example of how you can use it to do that.
Cameras are getting better all the time
Smartphone cameras are able to function in the most challenging photographic circumstances. Areas where it might once have been too dark to take a selfie, or too difficult to carry a camera, are opened as possible areas to explore. As the technology improves, and don’t forget video selfies, slow-motion selfies, and all the other kinds of filtered selfies available. We can all do something new and unique with our valuable cultural history.
Museum Selfie Day dates
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | January 15 | Wednesday |
| 2026 | January 21 | Wednesday |
| 2027 | January 20 | Wednesday |
| 2028 | January 19 | Wednesday |
| 2029 | January 17 | Wednesday |
Social Media Tips for Museum Selfie Day
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