Have you ever heard of Letterboxd? It’s a social network for discovering, reviewing and chatting about films. And what about Pokémon GO, the gaming app that uses GPS technology and augmented reality to show animated characters on a screen that players can “collect” while moving about the real world? Well, a new app for art exhibitions has launched that is a cross between the two.
That is how Zarina Muhammad, one half of the art-critic duo The White Pube, described the new app gowithYamo in a recent collaboration video on Instagram. GowithYamo allows users to check in at shows (the Pokémon GO part), leave a review and connect with other fellow exhibition goers (the Letterboxd part). “These reviews are linked to the user’s personalised profile, which also displays their profile picture, bio and activity, including which exhibitions they’ve visited and their ‘Yamo points’, earned for attending exhibitions,” explains Nathalie Brough, a managing partner at gowithYamo. “This creates a more social experience for art lovers, allowing users to search for and follow their friends and key figures in the art scene to receive up-to-date exhibition recommendations.”
The app adds “a fun, gamified layer to the art-going experience”, Brough says, through the points system and additional “challenges”. “Challenges come in different forms: they might be art trails through a particular neighbourhood, themed prompts like, ‘Visit five photography exhibitions,’ or curated guides from artists, curators and familiar faces in the art scene,” she adds. “The idea is to make engaging with art more interactive, playful and goal-oriented. We wanted to encourage users to explore more exhibitions, discover new spaces and push themselves beyond their usual go-to spots.”
GowithYamo launched in 2017 as an app for exhibition listings before relaunching in mid-2024, adding the review function and other community features. It was founded by Hubert Velge, a former investment banker, who says he wants to democratise the art world. “At gowithYamo, we’re all about making art more accessible to everyone, removing the intimidation that often surrounds it,” he says. “Now, truly anyone can be an art critic.” The app, which is at present only available in the UK and Ireland, has had around 150,000 downloads, according to Brough. “Roughly 20% of our user base is in London, with pockets in other cities like Dublin, Cardiff and Birmingham, the rest spread across the country,” she says.
While it’s not quite a social media platform, social media is an important part of gowithYamo. “Since our brand refresh last year, we’ve leaned into a more playful, engaging tone across our channels, reflecting the fun, accessible spirit of gowithYamo itself,” says Brough. Part of this has been done by partnering with social media art influencers and content creators, among them Muhammad (@thewhitepube), Verity Babbs (@veritybabbsart) and Lucy Donovan (@lucymcorban). “Collaborating with art influencers has become an important part of our marketing strategy but, more importantly, it’s a way to build the kind of community we believe in: open, diverse and genuinely engaged,” Brough says. “These collaborations allow us to tap into a wide range of micro-audiences, each with their unique perspectives, interests and creative styles.”
The social elements of gowithYamo are quite fun. The app is easy to use and it will appeal to exhibitionists who like to show off how many shows they’ve seen, as well as those who just want useful listings information for nearby shows. But prepare yourself for the frustration of forgetting to check in while you were actually in the gallery space. (The GPS functionality means that there’s no-takesies backsies.) As the Pokémon theme tune says: Gotta catch ’em all!
