Most Connecticut Museums Still Allowing Selfie Sticks, For Now

Selfie sticks are the talk of the museum world. Those extender poles used to widen the panoramic range of a selfie have become popular with the general public and museum visitors, who want to show more of the artworks in the background of their snapshot. (Selfie-stick users apparently wouldn’t dream of going old-school and just asking a stranger to take their picture.)

Museums around the country are starting to ban selfie sticks, on the assumption that a careless wayward swing might damage an artwork, or that a shooter might lose sight of his surroundings and fall and endanger himself and the people and things around him.

Most museums in Connecticut say use of the social media tool hasn’t become an issue, at least not yet, but they will be watching.

So far only the Wadsworth Athenuem has actually banned the sticks.

Amanda Young at Wadsworth Atheneum said selfie sticks are banned at the Hartford museum.

“Selfie sticks fall under the category of items that are not allowed in our galleries: ‘Sharp or pointed objects are not permitted in the galleries, including scissors, umbrellas, and other pointed objects’,” she said. “So, they would not be permitted. No word yet on whether we might actually call [visitors] out in our policy.”

The New Britain Museum of American Art enthusiastically encourages visitors to take selfies, without flash.

“Syl,” Syl Sijan’s uncommonly realistic sculpture of a security guard that stands watch at the doorway to the galleries, is an especially popular selfie-mate. But museum spokeswoman Melissa Nardiello said NBMAA doesn’t ban selfie sticks and hasn’t seen any of them.

“The current stance is that unless it becomes a problem — people hitting art or other with them — we don’t see a reason to not allow them,” she said.

Carla Galfano, registrar and assistant curator at William Benton Museum of Art at UConn in Storrs, also hasn’t heard of any selfie sticks in their galleries.

“I think a pre-emptive ban would just be silly. We should mention it to our guards, though, so that they can be on the lookout,” Galfano said.

Joellen Adae of Yale University Art Gallery said “We do not currently have a ban on selfie sticks and I don’t think we’ve encountered their use at the gallery. It is however, something which we’ll be discussing with our security team and administration,” she said. “It seems like there is now an opportunity for a proactive rather than reactive policy.”

Cynthia Roznoy, curator at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, said that museum doesn’t ban the sticks, but a review of their policy is coming up. “We only ban large bags and umbrellas and with special exhibits we ban photography,” Roznoy said.

Tammi Flynn of the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme said the museum in general discourages photography of works not in its permanent collection, because of loan agreements, but encourages selfies with its own artworks. But she added “The safety of the artwork is foremost. If we see something that is the least bit concerning we address it. In the case of a selfie stick we would probably offer to take the picture for them.”

Peter Sutton, director of the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, said the issue hasn’t come up, but “like umbrellas and backpacks or any other large or long personal items that could inadvertently damage works of art, I would exclude them from the galleries.”