What’s Next After Instagram?
As someone who sees dozens of shows a week, I was fascinated to read Martha Schwendener’s recent New York Times roundup of the latest apps that organize, map, curate, and crowdsource exhibition listings. But as the article reveals, most art professionals still rely on the old-school app: Instagram. The popular feeds she mentioned included my own. So I guess it’s official—I’m an art influencer.
Not bad for a longtime magazine editor who started out in print. Over the last decade, since stepping down as the editor of ARTnews, I’ve achieved new levels of visibility and, yes, influence through my personal IG while building a business teaching social media skills to clients across the art industry. During that same time frame, the field went from being deeply skeptical of Instagram to embracing it wholeheartedly. Love it or hate it, for many art professionals Instagram has become an essential tool in our business and private lives.
But for how long?
The red flags multiply: corporate censorship, new rules enabling hate speech, the growing threat of AI, corporate tracking, government surveillance. As Instagram becomes unsafe for an increasing number of art world constituents, how soon will the tipping point come? And the next burning question: What can possibly replace the art world’s favorite app?
Meta refugees have been pondering life after IG for a while, populating Bluesky, YouTube, and TikTok, among other platforms. I predict that art institutions and professionals will end up migrating to Substack.
Substack has the potential to be a kind of content central for our industry, fulfilling the need to unify the various streams we’ve been producing over the last decade—from newsletters to social media posts to podcasts. There are no ads, because the business model is based on subscriptions. With robust tools to manage and curate content, Substack could become the platform where we find gallery listings and newsletters and reviews and community, all in one place.
Now, if this post inspires you to launch a Substack and start sharing your IG posts there, hold up. No social media strategy translates directly from platform to platform. Substack does accept photos and video, but it’s less image-centric than Instagram. As exhibition and event coverage migrates to Substack, expect newsletters to become more diaristic and chatty. Writing will matter more, as will headlines. There will be capacity to worry about, and new ways of assigning tasks and responsibilities…
In the new year, I’ll be back with more Substack tips—and news about my own Substack plans.
That said, my Instagram is not going anywhere.
