From dancing dogs to pop culture references, GIFs have added another element of fun to how we communicate in the digital age. Animated GIFs are like short, sweet, videos or digital flipbooks that allow images to come to life on your screen. While GIFs have been around since 1987 (they’re over 30 years old, and also known as “graphics interchange format”) they didn’t rise to mainstream popularity until the late 2000’s. Since their new rise to fame and everyday use, GIFs have not only redefined how we communicate over social networks, email, and SMS, but they have also presented themselves as a new tool to engage and educate audiences in the museum realm. This has led museums and cultural institutions to embrace GIFs as a way to bring their collections to life and engage  younger, digital-centric audiences.