Cultural Content – Guest edition, Mary McGillivray on TikTok
Mary exploded onto Cultural Sector consciousness last year with her beautifully crafted art history TikToks
Morning team Cultural Content
Today we have something special for you. The first of our guest series of Cultural Content posts; where we talk to prominent content creators in the cultural sector to find out more about the process behind the work that goes viral and hits the big time.
This time we’re chatting to Mary McGillivray, better known as @_theiconoclass on TikTok. As well as being known as a creator, Mary has established a Creator Directory for cultural organisations to start collaborations with video content creators working in the cultural/education sphere.
Hello! Welcome to Art History TikTok. It’s a wonderful corner of the platform with a diverse group of amazing creators from around the world, and I’m so privileged to have been one of the first creators in this space.
Since joining TikTok in 2020 (during lockdown) I’ve grown a platform of over 350k followers, worked with art galleries, museums and cultural organisations across the globe and reached millions with entertaining and engaging content about art, history, and visual culture.
The future of social media is in video. TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform in the world and 50% of its users are under the age of 35. And although TikToks are usually low-fi and low budget, good TikToks are not as easy to make as they may appear.
Below are some examples of videos I’ve made and why I think they resonated with my gen z audience.
One that hit the big time: Help a Girl Out With the Maths
Currently sitting at 800k+ views, this video I made in December last year did well on TikTok for many reasons (gold, money, a Renaissance titty etc), but the main one being the attention-grabbing opening line. People love to learn about details in Renaissance art (I call this the Dan Brown Effect) and any video I make where I promise viewers they will gain a new nugget of knowledge they can perhaps impress their friends with at the art museum will invariably get lots of views.
More of a hidden gem: What it’s Like Being Inside My Head
This video only reached 70k views - the TikTok algorithm operates in mysterious ways - but it remains one of my favourite videos I’ve ever made. One episode of a ten-part series I made in collaboration with Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery for the Australian National Still Life Award, I presented this video artwork called “WTSHTF” via a sort of Socratic dialogue between two versions of myself. TikTok audiences (like the public in general) want to feel like their questions and criticisms of contemporary art are valid. In this video I got to subvert the viewer’s expectations but also, as one commenter put it, “say what everyone was thinking”.
You can see more of my work on TikTok and Instagram, or check out my website. I’m always happy to discuss and consult on TikTok strategy with cultural organisations, or direct arts/culture workers to educational video creators in their field.
If you want to hear more about museums on TikTok, you can watch this video I made for the MuseumNext Digital Marketing Summit in November last year.