#BotticelliSpringMarathon: a 10-day digital marathon and a photo contest about Botticelli's Spring

This year the Uffizi Galleries will welcome the return of Spring in a very original way, through a Twitter campaign dedicated to Sandro Botticelli. #BotticelliSpringMarathon is the 10-day event organized by the Digital Communications Dept. of the Uffizi, which is open to all followers, supporters, digital media surfers or simply curious people.

The marathon’s start is on 21st March: the Uffizi invite everyone to share, on that day only, their personal pics or captivating reinterpretations and versions of the famous Spring by Botticelli on the @UffiziGalleries Twitter account with the dedicated hashtag #BotticelliSpringMarathon. “We really hope to be peacefully invaded by several photos taken both by on-site and online visitors, all coming to greet our timeless Spring”, says the staff of the Digital Communications Department. Besides, for the whole day a panel placed near the masterpiece will encourage visitors to make a pic and immediately tweet it to the Uffizi’s dashboard.

Be they original perspectives, selfies, adaptations or free compositions drawing inspiration from the famous Spring by Botticelli, the best pics will be selected to compose the next virtual exhibition of the Uffizi “With Spring in the Eye…”, which will be published on the official website www.uffizi.it. It is not necessary that the painting is the subject of the pic, therefore also on-line followers or people from afar can participate by sending their own personal and creative interpretations. The important is that they are captivating, evocative and adhering to Botticelli’s work. Selected pics will be made known on the Uffizi Galleries’ Twitter account. So every participant is invited to become follower of the famous museum in order to be regularly updated.

The campaign has been welcomed also by many famous international museums preserving works by Botticelli. They have enthusiastically accepted the Uffizi’s invitation to greet spring in the name of the Master. On 21st March in fact Louvre, Prado, National Gallery of London, National Gallery of Scotland, Hermitage, Puškin Museum, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum of Boston, Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, Museo Poldi Pezzoli will pay homage to the Uffizi Galleries by virtually donating, just for one day, the Botticellis from their collections, in particular details dealing with the specific subject of spring, nature and rebirth, which will be published on the Uffizi’s dashboard. 

“There is a great need for a new “renaissance” in our dark days, a new “spring” of regeneration for all the world. And who could symbolize it better than the genius of Botticelli?” – says Eike Schmidt, Director of the Uffizi Galleries - “A beautiful initiative of the Digital Communications Dept., which has been able to make the Uffizi the leading museum of this international social media campaign. This shows that the biggest museums of the world are not secluded within their own activities but they are rather able to network with each other. We have launched the idea and other museums have welcomed it with enthusiasm to realize a funny and almost fictional enterprise: a global cross-border and hyper exhibition about Botticelli involving the most famous musems of the world at the same time, from the U.S.A. to Spain, from France and England to Russia. The peaceful power of digital goes beyond borders!”.   

To conclude, after 21st March, the marathon keeps on for the following 10 days: the Uffizi Galleries will in fact share on Twitter short clips about the other works by Botticelli currently preserved at the Uffizi and Pitti Palace. Of course the focus will be again on the subject of spring at large.

So all that is left is to become followers of the Uffizi Galleries’ twitter account and wait for 21st March, when we all can send our photos and free interpretations of Botticelli’s Spring. Join in everybody!