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If you message this number, it responds with works of art
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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art cares how you're feeling: text it and it will respond with a work of art. - photo by Bethany Hanks
American museums log approximately 850 million visits every year, according to the American Alliance of Museums. As large as that number is, it doesn't include online visits, as many museums also offer digital exhibits that can be accessed via the internet. Now, people can view artwork through a text message.

Time reported on June 10 that the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art will now text patrons a piece of artwork on request. This new feature, called Send Me, allows anyone to text the SFMOMA at 572-51 with the phrase, Send me, followed by a request.

The Deseret News tested out this feature by texting, Send me rain. The SFMOMA responded quickly with a work by mid-century New Zealand artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser titled "Green Power" (1972).



According to the Time article, the museum wanted to make more of its 34,678-piece collection available to the public, since only about 5 percent is typically on display.

The SFMOMA website breaks these numbers down in different ways. Although only 5 percent of the artwork is available for viewing in the museum, patrons would need to walk nearly seven miles to see everything on display. The website also says that the average visitor will spend about seven seconds looking at an individual piece. While the full meaning of each piece may be difficult to grasp in such a short time, if visitors were to look at each piece in the entire collections for seven seconds, it would take almost three days to finish.

While they don't imagine that people will get to see every single piece in the collection, the SFMOMA says this new feature will allow people to connect with art "in fun, new, and very personal ways."

Social media users are certainly taking advantage of this new feature, many of whom are sharing their responses on Twitter with #SendMeSFMOMA.

The feature is currently only available in the United States, but according to its Twitter account, the SFMOMA is hoping to expand it further.

















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