ARTSblog

From Albuquerque to New Haven, from Providence to Portland, from Kansas City to Culver City, from Toledo to El Paso, from New Orleans to Albuquerque, over 28 public art collections across America are collaborating with cultureNOW to create a digital National Gallery of art and architecture in the public realm.

Already one of the largest and most comprehensive compendiums in the country, the online collection encompasses more than 6,000 sites and 11,000 images.

The website and iPhone app were created for people who are curious about the world outside of gallery walls.

It is meant to tackle some of the challenges of visiting works of art and architecture.

Is the piece where it’s supposed to be? If you make an excursion to a specific artwork, is something else interesting nearby? How can you minimize schlepping heavy guidebooks around the city?

Would it be possible to actually stand in front of a work of art and see the rest of the pictures, the drawings, the installation photos while you were listening to the artist explain the vision?   Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11%

Joanna Chin

In the past few weeks, I’ve become addicted to this new online thing.

And by addicted, I simply mean that participating in it has sort of taken over my free time.

No, it’s not Twitter or Facebook or Linkedin or FourSquare…in fact, it’s not any of the usual suspects.

My latest web crush is called OpenIDEO.

It’s an online platform developed by the design firm, IDEO, as a way to include a broader range of people in tackling significant global problems through the design process.

Basically, it works like this:   Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6%

Public Art PDX App

Have you ever forgotten your iPhone at home and spent the rest of the day wishing it had been your left arm instead?

Whether or not you have embraced smartphones, they have become a fundamental part of the American lifestyle.

In ten years, all cell phones will be smartphones, and every user will expect to be able to instantly access any information they want.

So how do public art programs keep up with this trend? How do we make our collections present in the virtual world?

The answer is both simple and complex.

When it comes to utilizing technology, the possibilities for showcasing our collections are endless.

There are so many possibilities that it becomes very easy to set ourselves up for failure. It becomes too costly, too daunting, and too labor intensive. And for struggling programs, the idea of taking it on usually doesn’t even get off the ground.

However, in the midst of all of the complications, it is easy to forget that stepping into the virtual world begins with a basic foundation—it starts with data. That is to say, good data. Websites and apps are only as good as the data they use. You could spend thousands of dollars developing an app, but if the content is inconsistent or missing, then the money is wasted.

Recently at the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) in Portland, OR, we were presented with the opportunity to showcase our collection on an iPhone app.   Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7%

Temporary promotional signage at Three-Way Piece Number 1: Points (1964), Henry Moore

Public art can be one of a city’s most overlooked and under-appreciated cultural assets; but it’s also an ideal introductory cultural experience because it’s accessible “on the street,” visible at any time, free to all, and diverse in content – no tickets, no barriers, no time limits.

We created the Fairmount Park Art Association’s Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO program in Philadelphia to call attention to these works of art – always on view, but often unobserved.

We wanted to appeal broadly to culture seekers as well as non-traditional arts audiences by making engagement with public art fascinating, informative, rewarding, and fun.

Reaching the “spontaneous user” – our defined target group – represents an extraordinary opportunity unique to public art. This person typically has not planned ahead, paid a museum admission, or signed up in advance for a cultural tour.

The program so far has 35 stops for 51 sculptures feature nearly 100 “voices” from all walks of life, including: artists, educators, curators, scientists, writers, historians, civic leaders, and family members – all with personal connections to the sculptures.

We developed an “authentic voice” model, which distinguishes our audio program from others that feature a single guide, narrator or interpreter. Listening is almost like eavesdropping into a fascinating conversation.    Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7%

Every country, society, and culture places a different value on the arts.

It’s no secret that Americans love pop culture.  Meanwhile, our symphonies, orchestras, and ballets are struggling to stay in business.

In Holland, social workers are trained in the arts for the purpose of improving communities and everyday quality of life through arts learning and participation.

Meanwhile, in Bali, gamelan concerts can last for hours and sometimes days.

In Lima, Peru, concerts often start two hours later than scheduled.

No matter where you go, there may be subtle or obvious cultural differences from the way we do things in the United States.

Working in the realm of international arts management means learning to understand and work with those cultural differences.   Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 13%

Field trip.  Those two words were music to my ears when I was in school, as they probably still are to most kids who are lucky enough to hear them these days.  For me it meant not only getting away from the monotony of the school day, but more often than not getting to experience something new and different: a museum, a musical performance, a zoo, etc.  But as most people are all too familiar with these days, budgets for education are being slashed across the country.  I have a feeling those two magical words are being heard less and less as each year passes.

With teachers in the arts facing layoffs across the country (check out these examples in New York and Chicago), it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ensure students are getting their fair share of the arts, and undoubtedly that means field trips centered around the arts are going out the window.  While we are advocating for school boards, city councils, state legislatures, and the federal government to not only keep arts education funding, but increase it, teachers are forced to get creative (luckily they had an arts education, right?) with exposing their students to the arts. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6%

Deb Vaughn

One of the big pieces of my job as a state arts education coordinator is to, well, coordinate.

And it’s one thing to bring people together face-to-face (although there are certainly challenges: travel expenses, coordinating schedules, finding an agreeable geographic location, how much food to order from the caterer, etc.).

But it’s another thing entirely to connect people when they can’t meet face to face.

Three years ago, the Oregon Arts Commission started convening a yearly Arts Education Congress. The first gathering took place right after the 2008 general election, when the spirit of grassroots political action was high.

We invited people from all sides of the arts education Venn diagram to serve as voluntary delegates at this event, looking forward to dialogue with people who dipped their toes in the arts education pool from all different angles.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7%

With Apple’s recent ban on apps that allow direct donations to charities, countless nonprofits are likely scrambling to figure out ways to raise those last few dollars before the end of 2010.  I’m willing to venture a bet that, if they don’t already have one, almost every nonprofit organization in the U.S. has considered creating an app as a direct fundraising tool.  So why has Apple decided to forego allowing nonprofits to raise money directly through an app?  It’s understandable from a business perspective, as Apple doesn’t want to be in the business of verifying charities as legitimate 501c3 organizations nor be responsible for distributing the funds of those that aren’t (not to mention, it doesn’t look great for Apple to be taking their cut from a charitable donation).

But while the app ban does not prevent nonprofits from having apps that direct users to their websites to donate, it does introduce another level of separation in a fast-paced electronic world where people want a one-touch, easy system to make their decisions on everything from purchasing a game or an album, to making friends on Facebook.  These apps allowed nonprofits to respond quickly to situations where donations and relief are needed quickly, as evidenced by the trend in mobile and electronic giving following the Haiti earthquake. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 16%

Akhtar Badshah

Over the last decade we have seen an increasing number of arts organizations effectively using technologies as a way to get out in front of their audiences and to enhance the relationship arts organizations have with their patrons, participants, supporters etc.   I can talk a lot about CRM systems as a way to have an effective database that can pull member information, ticketing information, funder information all in a seamless manner providing information at the fingertips to the executive director, the development officer or the communications manager.   What I want to share, though, is a few thoughts on how to effectively use IT to unleash the creativity within arts organizations and make for fresh, richer programming experiences to attract new and young patrons.

With the advent of the CLOUD, web 2.0 and other social media platforms we have, at any given moment, a seamless flow of information between devices whether they are in your hand with a smartphone, or on your desk (PC) and on your wall (TV).  This convergence – where you are able to seamlessly get data in a highly interactive manner is making for a much richer experience for the user.  Already today the MET broadcasts their Opera’s with translation via the web.  With the increase in available bandwidth and high definition screens the quality of broadcast will continue to improve.  What is the opportunity to combine individual web-based experience and bring them into the theatre to see live performances? Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 12%

Justin Knabb

Last week at a concert, I experienced former Joy Division bassist Peter Hook rock out his rendition of the band’s first album, Unknown Pleasures. In the venue, I was engulfed by a wave of crowd-induced glowing light, but nary a raised lighter, swaying with the rhythm, was to be found. Instead, the artificial phosphorescence of cell phone light illuminated scores of busy fingers, filming, texting, tweeting away, while the band played on. And then a thought occurred to me: Is the unprecedented rate  of rapidly advancing technology and information actually hindering – not enhancing – our enjoyment of and appreciation for the arts?

A few days after the concert, I found my concerns were reflected by columnist Geoff Pevere of the Toronto Star, who is writing a series of articles that examine this phenomenon. Pevere highlights work by Dr. Gary Small, a neuroscientist at UCLA, who posits “the current explosion of digital technology not only is changing the way we live and communicate but is rapidly and profoundly altering our brains. Many of us are developing neural circuitry that is customized for rapid and incisive spurts of directed concentration.”

There is little doubt that the progression of technology has vastly improved our listening and viewing experiences with the arts. From the construction of an elaborate museum which researches and displays world-class art and artifacts, to the increasing array of chemicals that compose the perfect brushstroke, to the bone-rattling sound system which allowed me to not only hear – but feel – Hook’s performance. Not to mention the innumerable positive effects new technology and social media have had for the arts advocacy and marketing fields. But I’m talking about in-person, literal engagement with an art form. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 5%

Ron Evans

I’m really enjoying the blog salon discussion by so many smart folks here on ARTSBlog. Technology in the Arts’ David Dombrosky and I both decided to pick up the banner of discussing citizen reviewers and trusting online commentary. In his recent post, he talks about the need to educate citizen reviewers so they know how to write an intelligent review. And in my recent post, I talk about training people to trust what people are reviewing right now.

I thought this was a cool way to attack the problem, and people seemed to dig the perspectives via the comments they left. So I emailed David and asked is he wanted to join my on Skype and talk about these two ways of attacking the problem on a deeper level. You can listen in on the recorded convo below:

Ian David Moss (fellow ARTSBlog writer) also chimed in with some thoughts on how he and his friend Daniel Reid had considered some of these issues when it comes to some of the big “vote for your arts group to get a grant” challenges that are happening all over the place. Based on these conversations, I decided to take a crack at a simple rating system, let’s call the “scale of trustiness” (or SOT — let’s bring the great word SOT back from its original meaning!) that you can store in your head when you’re reading an online review for an arts event. You won’t need to remember any number of points or anything — it’s enough that you just consider a particular review on the SOT scale, and if you’re weighing two shows to go to, perhaps each review’s SOT score can help you decide what to attend. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 12%

David Dombrosky

Earlier in this blog salon, Mary Trudel advocated connecting with audiences via mobile technology.  CTIA, the international association for the wireless telecommunications industry, recently revealed that mobile phone market penetration in the United States reached 93% for the nation’s total population in June 2010.  With usage numbers like that, there is no doubt that arts organizations should be investing in mobile engagement.

The dilemma lies in whether to invest in a mobile website or a mobile application.  If your organization’s budget allows you to invest in both, then you need not read any further.  Congrats!  However, if your organization’s budget dictates that you choose between investing in a mobile website or a mobile app, then here are some things to consider. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 25%

Deborah Obalil

In reading the excellent posts by Susannah Greenwood (Questions of Musical Engagement), Mary Trudel (Oh yes – there’s an app for that), and Ian David Moss (Arts participation and the bottom of the pyramid) it becomes very clear that technology is enabling, and to a degree forcing, arts organizations to use sampling as a marketing strategy.  Now product sampling is a marketing strategy that has been around for quite some time.  Marketers have long known that if you get a taste of something good,  you’ll buy lots of it.  It also requires that whomever is producing the product (the artist or arts organization in our case) to go to the people it wants to connect with to provide the sample.  In the not-so-distant past, this was a resource intensive proposition for the arts, especially the performing arts.

Early in my career I was the marketing director for a contemporary concert dance presenter, and we did lots of sampling, we just didn’t call it that.  We called them previews or lecture/demonstrations.  The dance companies we presented would be trotted all over town to libraries and schools, public plazas and community gatherings.  And we would have information at all of these events about the upcoming theatrical performances and how to get tickets.  Since most of the companies we presented were far from household names (even for dance afficionados), giving potential audiences a taste of what the would get for the ticket price was crucial to building audience. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9%

Alison Schwartz

The countdown has begun! We are only 6 weeks away from the 2010 National Arts Marketing Project (NAMP) Conference: New Tech. New Tools. New Times. What better way to kick off a meeting about marketing, technology, and the new economic reality than with an online discussion with you and 12 top marketing practitioners and consultants in the field!  Join us on ARTSblog for a dialogue on the broad landscape of arts marketing, social media, and audience engagement.

From October 5-12, join us as we wrestle with and ponder on such questions as:

• How are you innovatively engaging new audiences?  How does technology play a role in these strategies?
• How are you responding the rise of the citizen critic and citizen curator?
• Our cities and towns across the country are diversifying.  How is this changing your audience and how you reach them?
• How is social media changing how you speak with your audience and what you say?
• How are you stretching your marketing dollars further? How are smaller budgets and changes in funding streams informing your decision making?

We hope you will visit us in the salon and take a moment to leave a comment, share an opinion, or ask a question.  Then come to San Jose, November 12-15 to continue the conversation in person at the NAMP Conference.

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Last week, ArtsJournal hosted a series of conversational blog posts about the nature of artists rights in a hi-tech, networked world.  To read more on this blog series, co-hosted by ArtsJournal, NAMAC, Future of Music Coalition and Fractured Atlas, visit http://www.artsjournal.com/artists/.

Popularity: 6%