Engaged in their scholarly pursuits, museum curators aren't usually accessible to the general art-loving public, never mind the unwashed masses on the Internet.
But on Wednesday, a handful of curators from some of the top museums around the world will be answering questions via Twitter as part of "Ask a Curator" -- an online program involving institutions from 23 different countries.
Anyone with a Twitter account can post a question by appending the #askacurator tag to the end of their tweets. A curator from any of the participating museums will respond to the question via the institution's Twitter account.
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles is one of two Southern California museums taking part in "Ask a Curator." (The other is the San Diego Museum of Art.)
"Ask a Curator" is organized by a group called Museum Marketing that seeks to promote museum awareness via social media and other online means. Earlier this year, it organized "Follow a Museum Day," which encouraged people to start following museums on Twitter.
Other museums that are participating in "Ask a Curator" are the Art Institute of Chicago, the British Museum, the Tate, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Kimbell Art Museum, the Field Museum and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
-- David Ng
Photo credit: MOCA