While institutional philanthropy is in a boom-time, foundations have not monopolized such growth. The renewed interest in donor advised funds (DAF) since the pandemic has triggered meteoric growth in the amount of assets stored in DAFs, with recent figures showing over $229 billion stored across 2 million DAF accounts, receiving roughly $86 billion in annual contributions, and granting nearly $52 billion in 2022.
The use of generative AI (GenAI) tools is becoming increasingly prevalent in marketing, particularly for smaller organizations or nonprofits seeking innovative ways to engage audiences and improve workflow efficiency. This article dives into data collected through a survey that was sent out to museum professionals in Pittsburgh and Cleveland to better understand how and if they are utilizing generative AI tools in their marketing strategies.
This month, music and film are at the forefront as each battles with the future uses for burgeoning tech. While AI-generated film visuals seem to be coming up short, progress toward realistic AI-generated music is starting to send shockwaves. On the consumer side, music streaming tools are being released to allow more listening experience customization. Across the industry, artists are celebrating ways that some these new tools can enhance their work, while speaking out against potential impacts on jobs, compensation, and creative freedom.
Generative AI (GenAI) has become increasingly integrated into marketing and communication careers, and even our daily lives, with the rise of various text-to-image, text-to-video, & text-to-text tools. As digital marketers find new and innovative ways to keep up with the trends, and specifically GenZ in a quick-changing popular culture scene, how are they reacting to the rise of GenAI?
Arts and cultural organizations are becoming increasingly aware of their climate impact, and many are taking action to reduce harm. Tracking, reporting, and offsetting emissions may seem like an overwhelming feat for small or mid-sized organizations, but emerging blockchain technology may help make the process more efficient and reliable.
User Experience Designers in today’s world must discover new ways to evolve their work alongside the external challenges that they encounter. Since the Covid pandemic began, many museums have adapted their exhibits to be accessible online, allowing for continued traffic and artist exposure— from the living room couch rather than in person. How have levels of digital readiness compared to user experiences?
As the world seemed to erupt with NFTs in spring 2021, AMT Lab thought it would be an appropriate time to curate a collection of essays on the emerging, some might say exploding, world of NFTs with a focus on the arts and technology’s disruptions. The following article provides context to the arts marketplace, ownership, and the disruptions caused by blockchain technology, especially NFTs, and concludes with a short commentary on the forthcoming collection and an existential thought to send you along your way down the rabbit hole of NFTs and blockchain.
One of the biggest shifts that the theatre industry has seen as a result of the pandemic is the rise in virtual experiences. For millennia, theatre has been an art form that brings people together in the same space to share the buzz of excitement and thrill of emotion connected with live performances. However, Covid-19 has made this almost impossible. Over the past few months, institutions have been forced to make changes, but this has allowed for innovations in the field as well. The issue moving forward into the “new normal” is how to operate in terms of offering seasons as in-person or virtual experiences. I believe that theatres will choose to integrate both types of programming into their future season planning because of the developments made during the pandemic.
Last April, contributor Jana Fredricks attended the 2018 Museums and the Web conference in Vancouver. Amidst the chatter of digital collections, online audience engagement, and shiny new tech, she presented research on three technologies that have changed the way cultural heritage sites are understood and documented in the digital age. Her paper, Digital Tools and How We Use Them: The Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Cultural Heritage in Syria, was presented in a panel entitled Post-Colonial Digital.
Net neutrality died by the hand of the FCC in November 2017. The policy, to be implemented summer 2018, will be detrimental to the work and impact of arts institutions and artists. The following article provides an overview of what changed, why net neutrality is important to the arts, and what you can do to help reverse the policy, or, as AT&T's CEO has called for, ask for Congress to create a consumer Internet Bill of Rights.
With tools like beacons, iPads, touch screens, and haptic interfaces, technology provides museumgoers with detailed information, customized viewing experiences, and precise location mapping services. However, the use of digital technology in museums is often seen as a double-edged sword, which begs the question: does technology really belong in museums?
If you told the average San Francisco resident 40 years ago that the art scene in the Bay Area would be gasping for life in 2015, they probably would have laughed in your face. But it is 2015, and that is the reality we are facing. The tech giants have moved in, and tension is building between the Silicon Valley community and its non-profit entities. In particular, arts organizations seem to be at an extreme disadvantage for a few reasons:
Last weekend the Creator's Project garnered significant attention from national media. From the mission statement on the website "The Creators Project is a global celebration of art and technology." and "The Creators Project is a new kind of arts and culture channel for a new kind of world." As an intersection between art and tech it seems appropriate that the blog weigh in and take a look at what they did, how they did it, and the implications. The Creator's Project has major sponsorship from Intel Corp and VICE with significant online free content focusing on mostly short form interview of Creator associated artists. This Project offers similar promise to other ventures to offering culture and arts online to ideas such as On The Boards TV and Jacob's Pillow Virtual Pillow but is already operating on a much larger scale than either of these.
The Creators Project offers arts and culture online at a scale that is extraordinary for such a young institution. The levels of participation on information sharing that is happening through their website looks unparalleled and should be looked towards as a model for successful integration of technology and the arts. The Creators Project was started in May of 2010 by VICE and seems to have two major interfaces with the public. There is a exhibit/show that has toured around the world each year and an expanding web presence that now counts video downloads in the millions. The content is broken out into six different categories: Music, Film, Art, Design, Gaming, and Fashion and has engaged with artists from all of these areas to provide content online and for the annual festival. They will be rolling out content collected from the event last weekend (March 17-19, 2012) in the coming weeks.
Current content on the website is a mind blowing array of new directions taken by artists in each of the fields. One of the standout artists at the event last weekend was a new work from visual multidisciplinary artist Chris Milk. The installation called the Treachery of Sanctuary incorporated user interaction with digital transformation to look at elements of flight. Visuals of this can be found here.
Anther fascinating example that was found on the Creator's Project website was the Electronic Shadow from France. Electronic Shadow uses imaging technology and software to generate interactive 3D maps of people places and objects. These images then can be used and manipulated in artistic fashions. The implication for this technology would, for instance, be a game changing one for other art forms such as dance.
Exchange of ideas such as Creator's Project bring together the bleeding edge of Technology and the Arts and as such should be a point of engagement for institutions that are looking to modernize and include new audiences (and younger audiences). The artists involved have obviously successfully engaged these audiences already and by following the lead of these success stories arts leaders at more conventional organizations can find hope in a new direction in reshaping structure and content to address the demands of a more complex world.
Pinterest is the latest and greatest in social media, we've talked about it before, and it just reached 10 million unique hits in a month, the fastest independent website to ever attain this lofty title. Every blogger with access to a data set out there is looking at the demographics of Pinterest, but what can a visually based social media do for your organization? This Mini-Nar is going to take a look at some of the basic functions of Pinterest, as well as how some arts organizations are maintaining and utilizing their Pinterest accounts. http://youtu.be/JZKgsWlU6Uk
Check out these Pinterests from the video: the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Ballet, the Arts and Business Council of Greater Philadelphia, and Lionsgate Be Fit. Some of the demographic data I referred to came from Tech Crunch.
What do you think? Is Pinterest something you'll consider using - or do you already utilize it? Comment on this post and let us know!
