Behind Ballet wrap

“Social media sites offer exposure into another world that one may normally never get access to” says Kate. And that is the intention of Behind Ballet. “We were always coming across these great stories that we wanted to share with everyone.”

This is from Kate Scott, Marketing and Communications Manager at the Australian Ballet. The Behind Ballet blog is beautiful and beautiful in the way that anything about Ballet can be beautiful, yes I agree, ballerinas (and boys) are usually far more photogenic than most other stage performers. The genius in all of this however, is that link between content the AB has and an audience eager to view and interact. And it's not all 'dear reader, today we opened in Sydney...'. The Behind Ballet blog covers questions, to trips down memory lane, to fashion and movies...and for me a query about the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty had me instantly as a I read and sought to answer the query I had..'will it be like the movie?'.

I'm sure I could find about 10 stories right now from the place of toil that we weren't able to share with everyone, and give me a room full of eager people who love the artform and we could probably come up with 50 ideas about our art and its links. Surely, this is what it is about...using a medium that can allow a voice, an interaction, a transparency and a digital record of just what we do with tax payer's money and its relevance to every day life. Beautiful yes. Smart, even more so.

Arts Hub on Behind Ballet

http://www.behindballet.com/

The Produce Garden - my new fav You Tube channel

And no, this isn't a post where I talk about my garden. Although it might come to that one day....but I digress. How did You Tube recommend this You Tube channel to me? Who knows...that's the power of 'the internets' I suppose, but just to prove anyone can participate and share in this web 2.0 world I present 'The Produce Garden' channel by a bloke called Christian Gainsford...who let's face it, I now have a bit of a crush on. Christian describes his channel as

This is a page dedicated to smallholding and all its aspects from growing organic fruit/veg, rearing livestock, gardening, self-sufficiency, rural living, my feelings and dramas, cooking and everything in between!

Sexy yes? I look forward to his web page.

4 months in Asia?

I hadn't heard of this before, until that is I've started on my quest for other places of toil...I wonder if anyone in Asia needs an Arts Marketer who is obsessed by the notion of engagement with audiences, thinks we can learn from museums and galleries, is digital-curious and whips out data analysis like she's shaking and baking (as long as there are pretty graphs) and loves getting her hands on other people's data...perhaps India? I wonder if they do Myanmar? Cross-cultural focus anyone? Maybe not for now, but one to think about...

The Arts Management Residency Program began in 1995 and has provided opportunities for arts managers from all art forms to work for extended periods in a wide variety of host organisations across Asia. Managers have worked on broad arts festivals in Hong Kong and Singapore, in museums in Japan and Vietnam and in publishing houses in China and India, as well as undertaking specific projects with a variety of hosts throughout the region.

blog roll!

This won’t need much introduction for me, but needless to say someone has compiled a list of the 100 Best Curator and Museum Blogs...happy reading.

Scotland’s arts organisations get ambitious

Following on from my post about the Arts Council (UK) and their research into the impact of 'digital' on the industry, news (again pushed via Twitter...thanks Tweeters!) that the Scottish equivalent to the Arts Council (UK) (that would be the Scottish Arts Council) will be taking on a similar initiative under the banner of AmbITion. AmbITion will provide Scottish cultural organisations with free workshops, events, online material, and case studies as well as funding for organisations taking on development that is digital....again, Ozco are you taking note? Here's hoping it will be a good portal for all of us to benefit from.

Research round up: Engaging Audiences

I'm always a little wary of organisations such as this pushing their research. Those old testaments of reliability and validity rear their head and then I start asking questions about whose agenda this is pushing (who paid for the research?)..but nevertheless if the shoe fits when reading examples, surely it's worth a look?

Again, pushed to me through the magic of twitter, and there's so many reports to have a look at! Here's just one...

Engaging Audiences - Wallace Foundation

"In the midst of hard economic times, it is clearly more challenging for arts organizations to take the long view and continue to devote time and effort to building new audiences. But this report on a recent gathering of representatives from more than 50 Wallace-funded arts organizations in six cities concludes that participation-building efforts and the resulting lessons are more vital than ever to the long-term health of arts organizations and the entire arts sector. Especially in hard times, the report says, it’s essential for leaders of arts organization to take careful stock of the long-term influences and challenges affecting the arts sector such as demographic shifts and new technologies that are creating entire new “spaces” for people to come together and experience the arts. The report describes how organizations are responding creatively to those challenges using such means as market research, re-branding, and drawing audience-building lessons from other sectors such as professional sports."

An Age column worth the reading...if you can find it online!

In the space of a month, two columns written by Marcus Westbury for The Age have just clicked with me. Unfortunately The Age doesn't necessarily like to have these online and searchable for everyone...imagine free content online and available to all! (I'm sure Marcus would appreciate the irony...)

Anyhow...thanks to a certain gorgeous publicist and her keen clipping skills these have landed in my lap. Once there is was 10 seconds on Google to track down the man himself. So I present, Marcus Westbury's recent columns that fell into my lap and just clicked...

• It's time to liberate collections from their dusty confines and share them in the spirit of enriching us all (EDIT: Monday 24th August - now online!)
• Is the flagship arts company destined to be a relic of the 20th century?

Arts Attracting Attention and Support

New audiences and new dollars, here's a listing of some unique and not so unique ways of attracting new audiences and support. Found via Rae Bassett and the Ning site Admit 2.0

For those playing at home Admit 2.0 is an open discussion about the future of arts and entertainment marketing in the digital and social media age run by Rae Bassett, Audience Development Manager from QPAC.

American Time Use Survey - interactive results

Now this is awesome! ABS are you watching?

The American Time Use Survey asks thousands of American residents to recall every minute of a day. Here is how people over age 15 spent their time in 2008

Opening up the BBC’s natural history archive

And if you just haven't had enough of cultural institutions opening up their collections online, here's another example from the good old BBC. Does this mean more David Attenborough at my fingertips 24/7? Fingers crossed!

Although, I have had trouble actually tracking the site down....hmmm...

Opening up the BBC’s natural history archive

An experience of free content

Some great reading for today from the Powerhouse's Seb Chan on the museum giving away content for free. The main jist is that opening up content has enabled:

• better documentation on part of its collection - hey after all that's their job
• the ability to reach much wider audiences - hey that's another part of their mission!
• the development of new markets for commercial activities - the old promotion thingo!

Seb also briefly outlines some cost rationalisation that has been experienced through delivery of imagery online...I'm sold...are you?

Read the whole blog at Some clarifications on our experience with 'free' content'

If you haven't seen any of the Powerhouse's Flickr images sourced from their vast photographic collections have a look here. They are wonderful!

Racegoers at Warwick Farm racecourse

ACO musicians and subscribers introduce the 2010 season

Subscription season is here and a video introducing the 2010 season on the ACO website (that's the Australian Chamber Orchestra for those playing at home) is both beautiful and touching, and so well put together...it even makes me want to be a subscriber!

ACO are are also utilising a Ning site as an easy and free means to have a blog, forum, photos, videos and news available online, click on 'Community' from the homepage.

Bravo ACO and good luck with subscriptions!

http://www.aco.com.au/

If we turned off our web services

I would love to write a version of this for the place of toil. Although from the perspective of a local council, this is tops...where's my website and my calculator?

If we turned off our web services…

Wotopera Rocks! ...and here's the proof

I love when there are stats and research that back up a program's success. Not that anyone who was in the audience last year for Wotopera* wouldn't of felt the energy in the room these kids were creating...future creators and ticket buyers...to opera...who knows...but open to arts participation? Oui.

The link is to a piece by San Diego Opera’s general and artistic director Ian Campbell on the findings of a study that followed 15 symphony orchestras over the decade from 1994 to 2004. Ian suggests the findings could be applied to opera audiences as well. The findings as Campbell summarises them are:

a) There is no evidence that exposure programs for children — especially the large concert format offerings for school children — will turn them into ticket buyers as adults.

b) There is growing evidence that participatory music education — primarily instrumental lessons, ensemble and choral programs — will turn people into ticket buyers later in life.

Interesting! More here

*For those playing at home Wotopera is a school-based education imitative of OA where high school students working with music educators write an opera 'from page to stage' in a few weeks and then perform it in front of an audience. The program is sponsored by Graeme Wood of Wotif fame. The project was expanded into QLD earlier this year and the next Wotopera project in Sydney talks place in September 09...watch this space.

Research round up: bums on seats and policy documents?

...and just because there's always more research to read, here's some more to dig around in.

Live Performance Australia’s Ticket Attendance and Revenue Survey 2008 released today, showed that the live entertainment market is still strong with revenues exceeding $1 billion. The commercial sector, as expected, continues to lead in terms of total revenue. While ticket sales declined overall, they returned to 2005 levels, reflecting that 2006 and 2007 were peak years in the current economic cycle. View the media release and survey results here.

...and if you aren't snoozing yet, here's some more for you. The OECD Communications Outlook 2009 presents the most recent comparable data on the performance of the communication sector in OECD countries and on their policy frameworks...snore! (ooops I mean) useful if you are into that kind of thing!)

Museum Next blog

I've written about Jim Richardson before, but this week's blog posting from Museum Next has been, well, particularly inspired. Here's a few snippets....

"Should art be experienced in quiet contemplation or could a little theatre break through the polite chatter of a private view and make for a more participatory experience? Is a gallery only a space to experience the work on the walls or can it also be a stage for creative interaction?"

Jim also writes about a 'crowd sourced exhibition / competition' he is working on, while other contributors reference the work of Nina Simon on 'participatory design'...just reading of this ground breaking approach to exhibition design and conception is inspiring, wonder if that will be in my reading kit for uni? Somehow me thinks not.

Another great take away this week was the question we dare not ask..'Are museums and galleries intimidating?'

Didn't someone tell this man we never talk about the elephant in the corner...bravo Jim, keep it up!

More at http://www.museumnext.org/blog/

Are you still marketing like its 1999?

I'm going to repost this in full....that's how important the message originally posted by MediaHunter is.

Are you still marketing like its 1999?

Did you realise that the Internet is now the most consumed media in Australia?

According to the 2009 Nielsen Annual Internet and Technology Report the average Australian spends 16.1 hours per week online. This is compared to TV at 12.0 hours per week, Radio at 8.8 hours, Video at 5.4 hours, Online radio at 4.6 hours, PC video at 4.6 hours, mobile at 3.7 hours, newspaper at 2.8 hours and magazines at 2 hours.

Hold on….Australians spend more time online than consuming TV & Newspaper combined? More time online than Radio, Newspaper and Magazines combined?

So the big question for business is: are your marketing resources being allocated to the right media?

Why does the average business automatically resort to TV / Radio/ Press when devising a marketing campaign?

Of course there are issues of target markets, cost-effectiveness and clutter with all media decisions, but I am alarmed by the number of businesses still marketing like it was 1999.

If your customers are now spending more time online than they are consuming other media, shouldn’t you be allocating more of your marketing resources to a superior web presence?

Shouldn’t you be worried about not being found at the top of relevant searches?

Shouldn’t you be trying to give potential customers as much great information as possible on your website to assist them in doing business with you?

Online is now your customer’s number one media priority…is it yours?

Augmented Reality

I could watch these for hours...it's the future Michael J Fox promised me all those years ago in the Back to the Future. I can see a consumer product and service explosion using this technology....can't wait to grab a spare few minutes to check out all these vids.

And for those playing at home here's the 10 second catchup, thanks to Jawbone.TV

"What exactly is Augmented Reality? According to Jeff Crouse of the Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, "AR is where you have a special symbol on a physical object that a computer can recognize. So when a camera looks at that object, you can superimpose other things in 3D space around that symbol."

Or to put it another way, Augmented Reality lets you see things that aren't really there, but only through a lens (currently your webcam or mobile phone).

It's hard to describe to people - one of those 'you gotta see it' things. But make no mistake, whatever the 'thing' is, it's coming, and it's going to create an entertainment and marketing tsunami that will make the Internet look like a pond ripple. The key shift will likely occur when the lens becomes wearable. Invisible even. Contacts or glasses that look just like the ones you wear now, allowing you to cross into a 3D interactive world seamlessly transposed onto your reality. To quote Keanu Reeves: "... Whoa."

Tate artmap

I'm not entirely sure about this one...but then it's only the start...and I do love a Google map!

http://www.tate.org.uk/artmap/

Survey round up: Twitter and Facebook facts

Again pushed through to me by the power of Twitter, recent survey results on the use of Facebook and Twitter by age group.

Can't fault a Falk...

This was courtesy of a Nina Simon tweet, but being a fan of Falk...(where's Dierking?) this book will certainly have to make it onto my reading list something soonish.

Thriving in the knowledge age: new business models for museums

and other cultural institutions

Ozco Marketing Summit 2009 videos

I was lucky enough to be substituted into this event on the closing day. Again I found this an inspiring summit to be part of, in particular my writing hand was very busy during the digital media presentations. In case you missed this, the videos are now available. I'm definitely going back to see those I missed such as 'Communicating with the 50+ audience' and the update from the 'ADVICE' program, and I might even relive Donna Williams' inspiring key notespeech from Day Two, there's an audience development hero for you!

Find all the videos here: http://vimeo.com/user1014372

A date with Clover and her vision

I'm not really a fan of Clover Moore, a product of living, working and voting in her two constituencies and being on the receiving end of more City of Sydney propaganda via mailbox than really even I care to have...and I love junk mail! But as I'm a firm believer in not bagging out things entirely before you at least give them a go, I conned two others to accompanying me to see our beloved Lord Mayor speak on Sustainability and the Arts at a recent SAMAG (Sydney Arts Management Advisory Group) special event.

Now I must admit I haven't read the whole Sustainable Sydney 2030 policy...it's even a bit long for me...but I did flip through the policy in regards to arts very quickly a few weeks before this rescheduled talk where I found it hidden between all the nice city of villages rhetoric. So, what was I wanting from this experience? Well to be inspired I guess...and the verdict?

• She admits the policy document is 'a bit cheeky' aka. they don't have the power to enforce it, or budget to make it happen
• There seemed to be some consultation with arts industry leaders an 'art and design advisory panel' was mentioned as was a 'cultural round table'...note to self, have a look who is on that?
• Clover spoke about the need to sell the 'intrinsic value of the arts'....if she knows how to do that, there's some of us who would love to here that!
• She believes the wider community does engagement with the arts when given a chance and sites the large festival events as examples...but as audience members asked...is that sustainable?
• She commented that the role of the arts is to 'reflect back to us who we are' and that it 'lifts people's spirits', her belief is that arts events should make people feel good about being in the city...

But where does that leave us? Sadly the event didn't really hit the mark by engaging with the arts workers in the room and providing the tools for us to go back to our respective institutions and rally others into this 'cheeky' plan...all in all...I'm sorry Clover I would of rather had one of your pamphlets shoved in the letterbox.

But here's a big thumbs up for SAMAG, the crowd was a smattering of familiar industry faces and even my uni supervisor...I must be onto something!

Sneaky MCA visit

So I found myself, er, let's call it 'between' meetings today. Too late to go back to the office, too early to meet others...stuck at Circular Quay. Hmmm, what to do, what to do...well the MCA seemed like a place to wile away an hour.

Now I should say I've never been a fan. 'Contemporary' or 'modern' art and me haven't always been the best of friends, I love some, I loathe others..and I'm not quite there with my own personal aesthetic experience...I'm into plastics and early modernism at the moment, the minute rarity and one a kind meets mass production and consumption. And I hate the venue. All plain walls and stairs. But pushing aside my dislike of the physical and the crazed temporal states of my mind. Spare hour = MCA.

I was surprised and will go back.

Wonderful silver gelatin photographs by Ricky Maynard depicting indigenous Australians...being a fan of photography I was in heaven. However it was the placement of Maynard's works with that of those whom inspired his series, which was, well the inspiring part. The journey of Maynard (and really any artist) was just as interesting for this audience member as the work itself.

Video art. How very underrated by me...but some were wonderful, others *can you see me doing that motion for the subject matter went completely over my head!*. But one of them in particular struck me, a video piece that the artist had based on a work by Caspar David Friedrich. It had me entranced.

So...what's the outtake...well engagement and learning resonates through the lens of the viewer's previous experiences

and memories. Yep. And I'm the walking embodiment.

Note to self - visit the MCA more.

Cultural Asset Mapping...and other sexy stuff!

Ok so it may sound rather er, less riveting than watching well a dreadful opera, but if you have ever, like me, needed to seek out market information about this little thing we call showbiz, or say any other types of arts, this site would of proved a god send!

Thank you to the wonderful artist who passed it my way...

CAMRA (Cultural Asset Mapping in Regional Australia) is a major Australian Research Council and industry funded project which aims to provide planners, policy-makers and local communities with the information they need to plan for a future in regional Australia that integrates the effective development of the arts and cultural industries.

The project runs for five years from 2008 to 2013 and is a partnership between seventeen organisations, including four universities.

The aims are

1. developing sustainable models of data collection and documentation that map local cultural industries using a range of methodologies specifically appropriate to regional, rural and remote settings in Australia;
2. building a GIS and relational database to store this information and allow it to be interrogated, analysed and used at local, regional and peak levels by a variety of users;
3. enabling systemised interactions between national and international experts in cultural development through this culturemap.org.au online (and offline) community as a key site for knowledge exchange and storage.

Can't wait to sign up and play

Wikimedia: Conference seeks open cultural content

Stealing a headline here, but following on from yesterday's mention of cultural institutions using Wikis to gather and share planning and policy...here's another one, but only about 100 times bigger!

It will be interesting to see the outtakes from this conference and its many notable speakers. Here's hoping the content is captured and shared just as they are aiming to do with Australia's (and NZ's) cultural content....although one question...er, what about the other arts?

Wikimedia: Conference seeks open cultural content

'In a world-first conference, the Wikimedia Australia community will this week sit down with more than 170 senior executives from the nation’s largest cultural institutions – from the National Gallery to the Parliamentary Library – to devise strategies to better share Australia's cultural heritage.

Called ‘GLAM-WIKI: Finding Common Ground,’ the event at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on August 6-7 brings together Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums (GLAM) with Wikimedia Australia, the all-volunteer force that brings Australian content to the Wikipedia site.

GLAM-WIKI convener and Wikimedia Australia vice-president Liam Wyatt says the conference aims to increase the availability of Australian and New Zealand cultural content through Wikipedia in a sustainable way through collaboration and the open source treatment of cultural items.'

To visit the official wiki of GLAM-Wiki see here

Wiki world....Smithsonian Web and New Media Strategy v1.0

Great idea, both using a wiki format and putting this info out there for the world. It is nice to an institution state openly that they don't have all the answers, and seeking interaction and outside opinion in planning. Can't wait to see how it plays out.

Smithsonian Web and New Media Strategy v1.0

'We've just posted Smithsonian Web and New Media Strategy, Version 1.0. The strategy talks about an updated digital experience, a new learning model that helps people with their "lifelong learning journeys," and the creation of a Smithsonian Commons—a new part of our digital presence dedicated to stimulating learning, creation, and innovation through open access to Smithsonian research, collections and communities.

This strategy was created through a fast and transparent process that included workshops, the Smithsonian 2.0 conference, Twitter, YouTube, and ongoing collaboration through this wiki. It's a work in progress, and we welcome your comments, questions, and input, via the Smithsonian 2.0 blog or through any discussion tab on this wiki site. This strategy will feed into the Smithsonian’s comprehensive strategic plan, currently under development.'

Lunchtime = taste execution gap

A sagacious friend recommended this....and can I say....that's it...it's my old, feel like I'm giving 72% when I could be giving or striving for so much more. I'm so glad to hear it's just another explained phenomena. So I admit it. 'I'm suffering form a taste execution gap'. Phew!

Ira Glass on the Taste Execution Gap

Firehoses and Ladders

Ha! I knew there would be name for it! It's the same old ladder of loyalty again just with a new name and a new channel...and oh, don't forget the 'they' the ones you are after, are oh so much closer in this new space...sending out love to Jim Richardson again.

More here Creating a social media plan for a museum

and yet another digital hero!

Jim Richardson is a new one for me, found through the power of the web 2.0 tools that he talks and writes about so well. I thought the below, which is a posting of a talk he gave a year or so ago, was a great summary of what web 2.0 is and how we as cultural institutions are perfect for exploiting (er, I mean utilising) the content we have, in what really is, just another channel. However, the key of course is the old standard, what museums know about, but we don't speak its name... 'engagement'.

This bit is especially thought-provoking...

'While much is said about the social network and the desire of these people to be hyper-connected, the time that these individuals spend ‘curating’ their online space is often overlooked. It has become a new hobby and a seriously-considered creative outlet'.

More here

...another digital hero

Can't speak highly enough of the role he plays....another person from whom inspiration springs.

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog/

http://ow.ly/iFMv