The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is enlisting shutterbugs to submit photos of friends, family members or strangers enjoying the museum.
The winning image in the MFAH's Wish You Were Here … photography contest — selected by Peter C. Marzio, the museum's director — will be featured in an ad campaign of the same name.
The victorious photographer gets $500, a one-year museum membership and a $25 MFAH shop gift card.
Up to four runners-up will receive $150 each, one-year museum memberships and advertising placements of their photos, which can be taken at the MFAH's Audrey Jones Beck Building, Caroline Wiess Law Building, Cullen Sculpture Garden, Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, Rienzi or the Glassell School of Art.
Contestants can enter by visiting the MFAH's social media group pages and adding up to three photos by 11:59 p.m. July 6. Marzio's selections will be posted on the MFAH's website and Flickr and Facebook group pages July 13.
Other museums have tapped visitors' talents for marketing purposes. Last year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York sponsored a similar photo contest and ad campaign called It's Time We Met, in which two winners and five runners-up were chosen from 999 submissions.
For a list of rules and access to the MFAH's Flickr and Facebook pages, visit dev.mfah.org/photocontest.
By DOUGLAS BRITT Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
June 7, 2010, 5:25PM
