Millions of people have watched, liked and shared a series of live Facebook broadcasts featuring five of Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflower paintings held by different museums across the world.
Five museums, including the National Gallery in London, took part in Sunflowers Live on 14 August, which saw a consecutive relay of Facebook Live broadcasts. Each film was filmed in front of the museums’ respective versions of the artist’s most famous paintings, and features commentary from curators and other experts.
It is the first time that international institutions have collaborated to create a relay of live Facebook broadcasts.
The broadcasts can be viewed on Facebook via the following links:
The films continue to be viewed by Facebook users across the world, and at the time of writing had been viewed more than 4.5m times.
The National Gallery’s 15-minute live broadcast alone had more than 1.3m views, 16,000 likes and 4,000 shares. The project also saw the London gallery’s Facebook supporters grow by more than 8,500 users.
Chris Michaels, the digital director at the National Gallery, said views of its broadcast were higher the day after the live event, partly as a result of media coverage – but added that the life of Facebook Live films was about four days.
The gallery has been using Facebook Live for about 18 months, producing a film every two weeks.
Michaels said: “Live streaming on Facebook, Periscope and LinkedIn’s soon-to-be launched live service is a very powerful thing for museums. It’s easy and cheap to produce films, and it is brilliant for the audience as it’s very intimate and brings them as close to curatorial knowledge and art as it’s possible to be virtually.”
The five Sunflowers Live museums also worked with Facebook to create an immersive digital exhibition called Sunflowers 360.
The experience imagines a gallery where all five Sunflower paintings are on display together.
Using Gear VR or watching the 360 video on Facebook, viewers can rotate around a 360-degree space where the paintings are on display or go on a guided tour of each painting. Willem van Gogh, the great-grandson of Van Gogh’s brother Theo, narrates the experience, sharing his personal memories of the paintings.
At the time of writing, 6.3m people had visited the Sunflowers 360 virtual exhibition on Facebook.
Five museums, including the National Gallery in London, took part in Sunflowers Live on 14 August, which saw a consecutive relay of Facebook Live broadcasts. Each film was filmed in front of the museums’ respective versions of the artist’s most famous paintings, and features commentary from curators and other experts.
It is the first time that international institutions have collaborated to create a relay of live Facebook broadcasts.
The broadcasts can be viewed on Facebook via the following links:
- National Gallery, London, UK
- Neue Pinakotheken, Munich, Germany
- Philadelphia Museum of Art, US
- Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Museum, Tokyo, Japan
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
The films continue to be viewed by Facebook users across the world, and at the time of writing had been viewed more than 4.5m times.
The National Gallery’s 15-minute live broadcast alone had more than 1.3m views, 16,000 likes and 4,000 shares. The project also saw the London gallery’s Facebook supporters grow by more than 8,500 users.
Chris Michaels, the digital director at the National Gallery, said views of its broadcast were higher the day after the live event, partly as a result of media coverage – but added that the life of Facebook Live films was about four days.
The gallery has been using Facebook Live for about 18 months, producing a film every two weeks.
Michaels said: “Live streaming on Facebook, Periscope and LinkedIn’s soon-to-be launched live service is a very powerful thing for museums. It’s easy and cheap to produce films, and it is brilliant for the audience as it’s very intimate and brings them as close to curatorial knowledge and art as it’s possible to be virtually.”
The five Sunflowers Live museums also worked with Facebook to create an immersive digital exhibition called Sunflowers 360.
The experience imagines a gallery where all five Sunflower paintings are on display together.
Using Gear VR or watching the 360 video on Facebook, viewers can rotate around a 360-degree space where the paintings are on display or go on a guided tour of each painting. Willem van Gogh, the great-grandson of Van Gogh’s brother Theo, narrates the experience, sharing his personal memories of the paintings.
At the time of writing, 6.3m people had visited the Sunflowers 360 virtual exhibition on Facebook.