Museum encourages guests to draw instead of take pictures

At a time when selfies are all the rage and every device under the moon can manage a snap shot, a museum in Amsterdam is asking visitors to put away their cameras and sketch instead.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has started a campaign called, #Startdrawing that encourages guests to sketch rather than snap pictures of its works of art.

While the Rijksmuseum hasn’t totally banned the use of cameras or mobile phones on its premises, it has strongly discouraged it by displaying an image of a crossed-out camera right above its main entrance.

Speaking on the project in a statement, Rijksmuseum said they believe the media has devolved a visit to a museum into “a passive and superficial experience.”

They said further,

"Visitors are easily distracted and do not truly experience beauty, magic and wonder. This is why the Rijksmuseum wants to help visitors discover and appreciate the beauty of art and history through drawing, so #startdrawing!”

Worried that you can't draw and thus won't be able to participate in this challenge? Not a problem.

The museum announced #startdrawing is for everyone and "you don’t even have to be able to draw because this is not about the final result but rather about looking at what you want to draw"

According to them, this is because "when you do this, you begin to see things you never noticed before. You see proportions, details, lines … you get closer to the artist’s secret.”

#Startdrawing was launched on October 24th in conjunction with The Big Draw festival, in which the museum handed out sketchbooks and pencils to visitors.