MANCHESTER – If you really want a picture of yourself standing in front of Picasso’s “Woman Seated in a Chair,” have someone else handle the camera duties because selfie sticks have been banned.

“We have taken a stand, just recently. We don’t allow them within the museum,” wrote Steve Kornick, director of marketing for the Currier Museum of Art, in an email response a Telegraph inquiry about a new concern among museums: Whether to allow visitors to use the cellphone-holding poles that have become a popular way to take photos of yourself.

Many museums, particularly art museums, have begun to ban these self sticks for the same reason as the Currier in downtown Manchester. It’s scary when people start swinging around three-foot poles, gazing at their own image more than their surroundings, while standing alongside paintings, pottery, furniture pieces and other breakable treasurers.

“The likelihood that someone will inadvertently whack an irreplaceable work of art is too great. We don’t mind people taking selfies (we’ve taken a lot ourselves here in the museum), but we have to be thoughtful stewards of our collection so future generations can enjoy it, too,” wrote Kornick.

The Boston Museum of Art and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, New York’s Museum of Modern Art and all the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C. have banned selfie sticks, and plenty of other high-profile museums have followed suit.

Here in Nashua, the Art Gallery at Rivier University has added selfie sticks to the list of forbidden items, which includes backpacks, umbrellas and other picture-endangering items.

Elsewhere in New Hampshire, the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College has taken no selfie-stick stand – because the issue hasn’t come up.

“We’re really not seeing any of them,” said Gary Alafat, chief of security and securities manager.

The Thorne-Saghendorph Art Gallery at Keene State University also has no selfie-stick ban, but for a different reason. No photography is allowed inside at all.

At the Currier, Kornick pointed to a long-standing precedent for the ban. Most museums have long banned camera tripods out of fear of damage, and selfie sticks might be considered a sort of 21st-century variant of the camera tripods

“Some of the nightmares of museum employees (especially security guards and curators) involve tripods collapsing next to priceless paintings or lights falling off stands near a person or work of art. I’ve seen both happen during controlled photo/video shoots, and they are definitely coronary-inducing moments,” he wrote. “The tripping thing happens all the time, with or without tripods, but those three-legged beasts increase the chances exponentially.”

David Brooks can be reached at 594-6531, dbrooks@nashuatelegraph.com or @GraniteGeek.