I’ve incorporated Instagram takeovers into the social strategies of every account I’ve managed throughout my career. They are an effective, authentic way to reach new audiences, platform underrepresented demographics, and demonstrate an institution’s efforts to engage with crucial topics in an intentional way.
The Leslie Lohman Museum
In July 2020, I invited the Leslie Lohman Museum in New York City to stage a three-day takeover of the Guggenheim’s Instagram account. The intention behind this collaboration was to provide a platform to a smaller organization who was doing meaningful, tangible social justice work, through an artistic lens.
Leslie Lohman Museum used this opportunity to highlight the work of three vital LGBTQIA+ organizations: The Ali Forney Center, The Black Trans Travel Fund, and Black AIDS Institute. Each organization shared important information regarding their respective mission and specific calls to action. Additionally, The Ali Forney Center, which protects LGBTQIA+ youth from homelessness, shared artwork created by three of their teenage clients to the Guggenheim’s 2.6 million Instagram followers.
For Freedoms
In October 2020, ahead of the 2020 election, I partnered with For Freedoms, an artist-led organization that models and increases creative civic engagement, discourse, and direct action, for a two-day takeover of the Guggenheim’s Instagram account. Additionally, For Freedoms co-founders Hank Willis Thomas and Michelle Wu spoke about the importance of art and activism on a live-streamed Instagram video, which was viewed over 20,000 times.
Visual AIDS
In June 2021, in honor of Pride Month, I partnered with Visual AIDS, a non-profit that works to promote artists living with HIV and using art to educate and provoke dialogue, on a three-day takeover of the Guggenheim’s Instagram account. Visual AIDS shared information about their Artist+ Registry and Archive Project, which is the largest database and registry of works by visual artists with HIV/AIDS, their annual Day With(out) Art program, and a selection of thought-provoking statistics about HIV in the 21st century.
The World Around
In honor of Earth Day, I partnered with The World Around, a platform for contemporary design and architecture, for a takeover of the Guggenheim’s Instagram account. I showcased three experts in design and architecture, whose projects ranged from research on wetlands and industrialization, to short animated films exploring the problems and solutions that define our future.