Cross-Sector Partnerships in the Arts: Fendi and the Trevi Fountain

At a press conference on Monday, Fendi designers announced the fashion house will finance the restoration of two fountains in Rome, the Quattro Fontane and the iconic Fontana di Trevi, or Trevi Fountain (built between 1732 and 1762). The US$2.9 million (€2.18 million), 20-month project will be completed in phases, as explained by Fendi designers Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi. These phases will include the re-waterproofing of the main basin, the cleaning of the façade and marble statues, and restoration of the gilded inscriptions. The Trevi Fountain will remain open to tourists throughout the restoration process (fear not tourists, fear not). This announcement comes at a time when the funding for and preservation of cultural heritage sites in Italy is uncertain. Fendi, however, is not the first big-brand fashion name to take action in the preservation of Italy’s cultural heritage. Tod’s, an Italian company producing leather shoes and bags, is currently financing the restoration of the Coliseum for US$34 million (€25 million). Further north in Venice, Diesel, an Italian fashion company, is funding the restoration of the Rialto Bridge for US$6.7 million (€5 million).

Of course, these generous donations do not go without recognition. For Tod’s, the funding agreement provides the company the rights to the Coliseum’s logo for 15 years, as well as branding Coliseum tickets with the company logo. Fendi’s sponsorship of Rome’s grandest fountain will be recognized by a small plaque to be placed near the fountain for four years.

The city council and Mayor Gianni Alemanno of Rome are hopeful these interventions will continue, as the preservation of the country’s past is in peril. Alemanno said, “Without similar initiatives, we won’t be able to save the cultural memory of our country.” Though council members are supportive of the private sector’s involvement in the preservation of Italy’s cultural heritage, some conservators are wary. They fear private-public partnerships will commercialize monuments of national pride, turning sites of inherent meaning and cultural significance into fashion advertisements.

The private-public partnership between Fendi and the Trevi Fountain is just one of many examples of a paradigm shift in the cultural sector regarding what Alemanno says is, “a new system of cultural patronage.”

Looking at the Land: The Crowdsourced, Digital Exhibition from Flak Photo’s Andy Adams

He needs no introduction, but for new visitors to our site it is my pleasure to welcome back Andy Adams to Technology in the Arts. You may remember our conversation with Andy in May when we discussed the concept of Photo 2.0 and the role of Web 2.0 technologies in redefining the field of photography.

Andy’s newest success, “Looking at the Land: 21st Century American Views,” is a digital exhibition of 21st Century American Landscape photography. The exhibition, prepared in collaboration with the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, is a discussion (both in photographs and in interviews) with eighty-eight photographers on the practice and meaning of landscape photo-making in the 21st Century. On the website, Andy discusses the current status of the exhibition, including the presentation of twenty of the photographs in physical form at the FotoWeek DC 2012 festival.

Andy and I again had the chance to discuss the themes of photography and online-presenting, but this time focused on the process of organizing a digital exhibition, his experience with crowdsourcing creativity, and his thoughts on the effects of digital projection on viewing. While my full interview with Andy will be posted here on Technology in the Arts soon, I encourage you to view the online exhibition beforehand (available for viewing below).

[embed]http://vimeo.com/49855891[/embed]

Check back in next two weeks for more of Andy’s insight on the future of photography, digital exhibitions, and crowdsourcing creativity.

This Exquisite Forest: A Collaborative Project from Google Chrome and London's Tate Modern

Perhaps you played the French Surrealist game, ‘The Exquisite Corpse,’ in grammar school using the week’s vocabulary words or at a sleepover, where someone inevitably managed to take the game in an inappropriate direction (wasn’t me, I swear). If you do not recognize the creative exercise by its proper name, you will by its concept: a person begins a sentence or drawing on a piece of paper, covers their creation, passes the paper to the following person, and so the game continues until all participants have contributed. The final ‘masterpiece’ is often a comical, nonsensical, and potentially inappropriate, Dadaist anti-creation.

In July, Google’s Creative Lab teamed up with London’s Tate Modern Museum and launched the online collaborative project, “This Exquisite Forest.” Borrowing the game’s concept from the Surrealists, “This Exquisite Forest” enables users to draw or animate their own short animations (using Google Chrome browser) based on the initial “seeds” created by the artists Miroslaw Balka, Olafur Eliasson, Dryden Goodwin, Ragib Shaw, Julian Opie, Mark Titchner, Bill Woodrow, and Film4.0’s animators. One difference between the Surrealist’s version of the game and this project is the fact that online participants will have access to what was contributed before their own addition (as opposed to the Surrealist game where each participant's contribution is covered before moving on).

[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nnhJ1841K-8[/embed]

As users add their own animations and visual narratives using a web-based drawing tool, “the videos dynamically branch out and evolve, forming multiple new visuals.” From this idea- of initial videos or “seeds” planted by Tate’s artists- and the additional sequences branching out to create trees, this collaborative online project was coined “This Exquisite Forest.”

The project exists both in the digital realm and in the physical world. Large-scale projections of the best of the online contributions are displayed in the Level 3 gallery of the Tate Modern. In-house visitors have the opportunity to view the animations and contribute their own additions using digital drawing stations in the gallery.

“This Exquisite Forest” does three things expertly:

1) Allows museum-goers and web-users to become creators and curators, not just passive consumers of art

2) Provides a forum for the global, online community to collaborate creatively

3) Markets Google’s web browser Chrome, Google App Engine, and Google Cloud Storage

The physical installation at the Tate will run until January 2013 (approximately).

The Gelato Museum: I think a second visit is in order...

Ok, I’ll admit it; this post is probably less "best-practice" oriented than our typical Technology in the Arts publications. However, I guarantee it is more delicious, if that is of any consolation. Before heading to Bologna for the year, I crafted my list of “Must See and Do’s,” including both touristy and off-the-beaten track attractions. Occupying one of the top spots on my list (let’s just say it was either 1 or 2…) was the Gelato Museum Carpigiani. Yes, you read that correctly, a museum dedicated entirely to the history, culture and technology of gelato and gelato-making. Bliss. It is a brand new museum, opening three weeks ago just outside the center of Bologna in Anzola dell’Emilia. Carpigiani is a brand, one of the leading producers of gelato-making equipment (actually, two gentlemen on the tour, also American, use Carpigiani machines in their gelateria in Colorado). The company also founded the Gelato University, based in Bologna but with satellite campuses around the world (Argentina, Germany, Japan, Italy, Netherlands, China, USA, Scotland, and England). Students interested in learning the artisan craft of gelato making and managing a gelateria can enroll in a variety of courses. Have I already looked into the details? You betcha.

The Carpigiani Gelato Museum is a center of cultural excellence dedicated to the understanding and study of the history, culture, and technology of gelato and the expertise of the innovators who drove its evolution over the centuries.

Back to the museum- pristine, modern, and FREE for visitors. It also exhibits the history of gelato cone-making and features an enormous wall of gelato-related quotes from the world’s greatest literary, historic, and cultural figures (think Marcel Proust and Madame Bovary). Tours are available in English.

Carpigiani Gelato Museum, the first of its kind to delve into the history, culture, and technology of artisan gelato, a fresh, high-quality food that well represents Italian creativity and excellence throughout the world!

The following are a select few of the highlights from my tour:

- The organization of the exhibition: The museum charts the history of gelato, from 12000 B.C. to modern day. It is organized into color-coordinated epochs, so it is clear as you move through the exhibition when/where you are in its history.

- The exhibition offers varied media- over 20 original gelato-making machines, historical images and documents, and multimedia presentations.

- The exhibition on the history of cone-making, complete with antique cone shipping boxes from various manufacturers, was one of those "I-have-never-thought-about-the-history-of-cone-making-!" moments of brilliance.

- Each epoch is clearly defined- they form small clusters throughout the room. Above each cluster, to aid in the visitor’s visual understanding of the history, are authentic recipes of gelato (or whatever the frozen treat was before gelato became gelato) from that time period. Moving through the exhibit, visitors come to understand the evolution of gelato from a frozen drink of snow and wine for the wealthy and noble (few hanging recipes) to the universal treat (significantly more recipes) enjoyed more ubiquitously. It is a visually effective technique to compliment and emphasize the evolution of the consumption and creation of gelato.

- And last but most certainly not least, sampling. The tour culminates in the Carpigiani Gelato Lab aka the gelateria. They have a beautiful offering, ranging from traditional and popular flavors to flavors unique to the lab and ancient recipes. You can also arrange to celebrate your birthday in the lab (subtle hint to my friends and family...)

Yes, I was most excited by the fact I was at a museum dedicated to one of my guiltiest pleasures. But what I quickly came to appreciate more was that the history of gelato, something I had never actually considered while indulging, is forever preserved and accessible to the entire world. Gelato, ice cream, soft-serve, you name it, is for many, just a fun, summer treat. But for Italy and Bologna especially, the history and consumption of gelato is so central to their cultural and culinary traditions. As we chatted with the chef in the lab and he encouraged us to “focus” as we sampled flavors, I was reminded just how precious museums are to preserving our cultural heritage.

What a Difference an “A” Makes: Moving from STEM to STEAM

It’s a hot-topic today, complete with nifty acronyms, but the great debate about the “Two Cultures” is hardly a new one. The movement to incorporate “Art” in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) program curriculum recalls the historic debate between the Sciences and the Arts (for more information on the debate, read C.P Snow's short essay, "The Two Cultures”). The irony of their supposed polarity is the fact they are completely interrelated. To say that the field of Engineering involves and is influenced by nothing more than “scientific” fundamentals is to say a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is made with nothing more than peanut butter. And we all know that is just plain silly, and only half the sandwich.

“The arts can no longer be treated as frill. Arts education is essential to stimulating the creativity and innovation that will prove critical to young Americans competing in a global economy.”- U.S Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan

Ask an engineer (go ahead, I did) if they have ever turned to creative problem solving in their work, prototype building, model-making, or taken a course in design as part of their program’s curriculum. A course in design teaches an engineer the artistic and creative fundamentals they then apply to engineering-specific projects and solutions. Need a second opinion? Ask the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at any company if they have ever pulled out a dry-ease marker and taken it to the white-board to diagram the effects of a potentially risky investment or visualize projections for the next quarter. Visual studies and applications are an integral component of STEM professions.

“The idea that we must choose between science and humanities is false”- Dr. Alan Brinkley, in the article “Half a Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste,” Newsweek

So let's take a look at two different schools representing both “sides” of the "Two Cultures" debate. Perhaps you will agree with me that these two fields are not as mutually exclusive as some have explained them to be. In fact, it appears they are, dare I say, mutually interdependent.

One of the world's premier design schools, the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), is leading the discussion with the initiative, STEM to STEAM. What follows is a description of RISD's position as published on the school's webpage:

“RISD offers endless examples of how art and design education teaches the flexible thinking, risk-taking and creative problem solving needed to solve today’s most complex and pressing challenges – from healthcare to urban revitalization to global warming.”

[embed]http://vimeo.com/48817744[/embed]

Ok. So now let’s head to one of the world's leading institutions for technology studies: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). MIT’s position on the STEM verses STEAM debate, as published online by the school, is as follows:

“In the current moment of economic uncertainty, America is once again turning to innovation as the silver bullet that will guide us forward. Yet in the eyes of many leaders, innovation seems tightly coupled with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math–the STEM subjects. We need to add "Art" to turn STEM into STEAM.

Artists and designers make information more understandable, products more desirable, and new invention possible through the project-based inquiry that has long been practiced in the art studio. By investing in art/science collaborations in research and education we can keep America at the forefront of innovation, ensuring our sustained global leadership and cultural prosperity in the 21st century.”

At this point in my academic and professional career, I simply cannot fathom how true innovation can result without art and design. Design in and of itself has become a differentiating factor for American products in the global and increasingly competitive marketplace. Incorporating art and design in the STEM program will create a new generation of creative thinkers, doers and problem solvers, capable of innovating in an interdisciplinary context and world. Be it the Opening Ceremony at the Olympics, the iPhone, or the chemist restoring frescoes in Florence, Italy, art, design, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are constantly at work together- equal weight must be given to art and design in school curricula across the country. Need I remind you that the world's greatest scientists, thinkers, and mathematicians were also poets, painters, and musicians. As Rebecca Ryan (founder of Next Generation Consulting) so brilliantly included in an October 2012 article, "Why STEM Isn't Working" in Madison Magazine, “Einstein’s theory of relativity, for example, came to him when he was participating in what he called “musical thinking.””

“Artists and scientists both ask big questions; designers and engineers both provide inspired solutions. Together they are more powerful than apart.” - RISD

I am most likely preaching to the choir, I am confident our TitA followers are already on board with the STEM to STEAM movement. I ask you to take your advocacy one step further by sending a letter to your Members in Congress or by contacting an elected official asking them to co-sponsor H.Res. 319: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that adding art and design into Federal programs that target the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields encourages innovation and economic growth in the United States.

Cutting-Edge Sound Research from One of Italy's Oldest Cities

Greetings from Bologna, Italy! Having completed the Carnegie Mellon portion of my dual-Master’s degree program, I am now enrolled at the University of Bologna’s Master’s program in Innovation and Organization of Culture and the Arts (GIOCA), aka Cultural Economics. While my blog postings will not be as regular as this past year, I hope to share with our TitA followers relevant news, trends, and projects from across the Atlantic, beginning with la Casa del Suono (House of Sound), in Parma, Italy.

The House of Sound focuses on the technological aspects of sound. It is an avant-garde artistic and technological project dedicated to everyone who listens to music and other sounds broadcast by technological instruments. - Published in a guide by the instituto per i beni artistici culturali e naturali

Housed in a restored church and managed by the city of Parma, la Casa del Suono opened its doors to the public in December 2008. It is a project produced collaboratively by the Casa della Musica and the University of Parma. La Casa del Suono serves as an educational space with a scientific and artistic collection exhibiting the technological evolution and social implications of sound reproduction and transmission; as a research center providing instruments for innovative and futuristic developments, projects, and technologies; and as a leader in scientific and musical activity. In this way, it serves as both a museum and a laboratory.

The three best things about the museum:

1) It is a stunning, modern and bright space with incredible movement and flow. Its collection and layout are neither overwhelming nor perplexingly organized. It is rather simple, actually. There are six “niches” or round rooms (at one time, chapels). Each highlights a stage in the evolution of sound reproduction and transmission. Each niche houses about 10-14 sound reproduction and transmission devices, ranging from different countries’ first phonographs and radios to portable devices such as the compact disc and the iPod.

The niches are: (1) Reproduced Sound: From the Phonograph to the Gramophone (2) Transmitted Sound: The Birth of the Radio (3) Sound at Home: A New Household Appliance (4) Pocket Sound: From the Mobile to the Portable and (5) Sound for All: New Consumer Goods and (6) New Sound: From Analog to Digital.

2) Each niche contains an interactive touch screen from which visitors can select one of the technologies on display in the room and then a song from a set playlist of typical music from that period. The selected song is played throughout the niche, audible to visitors inside the specific niche, but not beyond.

3) The culmination of the visit is a demonstration of the research and technological advancements taking place at the Casa del Suono. Two installations, the Sonic Chandelier and the White Room, apply the theory of Wave Field Synthesis. The Sonic Chandelier uses technology that creates virtual sounds sources that move in the space above the listener. In the White Room, visitors experience the sound quality and movement of 189 speakers positioned at the same height along the perimeter of the room, creating a two-dimensional sonic field and a TRUE surround sound experience.

The Casa del Suono, aside from its architecturally supreme space, extensive collection, and cutting-edge research, asks visitors to think beyond “History of Rock 101” and the evolution of music. It has viewers reflect on sound--how people have historically received sound; how the evolution of transmitting sound and music has transformed family life, politics, and society; and how electronic technologies continue to shape access to culture, art, and science.

If you find yourself in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, the Casa del Suono is definitely worth a visit. It is an off-the-beaten track gem. And while you are in Parma for the day, treat yourself to a dish of the region’s pasta covered in Parma’s own parmigiano reggiano cheese. It will be a day for the books; you can trust me on that one.

The Graph of Ideas by Brendan Griffen

Two things I know are true: That Rachael Wilkinson's impression of SNL's Drunk Uncle rivals Drunk Uncle himself and that Art.sy’s Fan page is the best source on Facebook for wonderfully distracting food-for-thought. I recently came across yet another dynamic infographic of sorts- the "Graph of Ideas." It presents a beautiful, interconnected and thready web of “Every Big Idea, Ever.” According to Suzanne LaBarre in an interview with map creator Brendan Griffen,

Each node represents one historical figure, and the nodes are color-coordinated to represent specific eras or fields of expertise (red for 19th- and 20th-century philosophers; orange for fiction authors; purple for comedians; and so on). Like-minded people are grouped together, and linked to all their influences, as well as everyone who has influenced them. The more influential a person, the bigger his or her node.

Griffen includes in the map every profile on Wikipedia that has an “influenced by” or “influences” field. Though the map is well-stocked, some great thinkers are absent (athletes and sculptors for example) from it. Griffen explains in the interview,

“I was limited [by] the dataset. Most of the people are philosophers and authors primarily because these are text-driven endeavors. Presumably fans of philosophy and books have entered in the information which sort of makes sense given their overrepresentation in the graph. Sports fans are unlikely to enter these into Wikipedia and so they are underrepresented. Similarly with artists but to a lesser extent.”

Basically, it is a map of the people Wikipedia contributors care about/care to write about. Though this may be the case, it is no less fascinating to explore just how interconnected these great thinkers are. Griffen's final message is inspirational, retrospective, and forward-thinking:

"Everyone is the collective sum of everyone else. We often think great thinkers, scientists, and authors sit in isolation in some cloister waiting for that eureka moment to come to them in a lightning storm. The truth is, the process of discovery forces us to consciously or unconsciously draw on all of our known, and perhaps more significantly, unknown antecedents of knowledge and wisdom to come up with new solutions to the problems we’re facing today."

A Data Visualization of Art & Money

Looking for a well-worth-it distraction? Check out Art & Money, an animated art auction infographic by Jean Abbiateci. It visualizes metrics for the top 270 most expensive artworks sold in auction between 2008 and 2011.

Methodology: the radius of the bubbles is calculated on the amount of sales. Theses prices do not include the buyer's commission.

Data visualized includes the size of the artwork, the artist's nationality, date created, selling price, etc. The data is then sorted in different categories so viewers can explore the relationship between male and female buyers, a comparison between top-selling work of dead artists and living artists, a look at how the top auction houses compare, etc.

Any surprises? Share with us!

Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies: Distinguishing the Hype from the Viable

Making informed technology decisions means understanding the necessity, impact, and sustainability of the technology; the technology’s current and future relevance to the industry; and how it supports the organization’s business goals.

When new technologies make bold promises, how do you discern the hype from what’s commercially viable? And when will such claims pay off, if at all? Gartner Hype Cycles provide a graphic representation of the maturity and adoption of technologies and applications, and how they are potentially relevant to solving real business problems and exploiting new opportunities.

With new technologies emerging overnight, early adopters tweeting about them by your morning coffee, and six beta invites in your inbox by your evening commute, deciding which technologies will pay off, which are relevant and which will last, is by no means a simple project. Gartner, Inc., a leading information technology research and advisory company, produces Hype Cycles to help clients  differentiate the “hype” technologies from the viable technologies. These graphics, organized by industry and aggregated in the “Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies,” provide clients with insight to the risk, opportunity, and viability of various technologies in specific industries.

"Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies" targets strategic planning, innovation and emerging technology professionals by highlighting a set of technologies that will have broad-ranging impact across the business. It is the broadest aggregate Gartner Hype Cycle, featuring technologies that are the focus of attention because of particularly high levels of hype, or those that may not be broadly acknowledged but that Gartner believes have the potential for significant impact.-- Jackie Fenn, vice president and Gartner fellow, August 2011 Gartner press release

In the Hype Cycle, a technology’s life has five phases. These phases are (as defined by Garnter,Inc.):

Technology Trigger: A potential technology breakthrough kicks things off. Early proof-of-concept stories and media interest trigger significant publicity. Often no usable products exist and commercial viability is unproven.

Peak of Inflated Expectations: Early publicity produces a number of success stories—often accompanied by scores of failures. Some companies take action; many do not.

Trough of Disillusionment: Interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology shake out or fail. Investments continue only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters.

Slope of Enlightenment: More instances of how the technology can benefit the enterprise start to crystallize and become more widely understood. Second- and third-generation products appear from technology providers. More enterprises fund pilots; conservative companies remain cautious.

Plateau of Productivity: Mainstream adoption starts to take off. Criteria for assessing provider viability are more clearly defined. The technology’s broad market applicability and relevance are clearly paying off.

Many Gartner clients use Hype Cycles as part of their technology-planning process, often drawing from multiple Hype Cycles, augmented with industry- or company-specific topics to create their own Hype Cycles and Priority Matrices. Technology providers use Hype Cycles as a way to understand the likely market reaction to their products and services based on the adopter community's expectations and attitudes. Investors watch for technologies that are on the rise in a Hype Cycle to try to catch them before the Peak of Inflated Expectations or at the beginning of the Slope of Enlightenment before they move into mainstream adoption. –Jackie Fenn

Gartner’s complete reports on technology trends and in-depth analyses of the Hype Cycles can be purchased online. But for now, take a look at the Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies (as of July 2011):

To our followers across various industries--does or will this foresight affect your technology-planning strategy?

What’s Trending on Twitter this Week

Take a look at what caught our attention on Twitter this past week:

@MuseumNext A great presentation from @clairey_ross and @chrisspeed on QR codes, Smart Objects, Museums and Public Engagement.

@idealware Great introduction to Google Grants from @MRCampaigns- including the time it generally takes to set up ads & monitor

@sumojim The Digital Engagement in the Arts Framework from Jim Richardson

@sumojim I've been playing with the social media tool SocialBro for a few weeks, and I think it's worth checking out (it's free)

@HuffPostCulture Culture's biggest world record holders

@wikimania2012 Have you taken a look at our awesome schedule of workshops, talks, meetups, and events? Check it out

@youvecottmail When it comes to social media, are you following "the rule of thirds"?

@FracturedAtlas Check out 1.1, creating 1.1 million life-size images of kids, 1 for every child in a NYC public school.

@mashable 12 Essential Social Media Cheat Sheets

‏@HuffingtonPost FACT: For the first time in history, the US Olympic Team consists of more women than men

@HuffPostCulture Frank Gehry's crumpled opera design

Be sure to share with us what caught your eye by RTing to @TechInTheArts.

Are Bricks and Mortar the Best Use for Money in the Arts? The Overbuild of Cultural Facilities in the United States

Recently, the University of Chicago’s Cultural Policy Center released the report, “Set in Stone: Building America’s New Generation of Arts Facilities, 1994-2008.”

Summary: The research examines the boom of major cultural building projects (museum, performing arts centers, and theaters) between 1998 and 2004, specifically looking at the decade between 1990 and 2000. The findings indicate during that period, “the level of investment in bricks and mortar as a percentage of total revenue and assets was disproportionate.” The full report addresses the landscape of cultural building, the investment determinants of cultural building, the feasibility of cultural building projects, and the effects on communities. The report takes into account population change, the national trend in ratio of arts organizations to cultural facilities, the relationship between the number of existing facilities in an MSA and the population, GDP, economic climate, municipal spending on physical infrastructure, spending by type of project, education rates, median household income levels, distribution of costs of projects (by region), geographic considerations, and other factors affecting the supply, demand and sustainability of cultural building projects.

[embed]http://youtu.be/KwhG7SK9csc[/embed]

Case Studies: Four case studies, presented as teaching resources, portray complex, management situations students and professionals might encounter in the real world. The cases (comprised using internal documents , construction data, and first-hand accounts from administrators, board members and/or volunteers involved in each situation) emphasize the need for managers to make strategic decisions, weighing the benefits and risks of each potential course of action. These studies provide a platform for discussion about the strategic design of projects, potentially shaping future design and management practice.

The four case studies highlight issues of  strategic decision making, project design, expansion and management at:

1) the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, IL

2) the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas, TX

3) the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin, TX

4) the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, VA

Key Findings: The report and the findings show that (taken from the report)

- Cultural institutions and arts facilities were overbuilt during the boom years

- Performing Arts Centers were the dominant form of new facilities

- The building boom affected the entire country, but was concentrated in the South, which saw enormous increases in the total number of facilities

- Building in the arts grew faster between 1998 and 2001 than or on par with building in other sectors, particularly health and education

- Rising population and higher average levels of education and income help explain why some cities built more than others

- There is no clear pattern of spillover effects (negative or positive) of specific cultural building projects on non-building local cultural organizations and the greater community

- There was far less investment in traditional theater facilities than there was in museum and performing arts centers

- The New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island MSA spent more on cultural infrastructure ($1.6 billion) building than any other MSA during this period

- Research shows that for every additional cultural facility a city had, it invested between $0.11 and $0.23 more per capita per year in cultural building projects

- What influenced how much a city invested in cultural infrastructure was not the size of a city’s population, but how fast the population was increasing or decreasing

[embed]http://youtu.be/76vN7mb9n6E[/embed]

Looking Ahead: Joana Woronkowicz, co-author of the report, summarizes the lessons learned from the study and how the arts industry should proceed in making building project decisions.

• What is the motivation for the project?

• Does it align with organization’s artistic mission?

• Is there a need for the project (not a want), but a need?

• Do I have the leadership in place to take the project from the beginning to the end?

• Does the building project respond to the needs of the community?

• How can I be flexible in controlling expenses and nimble in generating income?

The Meta-Museum: A Work of Art Depicting Museum Visitors Admiring a Work of Art

Before you head off on summer holiday, take a look at the newest addition to the Museum of Fine Art, Boston’s, Arts of the Americas wing. Warren Prosperi’s realist painting, “Museum Epiphany III,” depicts museum visitors amid the 19th-century paintings and sculptures in the Penny and Jeff Vinik Gallery of the Museum.

Those years I spent studying and copying at the MFA, I got to see the life of the museum. There’s different types of people who are always moving through the gallery. At one point I said, “All this vibrant life in the museum is a painting in and of itself.” So I started a group of paintings about the works of art, and the museumgoers, and their relationship to each other. - Warren Prosperi in a Boston Globe interview

“Museum Ephiphany I” and “Museum Ephiphany II” also feature specific locations in the Museum and were purchased by Museum trustee, David Croll. “Museum Epiphany III” will be one in a series of potentially 25 paintings.

What a turn of events when visitors become the subject of the art they view.

(Photo courtesy: David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

Three “How to…” Lists, One MuseumNext Conference, and a Letter to Museum Directors on Why Museum Websites Fail

The Guardian’s Culture Professionals Network reveals some of the best advice, best practices, and best tips from the arts management community.

1) 18 tips for managing your arts and heritage staff

2) How to recognize, prevent and deal with burnout in a creative job

3) 10 social media tips for arts organizations

And now, the international museum conference you must register for early! MuseumNext is Europe’s conference on social and digital media for the museum sector. For the third year in a row, registration to MuseumNext reached capacity long before the two-day conference rolled around this past May. Interested latecomers were placed on a waiting list.

What is the event about?

- Coverage of the hottest topics and technologies from the digital side of museums

- Packed schedule: keynotes, multi-track conference, workshops and more

- World class speakers and fresh perspectives from museums across the globe

- Unbeatable atmosphere: hundreds of museum geeks, networking and meet ups

- Great value: catering throughout the day, rewatch presentations online after the event and free high speed wifi.

This year’s conference was in Barcelona, Spain, with over 350 delegates from 34 countries across the globe. The topic of discussion: what’s next for museums? Speakers on this year's program included Nancy Proctor of the Smithsonian Institution (mobile strategy and revolutionary practices in museums), Tijana Tasich and Elena Villaespesa of the TATE (online metrics), Allegra Burnette of the MoMa (the Mobile Museum), and many other notable and forward-thinking figures in the museum world. To view videos of these lectures, visit MuseumNext's Facebook page.

The MuseumNext website is loaded with hot topics and insightful discussion in the arts management field. To get a feel for the scope of the content discussed, check out these articles:

• Why most museum websites are terrible (at achieving mission)
• What's Your MET?
• Google+ and the Museum
• Social Commerce and the Museum
• and the presentation, Rethinking the Museum for the Digital Age

[embed]http://vimeo.com/25552335[/embed]

Best Practices in the Cloud: Creating Collaborative Communities in a Common Virtual Space

Slot Shelters is an international, design conversation between young students exploring the fabric and identity of their communities—and sharing their findings and designs with their peers across the globe.

A youth building and design project leveraging traditional and online cloud tools to create a global dialog around pattern, community identity and local bus shelter needs. Locally in San Jose, the Slot Shelters project aims to instill a vision of aesthetic possibilities and anchor Silicon Valley with a sense of place.

Specifically, students address the needs of their local community's bus shelters. By creating models using cardboard and pattern cards, the students design patterns that reflect the identity, needs and environment of their community. These physical models are then transformed digitally and refined using Google SketchUp. They are saved to a Google SketchUp warehouse and shared internationally with other participating students and schools.

Why Bus Shelters? Bus stops are existing hubs in our communities. Sometimes they have shelters over them and sometimes they do not. How can you creatively re-envisioned shelters so that these waiting spots become something more for your community? How can the bus shelter you create address contemporary needs of your community?

In the process of creating and drafting these designs, students become more aware of their visual environment, more in touch with the needs of their local community, and more familiar with the design prototyping process. The digital component to the project includes 3D, digital bus shelters in a shared Google SketchUp warehouse, a downloadable online ISSUU Slot Shelters Kit, and a library of design/pattern cards for other users to print out and utilize in the and construction of their own structures.

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Currently, participating students are 4th, 5th and 6th graders from Azerbaijan, Hawaii, Utah, Washington State, San Jose and Cupertino.  In September, with the launch of the Seeking Shelter Design Challenge at the 2012 ZERO1 Biennial (a showcase of "contemporary work at the nexus of art and technology" in Silicon Valley), students will have the opportunity to submit their designs for official judging.

IMAGINE how a bus stop could be designed to renew, refresh, and connect people. Would you put in a mini community garden box? Solar cells? Bookshelves for informal book sharing? A small business kiosk?

BUILD your vision of a multipurpose bus shelter. Use slotted notecards. Use Google SketchUp.

SHARE your thoughts with us. Share concept physical models as images via Flickr or Picasa. Make a refined model in Google SketchUp and share to the “seeking shelter” 3D warehouse collection.

What does this project do so well and how can organizations learn from it?

-Collaboration and sharing: Google SketchUp (and other Google services) helps local and static projects become global and dynamic interactions

-Experiential learning in the physical realm: the Slot Shelters project begins in the physical realm, laying a foundation for the understanding of design principles and techniques before moving into the virtual realm

-Establishing communities in the virtual realm: As students build their bus shelters using Google SketchUp, they annotate each design decision. Shared online, students from across the globe involved in the product can add designs and more bus shelters to the virtual community to reflect the fibers and identity of their own environment

-Pragmatic design training: Students are given basic training with a tutorial on Google SketchUp, introducing them to the tools available, providing them with the appropriate design vocabulary and elevating their comfort level with building 3D structures in a virtual environment

-Application of project in the real-world: An installation of a conceptual bus shelter will be showcased at the 2012 ZERO1 Biennial. The public will have the opportunity to experiment with the design cards and design process by adding components to the model and working collaboratively.

Following the model of “imagine, build and share,” arts organizations can incorporate applications like Google SketchUp and VoiceThread in their educational programming and community outreach initiatives (click here for a beautiful graphic of the goals and outcomes for the project). By engaging the public in the cloud, projects and ideas become more dynamic, impactful and even international.

Love this project, love the dual-approach (physical and virtual design), and love the effort to increase awareness of the visual environment!