Want to take a self-portrait using your snazzy new selfie stick in front of London’s National Gallery? That’s fine.
But don’t try to use it inside the museum. The National Gallery has become the latest museum to ban the handy (or irritating, depending on your point of view) device.
The British museum joins the Smithsonian, New York’s Museum of Modern Art and a host of institutions around the world banning what the New York museum calls “camera extension poles.”
Before you pout that the ban is going to ruin your selfie for #MuseumSelfie Day next year, know that Mar Dixon, the day’s creator, supports the ban.
“I’m all for photos in museums as that is a memory — a personal memory — of your visit,” Dixon wrote in an email.
But not selfie sticks, which she says allow you to invade other people’s personal space. “They’re just as bad IMO as tripods or opening an umbrella.
“There is also a risk, while lining up your shot with a selfie stuck inside a museum or gallery, of knocking other people around you or worse, the art,” Dixon wrote. “Selfie sticks are brilliant, don’t get me wrong, but not inside museums and galleries. Outside and for other attractions they are perfect!”