Will Pavia, Selfie sticks banned in top US galleries to protect exhibits New York, The Times, reprinted in The Australian
11 February 2015.

Some of America’s leading museums and galleries have banned the use of selfie sticks amid concerns that they pose a danger to visitors and valuable exhibits.

The sticks, extendible poles that clip onto mobile phones, have become familiar sights at tourist hotspots, where they allow the bearer to take a self-portrait from a distance, framing themselves against a famous landmark.

Their arrival in crowded halls and exhibition spaces, however, has prompted bans by museums in New York, Washington and Los Angeles.

At the Museum of Modern Art in New York, viewers cannot take pictures of themselves in front of the later works of Henri Matisse, a spokeswoman for the museum said.

“Visitors can take photos with handheld devices but we don’t permit extension devices,” she said.

The Guggenheim has banned the sticks, while the Frick Collection has posted a prohibition on its website.

Jennifer Northrop, director of communications at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, told a local CBS television station: “You can imagine the havoc a selfie stick might wreak in this kind of space.”