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News & Announcements

Wanted: Arts Managers

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Those who have been following Technology in the Arts (TiTA) for some time may be aware that in the past TiTA, in collaboration with the CMU Master of Arts Management program, hosted a website devoted to job opportunities in the arts management field: http://artsopportunities.org/. Since its inception, an abundance of free online arts job resources have emerged, and so, this month we say adieu to our companion site. In its place we present here a host of resources that come with high recommendations as you pursue or advance a career in arts management: National Listings

American Alliance of Museums

Americans for the Arts Job Bank

Arts Education Partnership

Association of Fundraising Professionals

Association of Performing Arts Presenters

Dance/USA

Museums and the Web

National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture

National Guild for Community Arts Education

New York Foundation for the Arts

Regional Listings: East/MidAtlantic

Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance

Imagine Pittsburgh

Massachusetts Cultural Council

Emerging Leaders of New York Arts

Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington (D.C.)

Regional Listings: Midwest

League of Chicago Theatres

Chicago Artists Resource

Arts Wave (Cincinnati)

Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan

Springboard for the Arts (Minneapolis/Saint Paul)

Regional Listings: South

Arts and Science Council of Charlotte-Mecklenburg (North Carolina)

Regional Listings: West

California Arts Council

Northern California Grantmakers

Oregon Regional Arts & Culture Jobs

Seattle Cultural Job Site

Western Arts Alliance

International Listings:

International Arts Manager

International Society for the Performing Arts

 

Where We Are and Where We've Been - Annual Report

It has been almost a full year since I joined Technology in the Arts, thanks to the Master of Arts Management program at Carnegie Mellon University. As we enter another school year and prepare for a new group of research associates, we’ve got a look back at the past year. Research Associate Terry Boyd prepared this Annual Report with our highlights, summaries, and where we have room to improve.

If you're a fan of metrics, be sure to check out the report. Here are some of my favorites:

Highlights

  • Staff size! We added 5 authors last year!
  • Page views jumped by 63%
  • Visitor total increased by 78%
Social Media
  • Even though our Facebook page is only 2 years old, Facebook is our largest traffic source
  • Over 7,000 clicks from Facebook posts led to our blog posts last year.
  • Our Twitter account saw an increase of followers by 28%

There's plenty of room for improvement (always!) and we hope readers will join us in the next year! We also have a friendly, non-flash version of the report here.

What the upcoming election mean for the arts

What will happen to arts, arts education, and arts agencies after the coming election?  If you are registered to vote then you hold part of the answer in how you decide to cast your ballot.  The coming election could very well decide whether or not there are numerous municipal, statewide, and national agencies that help support arts infrastructure and education. Americans for the Arts collects information on elected candidates based on their voting record and stated policies.  At the top of the ticket President Barrack Obama has gotten good marks from Americans for the Arts.  He has proposed and supported increasing funding to the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities and has come out against cuts to arts education funding and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  Mitt Romney on the other hand has pledged to cut funding to the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Support for the arts, arts funding, and arts education doesn't split strictly on party lines though and it is incumbent upon us as voters to understand where our national, statewide, municiple and local elected officials stand on support the arts, education, and the creative economy.  Americans for the Arts has a handy tool that you can use to look up the positions of elected officials at all levels. 

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.

Pittsburgh's GoogleServe 2012

Technology solutions can be a challenge to any nonprofit. You're trying to do too many things with too little staff, and the last thing on your mind is how you're going to find room in the budget for an IT guy or gal. Thankfully, if you're based in Pittsburgh, there may be a solution.

GoogleServe 2012 is a full day of local Google employees helping nonprofits maximize their utilization of the products and services Google can provide.The event, now in its 4th year, will feature sessions for both the clueless and those who already have Google products in place at their nonprofits. GoogleServe is hosted by HandsOn Tech, Pittsburgh Cares, and, obviously, Google.

HandsOn Tech is a local nonprofit, seeking to help other Pittsburgh-area nonprofits with technology training and support. I had the opportunity to attend one of their workshops last month, about using Google+ for Nonprofits and really enjoyed the experience. If you have time to volunteer your tech skills, I highly recommend checking out their site.

Pittsburgh GoogleServe 2012 will be held Friday, June 15 at Google Pittsburgh in Bakery Square. For more information and to register, check out their website.

In Case You Missed It - May 2012

Things are slowing down here at Tech in the Arts as we prepare to enter our summer schedule. A decrease in posts does not mean a decrease in quality, however, and this past month we had some great articles.

Overall, a really great month. Here's to June!

A Recap of the Year We Spent Together

First, some sad news to share with everyone: this is my last post for Tech in the Arts, the quintessential blog looking at the intersection of arts and technology online. As a student here at Heinz College, it has been an honor to share with you on a weekly basis a look at different trends and topics at that very intersection, with a little bit of policy thrown in. For my final post, I wanted to take a look back at some of my favorite posts from the past year, and share with everyone what my thought process was when it came to writing about the important issues that affect the arts community on a daily basis.

Compared to the other writers here at Tech in the Arts, I have always tried to take a different approach – one that is centered on public policy, and how it impacts the arts community and arts lovers everywhere. As a Master’s student in public policy here at Carnegie Mellon, this is what I study on a daily basis and what I am passionate about, and I have been determined to include it in the overall conversation.

One of the topics I have written about frequently is the issue of funding for the arts, and the somewhat uncertain future it faces. Many cities and states, and even the federal government, are facing times of budget austerity, and cuts to the arts are happening at an alarming pace. I also wrote about the National Endowment for the Arts and its funding history, along with the new upstart on the arts funding block, Kickstarter. Arts financing in Europe has also been the target of deep cuts, and I finally looked at the debate surrounding what method of funding was the best for the arts in America. And in my very first post, I talked about how important it was (and still is!) to protect federal funding for the arts.

One of my favorite topics to write about was where arts and public policy intersected. One of my favorites to write was looking at where public policy lived through the eyes of the artists; another was a look at artistic revisions of the American Dream of buying a home. As we all know, the arts play a large role in economic development, which I wrote about, and I also took a look at how cities are thinking differently when it comes to development, often using the arts to differentiate them. Finally, I took a look at how cities are beautifying themselves through public works of art, as they face budget shortfalls and have to think creatively.

The most popular piece I wrote this year (and perhaps the most controversial, given some of the feedback and comments!) was looking at the debate over the most artistic city in America. The winner (as crowned by the Atlantic) was Santa Fe, but certainly cities everywhere can make their own legitimate cases for being the most artistic. Its topics like that are so much fun to write about; everyone has an opinion, wants to make their case for their own city, and it encourages discussion and debate.

I also enjoyed writing about an issue that doesn’t receive a lot of attention in the arts community, but is very important nonetheless, which is the issue of net neutrality. I wrote about how important the issue is, and also about how the issue is not going away anytime soon.

Finally, two of my favorite posts were about topics that don’t fit neatly within any of the above categories: My look at the Google Art Project and the White House, and also my look at the fall of Kodak and its effect on artistic inspiration.

It’s been a pleasure being a part of the fantastic and talented team here at Tech in the Arts for the past year. Thanks go out to everyone on the team for their help and support, and chiefly for the opportunity to write for all of you on a weekly basis. Thank you to everyone for reading, for being so supportive and for the kind comments and responses throughout the year.

For those so inclined, you can follow me on Twitter at @seanbowie, and can reach me by e-mail at seanmbowie@gmail.com. It’s been a pleasure everyone, thank you!

In Case You Missed It - April 2012

April showers brought May flowers and some great articles here on Tech in the Arts. In case you missed it, here are some of our highlights from the month. We had the honor of featuring Kickstarter Art Program Director Stephanie Pereira in our speaker series, and offered our additional thoughts on her visit on the blog. We also took some time to reflect on how cities are thinking about art differently and Melissa Snoza of Fifth House Ensemble elaborated on how her organization thinks about art and technology. Since new technologies are constantly improving how organizations function, we took a look at Eventbrite’s Newest Ticketing system for your iPad!

The Google Art Project is often on our minds, and we took a look at its new home – The White House. It’s a global application, and we discussed it along with Art.sy as methods to help us understand our cultural universe. A universe that expanded into the realm of the internet with the BMW Tate Live.

What a month! As our school year draws to a close, we hope your May is as pleasant as those flowers we’ve been promised.

White Space on the Broadcast Spectrum and Why We Should Care

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates every device that emits radio waves.  This means cell phones, radio, television, and wireless microphones.  In 2010 the FCC issued a rule that ordered users of wireless microphones to stop broadcasting at 700 MHz.  This resulted in the forced scrapping and purchase of tens of thousands of dollars of wireless microphones that broadcast on that length of spectrum.  Story over?  Not really.  Now, two years later the FCC is talking about 'repacking' the broadcast spectrum again. Any change of this type would result in tens of thousands of dollars of additional cost for every arts organization effected.  This is cost that was already borne out in good faith two years ago.  As congress moves forwards with legislation that would patch the budget with broadcast spectrum  auctions the arts community finds itself potentially under the gun in a time where budgets are already lean.

To give a sense of scope for this issue, there are an estimated 21,000 school theaters in addition to the thousands of professional theaters.  Combined, these facilities serve millions of patrons and students and contribute nearly eight billion dollars to the economy.

The problem is that the FCC hasn't formally recognized wireless microphones formally as a broadcast user of the spectrum.  As a result it is easy to give away the spectrum that they use.  For more information on this issue Theater Communications Group (TCG) has put together a list of articles on the subject.

Motion-Capturing Conductors, Pianos & Landmines, and Facebook & Twitter Symbols

A roundup of my favorite applications of arts and technology this month: 1) Music and Gestures: Capturing the Movement of Conductors

In “The Maestro’s Mojo,” Daniel J. Wakin of the New York Times interviews Alan Gilbert, the music director of the New York Philharmonic. The article discusses the importance of the conductor's form, gesture, and physical presence during a concert, breaking down the essential components of each movement: right hand, left hand, face, back, lungs and brain.

What is most revealing, not to mention beautiful, is the motion-capture sequence and interactive demonstration of Gilbert’s movement and gestures while conducting. Even if you view the interview with the sound on mute, the digital simulation of Gilbert conducting is worth your time. Captured in this digital transformation is the grace, the lines and the precision of a conductor at work. The digital transformation is both a work of art in itself and a fascinating study of the movements that perhaps, so nuanced, evade even the most cultivated and experienced concertgoer.

[embed]http://www.http://vimeo.com/40095898[/embed]

2) Pianos and Landmines

Did you catch this story earlier in the month? It’s about Marian Bechtel, a 17-year-old finalist in the 2012 Intel Talent Search competition. Bechtel presented her invention of a low-cost minesweeper that uses sound waves to detect explosives. A pianist, Bechtel applied her knowledge and expertise on the logistics of sound wave travel in music, to that of determining the location of land mines. Though her minesweeper prototype did not win her first place in the competition, Bechtel’s inspirational and innovative discovery is one that spans the fields of science, engineering, technology, warfare, humanity, and music- the juxtaposition of melodic beauty and peace, with war and destruction.

[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGW2qAHLJCc[/embed]

3) Not about music, but some good news about Facebook and Twitter Logos!

And last but certainly not least, proof that those little, cute, perfectly-square Facebook and Twitter symbols DO, in fact, generate traffic to the organization’s respective pages. According to a study conducted by the global consulting firm, Accenture (shout out to Technology Planning and Implementation),

Accenture found that, in the U.S, about a third of TV viewers have liked a show’s or brand’s Facebook page or tweeted about what they saw on TV after seeing one of these logos.

This implies that a television viewer, if not using his/her computer at the time the advertisement is viewed, will "like" or visit an organization's Facebook or Twitter page after the fact. If that is the case, are the benefits of including the logos in your organization's e-mails and correspondences with patrons even greater? Furthermore, the study indicated

…11% of viewers scanned a QR code while watching TV.

Given what we know about QR code usage in the US, and its slow-to-catch-on-if-ever status, 11% is a surprisingly high number.

Moral of the story? Be sure to include those Facebook and Twitter symbols in every e-mail blast, online correspondence, and virtual newsletter. Your Facebook or Twitter presence is important. Inserting the logos in an e-mail is quick, free (monetarily) and according to what you probably already knew and is now confirmed by this study, a crowd-pleaser. People will click, Tweet, post, Retweet, and follow.

In Case You Missed It - March 2012

March was a delightful month, and I hope you also enjoyed that brief taste of summer we got here in Pittsburgh. We featured some great posts here, and if you missed them the first time around, here’s a brief recap:

We took a dive into the world of QR codes with QRpedia, then headed to Wikipedia with part one and part two of our interview with Lori Byrd Phillips, a Wikipedian in Residence. Not yet satiated, we took on Pinterest in a mini-nar and a work of art that will Tweet back at you.

There’s also a theoretical side to technology and the arts, and we heard from a Millennial about the death of telemarketing. However, people love to give to the arts through Kickstarter, and we had a great discussion on the role of the arts in economic development. Not all is well, and we took a look at the loss of public funding for the arts in Europe.

Carnegie Mellon hosted a lovely TED event, TEDxCMU, which had some artistic implications.

We have another installment to our speaker series today (March 30), starting at 12:30 EST – with the Art Program Director of KICKSTARTER, Stephanie Pereira. Hit us up on Twitter to follow along with the conversation @TechInTheArts

Dang, what a great month! Here’s hoping April is just as awesome. Enjoy your weekend, folks!

Engaging Technology: uCurate and uExplore at the Clark

What’s going on at the Sterling and Francine Clark Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts? Let’s see, there are iPads, tablets, interactive digital programs, touchscreens and kiosks throughout the galleries, the new exhibition, Clark Remix, and oh yes, new curators- YOU. In a February press release, the Clark announced its exciting new initiative to encourage visitor interaction and participation in its galleries. According to the press release, Clark Remix is "a dynamic salon-style installation featuring some 80 paintings, 20 sculptures, and 300 of the institute’s finest examples of decorative arts."

As part of the exhibit, the Clark has introduced the interactive, digital programs uExplore and uCurate. Both programs are accessible online, on the visitor’s own personal device, on touchscreens and kiosks throughout the gallery and on iPads and tablets provided by the Clark for use in the museum. Basically, the programs are EXTREMELY accessible and user friendly- I myself have spent all afternoon here in Pittsburgh exploring the Clark’s collection and building my own exhibition, instead of reading for class (ahh priorities).

The Director of the Clark, Michael Conforti explains the premise of Clark Remix,

Clark Remix represents one of many programs that the Clark is developing to engage audiences in exciting ways. Clark Remix allows us to present our permanent collection in an installation that is both beautiful and innovative. Our salon-style presentation provides a very different and intriguing perspective on many of the works that have become familiar favorites for Clark visitors. Adding virtual components to the exhibition allows us to reach new audiences and invite them to discover and interact with our collection.

It works like this. uExplore allows the visitor to learn more about the Clark’s collection in a visually stimulating, highly organized, and digitally oriented way. Items are grouped into categories (paintings, sculpture, glass silver and ceramics) to allow the user to navigate with ease through the extensive collection. Selecting an image of the desired object, a more detailed, but not overwhelming, explanation of the item becomes available. When appropriate, audio and video clips accompany the information.

It is a beautifully designed and easily navigable interface. uExplore’s presence in the gallery encourages visitors to delve more deeply into the history of the collection, while they are on-site.

The second digital application to accompany the exhibit, uCurate, gives visitors the opportunity to participate in the curatorial process. As the name implies, YOU, aka the visitor, plan and design a 3D virtual exhibition with the Clark’s collection. The participant makes all decisions, from what to include and how to arrange

the objects, to wall color selection and wall text. Users of the program have the option to submit their designs for consideration by Clark’s curatorial team AND to share their designs through social media channels (promoting the museum and the digital program). Submissions to the Clark will be reviewed regularly. Why submit your design for professional review by Clark curators? Because if selected, the virtual design will be transformed into an actual exhibition! The lucky designers will be invited to assist in their exhibition’s installation, in the decision-making process, in the creation of wall text and in writing the curator’s statement.

uCurate and uExplore were designed by the Clark in collaboration with Swim Design Consultants and Virtual Gallerie to afford the public a voice and role in the museum’s exhibition planning process. Allowing the public to suggest actual designs for implementation challenges what has been the accepted and traditional decision-making process in the museum. That is, all decisions are made internally; the public only receives, not contributes. But the Clark is trying something different. In a recent New York Times' article on the Clark’s innovative crowd-sourcing approach, Conforti said,

For generations, curators ran the show and told you what to believe. In a world of blogging and Wikipedia, we realized that we can learn from our audience, and from multiple interpretations.

This is Museum 2.0 in action. Where visitors become users and museums become, as Nina Simon explains, “dynamic platforms for content generation and sharing.”

So Kudos to you, Clark Museum. This is an engaging and relevant use of technology where the user AND museum win.

Expanding the Dialogue with the CultureCode Initiative

While the intersection of technology and the arts has always presented a series of exciting opportunities for us here at Technology in the Arts, the reality is many cultural and arts organizations find technology challenging. It can seem especially prohibitive to small organizations and individual artists who may lack expertise. The Arts Council England and Codeworks have developed an interesting forum to increase the dialogue between arts organizations and the developers of this intimidating technology, the CultureCode Initiative.

No definition fits the CultureCode Initiative better than the one straight out of their digital press release,

“The CultureCode Initiative is a series of free events designed to open up new opportunities for highly skilled developers, designers and assorted geeks to work collaboratively with cultural organisations and artists.”

Here’s why I find the idea of the CultureCode Initiative so fascinating: technology often overwhelms people and appears antithetical to cultural organizations that feel that new technology can make them obsolete. The CultureCode Initiative seeks to completely debunk that myth, as Tyneside Cinema Chief Executive Mark Dobson explains, “You don’t need to have any previous experience of digital to attend this event”.

The CultureCode Initiative’s website even states “you don’t need an IT department” to partake and learn from their events, and some are guaranteed to be "jargon-free". The advent of web 2.0 and the current culture of sharing absolutely everything via the internet has democratized information. The CultureCode Initiative, to me, is increasing accessibility and informing arts and cultural organizations know that it is possible and it is easy for them to join this discussion.

Most importantly, perhaps, the discussion is not meant to be in one direction. While most similar opportunities are aimed at instructing arts organizations in utilizing technology, the CultureCode Initiative encourages two-way dialogues, with events showing developers how they can take a new look at cultural organizations and how cultural organizations can reconsider their “digital assets”.

If you’d like to join the discussion live, their first events start early next week (Tuesday, February 21st ) and CultureCode ends with a huge twenty-four hour Hack towards the end of March.

If you don’t happen to live in the North East of England (where these events take place) you can join the discussion digitally by tweeting @Culture_Code.

Any of our readers going? Be sure to let us know your perceptions of the events – you can bet Tech in the Arts will be watching to see what cool solutions come out of the CultureCode Hack.

Solve for X

Try not to have horrible flashbacks of high school algebra! In this case, Solve for <X> is a new Google initiative, defined as “a forum to encourage and amplify technology-based moon-shot thinking and teamwork”, and <X> is defined by as the intersections of “huge problem”, “radical solution”, and “breakthrough technology”. http://youtu.be/uDDy7QSdt6A

While the website is fairly vague, Solve for <X> sounds like a hub for crowdsourced solutions with a focus on innovative thinking and technologies. The website already has some brilliant talks online – as a visual person, I found Mary Lou Jepsen’s discussion on “Imaging the Mind’s Eye” fascinating.

http://youtu.be/SjbSEjOJL3U

Solve for <X> has a Google+ page to encourage and facilitate discussion; anyone with a relevant talk is invited to share it on the page as long as it meets the criteria (huge problem, radical solution, and breakthrough technology). Solve for <X> even hosted a conference in the beginning of February to bring together innovators to discuss major problems and solutions of the modern world. There’s a YouTube channel with more videos from the site and their conference, with presumably more on the way.

Crowdsource thinking like Solve for <X> and the TED talks certainly provide an interesting set of viewpoints on a wide range of topics. You can bet we’ll be watching to see how Solve for <X> has an affect on culture and the world of art.

Coming Soon - MOCA TV

Wanna check out a documentary on street artists? Maybe an interactive, educational art program? Turn your dial to YouTube, and check out the new channel from the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) in Los Angeles, called MOCA TV. Part of YouTube’s original programming initiative, MOCA TV is the first contemporary art and culture channel in the programming. It will be “aggregating, curating and generating the strongest artistic content from around the world” according to MOCA TV Channel Executive Jeffrey Deitch. MOCA TV original programming will feature global art news, art and music, art and fashion, artists in the studio (think MTV “Cribs” style), and aforementioned educational pieces in a series called “MOCA Univerisity”.

Deitch referred to MOCA TV as “the ultimate digital extension of the museum”, which has us curious about this growing digitization of art museums. The Walker Art Center’s new magazine-style website, increasingly sophisticated web exhibitions around the world, and MOCA TV point to general embrace of modern technologies.

MOCA TV has a July 2012 release date, so we have a while before we start streaming any shows. Shepard Fairey’s design studio is doing the graphic identity and an extensive social networking campaign promises MOCA TV will be cool and on point with tech-savvy Millennials. In the mean time, what original arts programming do you like to enjoy on YouTube?

The Warhol: Art – An App for Droid, iPhone, and iPad

I don’t want to shock anyone, but since my last post, another art museum has released another app. The Warhol: Art is a production of the Andy Warhol Museum and Toura, and perhaps the sarcasm was unwarranted. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that a museum dedicated to such an influential part of pop culture stays on top of the latest pop culture mediums. Andy is a Carnegie Mellon University alum, so I plopped down my three bucks on the Droid Market for this application (available on the Droid, iPhone, or iPad) and proceeded to check it out. This is the Andy Warhol Museum’s third app, and The Warhol: Art is focused on informing the users about the life and art of Andy Warhol, as well as helpful information about the museum itself. The app is useful for those who would like obscure information about Andy’s life (such as his Carpatho-Rusyn heritage) at a moments notice, and great for art history buffs. The Warhol: Art is described as a “behind-the-scenes glimpse” at some of the Warhol’s works of art, especially pieces which are lesser known. Users can explore the life and times of Andy Warhol through sections divided by years in his life. Each section comes with a selection of related art works that he created during the time period. There's a neat "Favorites" function that allows users to star the pieces they like best from these sections. The starred items list can be accessed easily from the first screen of the app, allowing users to check out their favorite pieces quickly. A few select pieces have curator commentary buttons, which I really enjoyed. The Warhol: Art commentary buttons, however, do not actually appear on the pieces that they describe. For example, while viewing Mao, 1972, I clicked on “Curator’s Insight”, only to hear a curator discussing Warhol’s Hammer and Sickle series.

Yes, I see and understand how those pieces are related. Yes, I enjoyed the commentary on the piece because I am a huge art nerd. Practically speaking, however, were I a museum patron standing in front of Mao, 1972, hoping to hear more about it, I would be disappointed and perhaps upset to receive commentary on a completely different piece.

I believe mobile applications are quickly becoming a new way to encourage museum patrons to interact with the art, and I applaud the Warhol for encouraging this effort. The Warhol: Art is an informative app chock full of information and great art, including many lesser known and not on display pieces. However, I found some features tedious (see above), while others just did not work (none of the videos would play for me, and I could not zoom in on any of the works – this is could be due to user error).

Overall, this app is great for those who’d like to learn more about Andy Warhol in an informal setting. The Andy Warhol Museum certainly is not alone is releasing an app for art history fanatics, which begs the question: is the next wave of art history coming through our smart phones? Is this the future of education? What do you think?

Center for Arts Management and Technology Update

Some of you may have heard that the Center for Arts Management and Technology is undergoing a restructuring process. David Dombrosky, CAMT's former executive director, recently resigned from Carnegie Mellon University. Everyone involved with CAMT thanks him for his service and support these last four years, and we wish him the best as he starts a new chapter in his life. Many of you may know me from my years with CAMT (2004-2009) and my involvement in the founding of its Technology in the Arts resource line. I will be assisting Dan Martin in the restructuring of CAMT to integrate all of its products and services under Technology in the Arts. CAMT is currently not accepting new software clients, but we're continuing to support existing clients during this restructuring process.

Please continue to take advantage of the Technology in the Arts resources, and we look forward to bringing you an even stronger arts and technology service line in the very near future.

If you have any questions, please contact Brad Stephenson at bstephenson@cmu.edu.

Tech tools for your arts job search

amelia-gradAfter two years writing for Technology in the Arts, I am leaving the Center for Arts Management and Technology. The unfortunate part about being a graduate student is that you will have to leave a place you love after a certain number of years, and my number is up! Special thanks to David and the rest of the CAMT staff for making the last two years amazing, educational, and memorable. I am very excited about my new position with the data-driven arts and entertainment consulting firm TRG Arts. I have been hired as the Strategic Communications Specialist, which means I will serve as a writer and editor for the firm’s consulting projects, Data Lab research and analytics projects, and a contributor to TRG’s knowledge center online.

Before I leave Technology in the Arts, I wanted to share some of the secrets I learned during the last few months of looking for arts jobs, mainly at non-profit organizations. Because nonprofits usually begin their fiscal year in July, new positions at these organizations are often posted in the summer. That means now is the prime time for you to find your new dream job in the arts.

Here are my favorite tech tools to help you find that job:

Changedetection.com

Arts jobs often need to be filled quickly, which also means the time you have to apply is limited. We’ve all had the experience of finding a great—no, perfect—job and finding out that the “apply by” date has passed or being informed after you’ve submitted your resume that the company had already extended an offer to someone.

Changedetection.com comes in handy when you know that there is a company (or companies) you’d love to work for. Obviously you aren’t going to check in on the employment page of their website every day. Better that you just be notified when they post a job, right? Well, through the magic of technology, you can find out when that employment page changes. Changedetection checks the page every day, week or month (you specify which) and sends you an email when there has been a change.

changedetection

If there is a specific geographic location you know you’d like to work in, changedetection can help too. For example, I was looking for jobs in Portland at the beginning of my search. I looked on the arts council website and there wasn’t a job board, but I wasn’t going to let a silly little thing like that stop me! What the arts council site DID have was a listing of all the arts orgs in Portland. I put a changedetection on the employment page of each organization I was interested in and got on with my search.

The downside of tracking all these pages is that you might have to sort through some jobs that aren’t for you. For example, I looked mainly at full-time marketing jobs, but I was notified for ANY job at those companies, including development and box office jobs, and in some cases, internships. However, you can take this as an opportunity to build networks. If you see a great job in finance, maybe you have a friend who looking who also happens to be a finance whiz. Forward the job to her and not only have you strengthened your friendship, but also she may want to return the favor if she comes across a job that fits you.

I would recommend setting these up relatively early in your job search and keep adding as you find companies that are of interest to you. This way, you will also see which jobs come up and how frequently as well as important information like salary ranges and organizational structure information. (For example, will you be working for someone who is a new hire herself/himself? Is there a new Executive Director at the org?)

changedetection2

The interface for monitoring a page on ChangeDetection.com

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has attempted to tout itself as a job-finding service. However, at the early-career/emerging leader level, I find that is less helpful for finding jobs and more helpful for simply networking. There’s not that many headhunters out there for arts jobs, except in the executive level and maybe for IT people.

Anyway, how many times have we heard that the arts world is a small world? I use LinkedIn to see if there’s anyone I know who may know someone at the company I am applying to. If your relationship is good with that person, ask them to put in a good word for you.

Sometimes LinkedIn groups will have job postings; I haven’t found this to be true for most of the arts admin/management groups though. Please comment below if you know of a good group for this.

PrintGuideStar

For non-profit organizations, it’s essential to check out the company on GuideStar. GuideStar is a free service that gathers and publicizes information about nonprofit organizations. Much of the information is geared toward donors and foundations, but there is a lot of useful information on it for the job seeker.

Once you register (free), you have access to almost any arts organization’s 990 tax forms, which means you can see what the organization’s budget size is and how they are doing financially. Note that for many organizations, the most recent year might be 2008 or 2009, so the information could be slightly dated or influenced by the recession—which is still important to know. The 990 serves not only as a way to see if the org has a record of keeping a balanced budget, but also as a historical snapshot of the organization, in terms of grants received, senior staff turnover, and capital campaigns and similar projects, among other things.

GuideStar is also extremely helpful to estimate salaries, especially if you are applying to a director-level position. The IRS requires non-profits to list the salaries of their five highest-paid employees. This is pretty valuable information, as the size of most non-profit arts organizations means that you aren’t likely to find very accurate information on that exact job at that exact organization.

Arts Jobs Sites

One of my friends posted a status update recently “wondering if CareerBuilder is really a builder”. I replied that all it had “built” for me was piles of emails in my spam folder. Personally, I’ve had a lot more luck overall with industry-specific sites, some of which can be used in conjunction with changedetection, as discussed above. (Bonus: The industry-specific sites manage to present you with jobs without asking if you want information from University of Phoenix every other time you go to look at a job. Just saying.)  Here are my favorites:

General:

By discipline:

State and local arts councils may have a good job posting site, depending on where you’re looking to find a job. For example:

Lastly, if you have an interest in development or program management, heads up! There are a few sites/ email alerts that I’ve found especially useful:

Philanthropy News Digest (A service of Foundationcenter.org)

PND has created a job alert system that will email you a daily summary of recent jobs in your area of interest. I cast my net wide by checking a lot of states and position types (communications, development, program management, etc) when I signed up for the alerts. I now get about 15 job postings a day. The fields of the organizations are quite diverse too. A recent email contained jobs from Napa Valley Opera House, University of Chicago, the Rainforest Alliance, and Vera Institute of Justice.

Chronicle of Philanthropy

Chronicle of Philanthropy posts mostly development jobs, which, like PND, you can sort by location, position type, and the field of the organization (education, health, museum, etc).

DotOrgJobs

It’s also worth mentioning that DotOrgJobs is good for fundraising jobs and other nonprofit jobs; however, I have not seen a lot of arts-specific jobs from them. You can subscribe via email or RSS feed.

On organizing email alerts:

You might be saying to yourself, “That’s a lot of email alerts to deal with.” I use gmail and have set a rule to have these emails automatically labeled “job search” and archived so that they don’t clutter up my inbox. Then I set an alert on Google Calendar reminding me to go through them once a week, so that I actually read them! This can also easily be done with Outlook.

Do you know of any other good sources for arts jobs? If so, please post them below!  Happy hunting!

Upcoming Webinar – Inspiring Online Audiences: Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive

The word "engage" gets thrown around a lot. But what does it really mean? Our upcoming webinar takes a look at how arts organizations can inspire their audiences through online platforms by focusing on a case study from Jacob's Pillow, which recently launched their own online exhibit.

Inspiring Online Audiences: Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive May 9, 2011 2pm-3:30pm Eastern Register today ($25)

How can online engagement with arts audiences be meaningful, inspiring, and ultimately worth all the effort we put into the online space? Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival presents their recently launched online exhibit Dance Interactive, a collection of videos from 1930s dance pioneers to today's most visionary artists. Looking through the lens of crafting "inspiration", this webinar will help you define for your own organization what that catch-all term "engage" really means and the greater challenge of how to measure it.

Panelists:

Connie ChinConnie Chin is General Manager of Jacob’s Pillow, an international dance festival, school, archives, community programs, and National Historic Landmark, which recently was awarded the 2010 National Medal of Arts. At the Pillow, Connie’s special projects have included Virtual Pillow, the Nonprofit Finance Fund's Leading for the Future initiative funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Wallace Foundation’s Leadership and Excellence in Arts Participation initiative. She has consulted as a Peer Advisor for the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and served on grants panels in Connecticut and Westchester. Prior to the Pillow, she was in brand management at Kraft and Ocean Spray; and has also worked at the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and New York Foundation for the Arts. As a dancer she has performed with Bill T. Jones, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Muna Tseng, Sincha Hong, Ze'eva Cohen, and others. Connie holds a B.A. from Harvard College and an M.B.A from Yale School of Management.

th_LisaHeadshotBlueLisa Niedermeyer is an independent consultant currently managing digital projects for Jacob's Pillow, home to America's longest running international dance festival. Lisa also serves on the advisory board of Movement Media, a NYC-based organization that empowers dance artists as curators, creators, and strategists of media. Past project highlights include working with the online marketing team at Soundwalk, an international media firm specializing in sound art and iPhone audio tours, as well as collaborating with Jane Comfort and Company (with whom she performed for 7 years) as digital content director for the company's 30th anniversary rebuild of their website.