Never have dinner with a bunch of Instagrammers: there's little conversation and even less interest in food.
At least not after they've just spent more than an hour enjoying exclusive access to a world-class art museum.
That was the scenario last Thursday night at Hobart's Museum of Old and New Art, which hosted #emptymona, an Australian-first initiative following in the footsteps of similarly successful events at The Louvre in Paris and New York's Guggenheim.
Despite the offer of a multi-course degustation dinner at the end of #emptymona, everyone was busy on their phones and tablets, transmitting photos and video clips to their followers and looking up only rarely to find a wine glass.
Local Instagrammer Shantelle Rodman was among a group of 30 social media gurus invited to the after hours event, sans the usual crowd, so they could capture a different, empty, perspective of the contemporary art space and its installations.
"It's a real privilege and more of an authentic experience because we don't have to manage the foot traffic that normally goes on," said told AAP as she busily distributed images via @whistleandawhim.
"Everyone has their own unique style of photography and this is a chance for a few of us to capture all that is here at MONA and share it with a global audience."
The hugely popular tourist attraction, the brainchild of self-made gambling millionaire David Walsh, is filled with visitors during normal opening hours, but on Thursday it was like a scene out of Ben Stiller's Night At The Museum movie.
One visitor had MONA's signature piece, Snake, a mammoth mural by Australian artist Sidney Nolan, all to herself: no screaming kids, no bleating mobile phones, no outspoken critics.
New York-based Instagram art specialist Kristen Joy Watts (@kjwww) has attended other #empty events including at London's TATE Modern and said the MONA version is a standout.
"This is amazing, it's exciting that this is the first in the Asia-Pacific because I think it will inspire so many other institutions, but it's also kind of in a league of its own as far as museums go," she said.
The collaboration came about by chance when a MONA curator got chatting with a Instagram representative in Paris, the museum's web manager Eleanor Robb said.
"We saw what had happened, particularly with the (Metropolitan Museum of Art) in New York, they've been running quite a few series of #empty events," she said.
"Then it jumped shores and has taken off in London as well, and we're excited to be the first Australian museum hosting one of these #empty initiatives."
Free publicity aside, Robb said #emptymona was a chance to give something back to Tasmanian Instagram community who have been so supportive of the museum.
"It's great also to see some really creative perspectives in the museum, there's such a range of aesthetics and styles," she said of the Instagram images.
The guest list included Instagrammers from across Australia, some specialising in the arts or tourism.
SOME OF THE #EMPTYMONA INVITE LIST
* @milesgray88
* @insta_graham23
* @claireyt
* @georgieheart
* @mattglastonbury
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