In a special Let’s Talk episode, Grace and Alyssa sit down to share some ideas for social engagement, fundraising, and communication during the coronavirus pandemic.

Special thanks goes to Liz Kane and Seattle Symphony for allowing us to interview them and provide their expertise within this episode.

All articles that are mentioned within the episode are linked within the transcription. For more articles and ideas on using virtual solutions in your organization, check out the most recent “Virtual Solutions In The Arts During COVID-19” article.

Alyssa: Hello, AMT-Lab listeners, and welcome to our seventh episode of the Let's Talk series, brought to you by the Arts Management and Technology Lab. My name is Alyssa, and I am the Podcast Producer.

Grace: And I'm Grace, the Technology and Innovative Content Manager.

Alyssa: Each month, we bring you trending stories and discussions with topics such as CRM, artificial intelligence, marketing, social media, inclusion, fundraising, and much more. Our goal is to exchange ideas, bring awareness, and stay on top of the trends. In this week's episode, we'll discuss COVID-19, aka the coronavirus, and ideas that arts managers use with their organizations.

[musical interlude]

Okay, everybody, raise your hands if you saw this article topic coming. This is something that's been trending around…

Grace: [slowly raises hand]

Alyssa: Yes! This is something that's been trending around the news for quite a bit. It's been the primary news and it's been the large majority of the news very recently. So if you're listening into this episode, thank you very much for joining us today.

Grace: Yeah, thank you so much.

Alyssa: Oh my goodness. So, something important to know: within Carnegie Mellon University and among many universities across the nation and even the world, our campuses are currently moved to remote learning and campuses are pretty much unoccupied at this point. So what the both of us are doing are actually recording from our own home studios, or perhaps makeshift home studios. In this case, I have the microphone but I am in my room currently right now, which is luckily like decently soundproofed. Grace, it looks like you are currently in your kitchen right now from our Zoom call?

Grace: Yeah, so I am in my apartment, and I am lucky enough to have a space where I can, you know, shelter in place. So just for our listeners, we want to thank you so much for joining us today. But please be a little forgiving as we ourselves also adjust to the times that we're currently in. If there's any issues with the audio, we do apologize. Obviously, we've done the best that we can to make sure that you can hear us clearly as possible. But we do again apologize if there are any issues. So just bear with us as we go through this.

[group laughter]

Alyssa: Oh my goodness, yes. Alright, so as I mentioned before, any topics regarding the arts and its reaction to the coronavirus right now has been the sole topic on social media and on news sources for the past couple of weeks or so. And you know, like, it's been difficult to soak in some of this news without feeling a little bit of panic.

So, therefore, our goal for today's episode is not really to share any of this news that may cause you this panic. In this time of uncertainty right now, we imagine that you already receive enough of this potential panic from all sorts of other sources, whether it's social media, whether it is new sources, whether it's misinformation, or if it's just flat out information. Rather, our goal for today's episode is to bring you examples on how different arts organizations are reacting to the pandemic. And our main goal as well as to give you some hope that you will find inspiration from these examples that will provide for your organization as well.

Grace: So the following is all updated news as of the date of this recording, which is Friday, March 20, 2020. Every news article or resource that we mention here today in this episode will have hyperlinks within our transcription. And we've done our best to make sure that it is up-to-date as possible.

Alyssa: So we're going to get started by talking about an article actually that AMT-Lab has recently posted. And this is an article called “Virtual Solutions In The Arts During COVID-19.” It already has a large portion of resources that are available to artists and arts managers that are out there, including different ways to donate, some virtual tours and live streams that are available, and some ideas for fun social media engagement. I know that we have a couple on there that are very Pittsburgh specific such as the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council and how they have a page online for those who wish to donate to the emergency fund for artists. And you know, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council is really an arts intermediary, to help specifically serve like any arts organizations that are local to the area, and in this case, help them in their greatest time of need at this moment.

Grace: So I think one of the really amazing things about this particularly trying time is just that the arts have this remarkable sense of resiliency. I think it's been really beautiful with how so many different sectors have basically stepped up and said, “you know, hey, what can we do for our organizations, as well as our patrons, to kind of help keep the arts alive?” In my opinion, the arts will never die. I think this is just further proof of that.

And speaking to what you mentioned, Alyssa, in terms of emergency funds done by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, there have been other groups all across the globe. I know of several here in the US that have started doing that, as well. The Dance Union Podcast has started doing that for freelance artists as well as other dance artists who are in need. If you are a dance artist or know of a dance artist who is in need potentially of emergency funds, I would look there.

There's also a couple of different things that are being done. Dance/NYC is actually doing a COVID-19 Impact Survey, which I think is going to be really cool, not only just to help gather more information currently, but once we get through this, to have that information and see just how much impact this actually had, as well as you know, are there other ways that we could support the arts community. Thinking in future terms to kind of help prepare for other potential issues such as this, hopefully, we don't have another one anytime soon. But I think it's really beautiful with how a lot of different people have stepped up and kind of said, “hey, how can I support you? How can we kind of band together and keep everything going, even if it's from a virtual standpoint?” Which I think is great.

Alyssa: Yeah, totally. And, you know, I think one of the biggest things as well to consider is not only what we can do during the pandemic, but how we can restart after the pandemic has passed and everything's all over. Whether it's via a celebration, whether it's via a postponed event, concert, performance, one of those… It's, you know, like, preparing for that way could be a way of thinking outside of the pandemic, which could be perhaps a little therapeutic for trying to work your way through pandemic as well, which is very important and perhaps enlightening like, depending on how you view that.

But yeah, like, there's been quite a few resources that I've been finding as well. Like, there's been a Freelance Artist Resource page that's been trending around my Facebook for a while. And that's via a Google Doc. And there was another Google Doc that recently went out as well. And it was a very, very large list actually, from the team that also runs Giving Tuesday. And this is a resource list that's available to nonprofits. You know, like, I wonder if it might be very good for a lot of these arts organizations to make these resources available, like publicly for their audience as well. And if audience members may see that, and see, therefore, like, see proof that you do support the artists and you do want to help them like during this difficult time.

Grace: I agree. I think that there have been some organizations that have started to do that. I think there were a few larger organizations that had a little bit more of an ability to push it out faster than some of our smaller organizations. But I have actually seen even some small organizations really pushing some different ways to support their artists as well as themselves. Thinking on that, one of the things that we've noticed in terms of ways to donate or help organizations or artists—there are a couple different ways to do this. One that we've noticed that that has been a popular trend is for any organization that had events which required purchasing tickets, they've been reaching out to their donors and those who purchase those tickets, and to request that they potentially donate that ticket back to the organization as operating funds to help keep things going, which I think has been really beautiful. I've seen that on Instagram posts. I've seen that on Facebook posts, so it's not just via emails. There's been a beautiful plethora of just this explosion of social connection, partly because we all have, you know, keeping that six feet away from the person next to you. But also just, you know, really expanding, “Okay, how what are the platforms that we have? What other ways do we have to reach out to our donors?” And I think one thing that's been really cool is being able to see how many people you actually do reach via social media. I think that's going to be a really interesting thing that organizations could maybe look at in this as a positive way that, “hey, we have a lot bigger reach, we're able to reach a much bigger fan base this way.” And so I find that really interesting that a lot of organizations— and it happened really quickly, in terms of asking patrons to donate their tickets back after performances had been canceled. Not necessarily postponed, but canceled.

Alyssa: Oh my goodness, I have so much to say to that actually. Oh my goodness, yeah, because we seem like so many arts organizations asked for donating your ticket as a potential way to help the organization. TDF had one article posted where one other solution was to, like to offer to patrons was to buy a ticket actually for a future performance, whether it's like way on the future. And you know, like, that's a really creative idea. And it really says something about the organization and their plans. Like, it's like, it's basically the organization saying, you know, “we're not going anywhere, we do have a plan, we are going to get through this. And here's an option that we can pretty much guarantee you so you know that this concert will happen and it will be available and, you know, like, we're not gonna let this situation like overtake us right now.”

Grace: I really like that. That's a really innovative way to do it where, you know, you may have had to postpone a performance or cancel them even and just be like, “Hey, you know, we want you to still be a part of our audience. And we want you to know that we're here for you. But we're asking you for help.” By doing it in this way of like, “hey, buy a ticket to a future performance, you can decide which one it is,” I don't know if that's how this particular organization is doing it. But that could be really cool! And, you know, give the entire community a sense of hopefulness or something to look forward to. I think that's something that has been in low supply lately. And so I think that's a really nice way of kind of helping bolster that a little bit. That's really unique.

Alyssa: Totally, yeah. We also had an idea at the All University Orchestra here at Carnegie Mellon. And I'm not sure if arts managers can implement this in any way. But, you know, we collected dues from all of our members. It's about like, $10 per semester, and one idea that we had, instead of refunding it— of course, they had the option to donate their dues. Or, if they knew for a fact that they were coming back the following fall semester, like assuming that they weren't graduating or anything along those lines, we actually gave them the option to override those dues and have them transfer over from the spring semester to next fall semester. So that way, like they can pretty much be reassured that like, the AUO is going to continue next semester. And they have a very easy path for continuing that. And you know, like a very encouraging path to actually, because when you know that your payment has been transferred over to another part of next season, or maybe like a part of your subscription for an arts organization’s case, then that's perhaps additional incentive to continue supporting the orchestra— well, in our case, the All University Orchestra. But you know, like, perhaps that's a case for audience members to continue supporting their organization as well.

Grace: Yeah, that could be really interesting to maybe performance organizations that use utilize ticket sales that, you know, make up a big part of their financial health. Maybe that is something they could do to maintain that cash. But kind of, you know, again, tell the patrons, you know, “hey, we are still going to be here, we just, you know, we'll roll over your ticket, we won't have this performance, but we'll put it towards another performance if you let us keep it.” So sort of, I don't know what that would look like in terms of the legality piece, and like, how you'd word that, but that could be really interesting. That's an interesting take on that. I like that.

Alyssa: Thank you very much. Well, I can't take the credit for that particular idea. That was from our Board Treasurer who came up with the idea, to be honest with you.

Grace: Well, thank you to the former treasurer of the CMU Symphony group there.

Alyssa: Oh, my goodness. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much, William, here's a quick shout out to you.

Yeah, you know, this, all of this talk about plans for the future and that, as an arts organization, like, we're not really going anywhere, we're not going to let this take us down. That's all part of crisis management in a way. It's part of the initial communication of getting the word out and using positive language in encouraging people that you do have a plan and that you will like, still move forward. But in turn, there will be like some additional support that will be needed from the audiences and from the donors and patrons as well. And we will get into detail about that later. But in terms of crisis management, like, absolutely having that plan and expressing it and being as transparent and honest as possible, like that's incredibly important, moving forward, and I'm assuming that many arts organizations have already acted in that regard. And if you have not, definitely make a communication like to your audiences now and let them know, like, give them an update, like on how you're doing.

Grace: Yeah, if there's one thing that the arts has got experience with, it is crisis management. This is not the first time that we've had to do something like this. I mean, this obviously is a very unique global event to begin with. But it is not the first time that we have had to kind of, you know, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and keep trudging along, but we're gonna be good. We're going to get there. It's may be painful. It may take a while, but we're going to do it. It's going to be fine.

Alyssa: Absolutely. Yeah, and there's been a couple of individual artists that have responded to the pandemic as well, and have pulled together a lot of great social media engagement. I'm looking at a couple of Broadway News articles in particular, where they had a whole list of different examples. For a while, they were planning on the launch of a small little program called Living Room Concerts, where different Broadway performers whose shows were canceled would perform specific pieces from their living rooms. There was a couple of ways that Broadway artists have responded as well. Ben Platt, Kathryn Gallagher, and Noah Galvin had hosted their own virtual dance party. This is part of their #QuaranTunes that they've been working on. And this is a good way to not only engage their audiences in this way, but also invite a very large community and a very large fan base to participate in something social as well to help with that isolation and help them get over like this current time. There's been examples as well for Laura Benanti, who has requested theater students to sing their favorite songs and then share them on social media. And of course, my favorite of all time, Josh Gad who live streamed a book reading session to kids on Twitter on Friday, March 13. I happen to catch all of that; it warmed my heart to pieces.

Grace: Yeah, I've also come across a couple different ones. In terms of just ways of keeping the arts community engaged, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Andrew Lloyd Webber have started a play-off in terms of… each of them have been playing different tunes. The ones that I saw, Andrew Lloyd Webber played “All I Ask Of You” from Phantom of the Opera on piano, and then Lin-Manuel responded with a tune from Jesus Christ Superstar, so that's been fun to watch how that's been going back and forth.

Alyssa: So wait a minute, is this a competition of sorts or are they just having fun, like playing back and forth?

Grace: I think there's a little tone of competition there.

Alyssa: Ha ha!

Grace: I'm not sure if there’s a prize for someone at the end, maybe someone who gets the most likes or shares, I don't know. Either way, it's been really fun to just kind of see the banter back and forth on social media. And just even going even further than that in terms of ways to engage audiences on social media in different ways than we're able to do before…I have a major dance background. So that's, you know, very near and dear to my heart. And I have to, I'm going to give a shout out to Dancing Alone Together. And this is a— I think it's a recently organized group in response to COVID-19 and just how that's kind of changed our lives. They have an entire website that has been listing times and the platforms that various dance professionals or teachers are offering live classes, as well as ways to you know, kind of get together virtually to create art even. Which has been really, really cool, as well as watching different virtual dance performances. So that could be streams that companies are doing or choreographers are kind of putting it up for an X amount of time. So it really seems like there is no end to the arts community's creativity and how we can reach out and share these performances, share our art, you know, keep our community engaged, whether that's, you know, from the professional or the students.

So I think in terms of being an arts organization and being an arts manager, we're lucky enough to live in a time where virtual platforms offer us so much flexibility. I think we're starting to see really how far that flexibility can go, which has been really neat to see. Um, but there's, I mean, having as a— say I'm a dance teacher and my studio got shut down, as you know, thinking from management perspective. Okay, I've seen studios now are teaching classes virtually. It doesn't— obviously, it doesn't offer quite the same things that one-on-one in-person situation would do. But it's still really beautiful that there are ways to share our art in ways that we just either didn't take advantage of because we didn't have to, I guess, would be kind of that thought? But you know, being able to continue sharing, you know, our passions, and the art form that we love so much in ways that aren't in physical capacity is just, it's been absolutely stunning to watch. I'm a big fan of what's happening in terms of the virtual space.

Alyssa: Absolutely, yeah. And one thing that I mention actually, before we move on to our next topic, where we'll talk a little bit more about fundraising and social media engagement: with the amounts of technology that we've been using to help serve those that are working remotely or enjoying like these virtual concerts or are putting together like all sorts of programs… I think it's important to mention that now that we have established this, there could be many great uses for all of these things that we are establishing for future use. And especially, especially, especially for those with disabilities.

So there's been a couple of articles that I've been reading as well and a couple of things on Twitter that have mentioned these benefits and some of the potential challenges as well that those with disabilities are still facing even when incorporating this virtual technology that we're using right now. So effectively, I would love to see this conversation keep happening so that when the pandemic passes, we can still continue to utilize these new programs and this new technology that all of these arts organizations are currently implementing so that we can not only continue to go like full speed once we're able to get out of our homes, but to still have this available as well like in case as you've mentioned before, we ended up with a situation like this again, or for those like that, aren't able to enjoy concerts like to the fullest but now might be able to because of this technology.

Grace: Yeah, and I also just really quickly want to mention that Vimeo is sharing various How-Tos to when it comes to creating and having virtual events. So if you're interested in trying to craft one of those for your organization and sharing it with your community, definitely look there. Facebook Watch also is something that if you haven't used that before, that is also a good platform to use in terms of reaching out virtually to your audience in your community. Obviously, there's Instagram Live, Facebook Live, sharing videos on Twitter. But um, if you have something or a platform that you are using or considering using and you want to share, please let us know. Comment down below, on our web page, and we'd love to hear from you. Keep this conversation going, as Alyssa said, and we can't wait to see what comes out, at least in terms of the social media engagement piece in this current setting.

Alyssa: 100%, we absolutely love hearing from you guys, whether it's on social media via our handle @techinthearts, or whether you want to leave a comment below on whatever articles or whatever podcast episodes at any time, like, feel free. We love hearing from you guys and we love hearing whatever suggestions you might have.

But now we're going to transition a little bit into one topic that I'm sure has been on everybody's minds at this point, and that is fundraising in a time of uncertainty right now. So the majority of the strategies that we're going to discuss at the moment have come mainly from a webinar that I've attended. This took place on Wednesday, March 18. It was hosted by Laurie Jacobwith of Ignited Fundraising, and Steven Shattuck of Bloomerang. In addition, we in the Master of Arts Management program, or the MAM program, have been very fortunate to take part in several fundraising classes. And finally, our MAM cohort of current students and alumni are full of insightful and experienced colleagues and they have made many suggestions to the network as well and how to best respond to this situation. So shout out to all of you guys as well for some of the suggestions and some of the advice. Let’s hop into it.

Grace: So one of the biggest pointers that Alyssa got from this webinar was that a lot of crisis management may be helpful, something that we've kind of touched on already in this episode. Specifically, it refers to the idea that positive language is going to make a much greater impact than dramatic language would. And one of the examples that was given was finding ways to switch up language and various terms that you'd use so that it proves a mutually beneficial kind of system between donors and an organization. So there may be cases where instead of using the word help, you may want to use the word serve. But then there also may be cases where rather than using serve, you may say help. So just really thinking and taking the time to figure out what kind of verbiage do you want to use in your communications to your audience and your community could really be helpful in terms of engaging your audience to actually donate those tickets, if that's something that you're asking them to do, or you know, spare a few dollars and give to your operating fund. Additionally, there was some pointers on using language that includes the words “you” or” your.” So being able to say something such as “we are able to do this because of you” and “because of your support.” So kind of putting the ball back in your donor’s court, so to speak. And this is really key again, in helping to engage them and maybe kind of shake them out of their panic mode as well so that it reframes the situation and they're like, “okay, you know, let me take a hot second and step back and figure out what can I do as well, and how can I help my own community” in that sense. So that could be really helpful for arts organizations and arts managers who are looking to try and turn the situation around a little bit into something positive for their arts organization.

Alyssa: Yeah, and a lot of really important things to consider behind that you and your language and some of the other language that you mentioned, Grace, is that it's a good way to reassure the donors that you have a plan, that you as the organization will be okay, as I mentioned before. But also, it's important to make the donor feel like they are important and really special because they are and when you convey that message, then it's really a call to action to the donor in having and helping them to donate to your organization. And there is a very large call in the sense that we are collectively like dealing with a pandemic. Donors are much more likely are, are— very, very much likely to help their favorite organizations in this case.

So one of the biggest first steps to take for any development team is to actually check in on your donors and supporters and you know, like, make sure that they're okay, ask how they're doing, if they have enough supplies. And you know, like, of course, like, depending on the donor situation, they…it's important to be aware of the fact that some people cannot give right now. They may be in a dire situation themselves, and they may not currently have a lot of capacity to give at the moment. But for some other donors, like they recognize the difficult time and they're much more apt to give in this case, and we'll come across another example later on this episode, where in one particular case in Seattle, like, that's definitely been proven. But you know, that's probably the first step, that initial communication. And then after that, the next most important step is to dispel any myths and beware of misinformation that might be taking place. And then after that, just listening and hearing what your donor or your supporter or your patron has to say, and seeing if there's anything that you can take from the community, because it's going to take very much a large community and or a large sense of community to help us through this right now.

Grace: So with that, question: donors obviously must be receiving a ton of physical mail, email, messages from all sorts of organization, any organization that they've provided their email to, their address to… You know, they must have gotten more than enough solicitations. What makes us think that our mail isn't going to be overlooked, or someone's not just going to get annoyed by receiving another ask, another request for help when there's already this bombardment of asking for support by arts organizations.

Alyssa: So the biggest takeaway from the webinar, and I believe this is actually a direct quote from Stephen, and this is going to shock many, many a fundraiser out there. According to Stephen***, donor fatigue actually does not exist. However, fatigue from uninspiring or demanding messages does exist. And if you're not able to, like, accurately portray, like, your needs in a very respectful way, or if you want to, like say that you're— if you want to communicate that you as an arts organization is important, but your messaging doesn't reflect that, then that might not be enough to have the donor give in this case.

For your very loyal and longtime supporters, if somebody cares enough about your organization, then they are actually going to want an update from you, which is why communication has to be like one of the top options for you. And of course, you do want to provide an update, but again, going back to that language, you don't want to beg. You want to be transparent and very honest about where you guys are in your arts organization. For example, like some of the language that could be used is “before, an items such as this used to cost around”— I'm going to throw out a number here: “this used to cost around $2,000. However, given the current situation, it now cost $5,000. So we're about this far away from reaching our goal.”

And, you know, a donation certainly does not have to be the main subject of a communication. But a pathway to giving should still be readily available. And probably the last tip that was provided from this webinar is to be like specific about what exactly a gift may support, whether like $50, for example, may cover one lesson that an artist may give to a child; $250 may supply part of a meal that's given; $1,000 could be a day's work for a particular event… Being specific about what exactly a certain gift may cost and assigning an item to it may actually be really good for having a donor take a look at that and say, “Well, I want to support like one lesson that a dancer gives to a child, so I will donate that much” like, or “I'll donate like this many lessons.” So that could be like very highly encouraging actually.

But, yeah, overall like just because all sorts of other organizations are doing this at the same time, like, it shouldn't discredit you at all from thinking that you may get lost among the noise or you may not have a chance because there are still people like, especially among your most loyal donors that still really care and still want to see you do well. Of course, that being said, the arts organization also needs to be able to instill confidence and give transparent details about what exactly your plan is.

Grace: I think it's really interesting that in the webinar, they mentioned that donor fatigue doesn't exist, it's actually from the messaging piece. I don't know how many of our listeners are gonna agree or disagree with that statement.

Alyssa: Ha ha…

Grace: I think I myself am a little on the fence on that. I can see the logic behind it… and just keeping in the spirit of that, I think this is— you made a really good a lot of good points about that. And I think this is where social media is time is to shine. This is where you can really differentiate your organization and your needs from someone who may be similar to you. Because, I mean, as we've seen, even with our own platform, our social media has kind of exploded. I think our Social Media Manager, Mikayla, can probably speak to that a little bit.

Alyssa: Yay! [claps for Mikayla]

Grace: Because people are having more time to, you know, look at things and this is how they're getting their information. It's all digital right now. So, you know, having those moments of where, you know, you reach out and just kind of ask, “Are you okay?” You know, share different pictures or images from past galleries or past performances.

Alyssa: Yeah, actually like to add on to that. Something from that I picked up from the webinar as well is that actually including images, like specifically faces of the organization, whether it's like the local artists that you have on staff, or any of the participants, like having that face actually within communications, is extremely impactful.

Grace: Mm-hmm. And I think we were talking some to about social engagement challenges, that there's a really unique way of kind of getting your audience to maybe get up off their couch for 15 minutes, create a little video or do something, maybe you share— let's say your organization does visual art. You know, maybe you teach painting or something like that, or there is an offering of that in terms of programming, you know… if there's something you can share that they can print out and kind of, you know, “how did you color in this?”, “How did you paint that” and “share it with us!” You know, “take a picture with it with a smile” and like, “let us see what you're doing. How are you doing to keep sane?” I think there's so many different ways that we kind of are as an industry do that already, particularly around arts education. But I think this is a moment where maybe some of those organizations that don't necessarily do that have an opportunity to do that, and really, maybe even gain more followers as people are looking for new content and things like that.

Alyssa: Yeah, there's actually a really cool example that the Kennedy Center is doing right now. Their artists-in-residence, Mo Willems, is doing a daily live stream of a show that he's put together for kids. It's about an hour long. It takes place once a day, and it's called LUNCH DOODLES, and you can very easily access this from the Kennedy Center's website. But one of the things that he does is that he sits down for an hour with kids that tune in to the live stream. He draws with them, teaches them how to draw something, and just talks and engages with them. And it was probably like one of the coolest pieces of new social engagement that I've seen out there. It's been incredible.

Grace: That sounds really fun. Maybe I'm gonna tune in now. I'm not a kid, but hey, you know, maybe I don't have to be, you know, I can let my inner kid shine!

Alyssa: That's exactly what I did with Josh Gad and his, like, children's book reading. That's exactly what I… [laughter]

Grace: I think—and I just want to point this out, because I think we've kind of touched on this a little bit, but I just want to maybe explicitly say it. I think one of the biggest things that we've been seeing as trends right now in the past week…crazy to think that it's been changing so fast, but the desire and the ability to make people laugh and kind of forget about their troubles for just a moment is so key and so special when it comes to the arts. It's something that we've been able to do as an industry for such a long time. And it's one of those things that I think people kind of underrate us for. But I really think that this is—that's one of the really big strengths of the arts industry is just being able to put a smile on people's faces when they're in this moment, and they're maybe in their heads, and there's just all this stuff going on. And we're able to kind of allow them to sit and breathe. And I think if you are able to find that for your arts organization, it's just, it's beautiful, and it's amazing, and it just shows the power that the arts truly have, in my personal opinion.

Alyssa: 100%. I 100% agree with you. Going off of that as well, if there's something that the arts organizations are very good at it as well, it is being able to collaborate with other parts of community. And this is probably ideas for where social engagement could really come in handy as well. Because not only could there be opportunities or challenges out there for audiences to share art that their family is working on or maybe share, like some creative recipes from their pantry or anything along those lines... There could also be challenges where they go out and help their community, such as if they want people to support their local businesses more, like restaurants that offer no-contact delivery. Or maybe there's a challenge where they donate to the blood drive; there is apparently a blood shortage that's going on right now, from what I understand. This could be adopting or fostering a pet for a local shelter. That could be signing up for online lessons with one of the artists… any way that they can support the community like that or even like have some collaborations with other organizations out there that could really use that extra push. This is an opportunity to do so. And it could work out like really beautifully, too.

Grace: Yeah, I think one of the—Dancing Alone Together that I mentioned earlier has something similar in terms of, you know, if you are an arts creator, and you are an independent artist in terms of like, you are your business…finding ways to collaborate with people, whether they are, you know, movement artists or visual artists or sound artists in new ways that don't require physical contact or being in the same space… I think there's going to be some— fingers crossed— really beautiful work that comes out of this as people find ways to, you know, manage themselves as businesses and manage businesses from home and finding ways to keep that going. So I think social engagement is going to be so interesting. This is, I mean, we're living in a case study, if you think about it.

Alyssa: [laughter]

Grace: So there is that, you know, there's some really positive things that are gonna come out of this, even as scary as it feels. I think, I can, we will always push data, data, data. Keep track of what you're doing, keep track of your social media. This is going to really show you the power your social media is going to have, all of your social platforms, any digital platforms that you have. I think we're gonna really see some cool stuff, personally.

Alyssa: Absolutely. Well, before we go into a very specific example, we do have a couple more resources that we want to share. In case you are interested on reading more information on fundraising during the pandemic, there is information that can be found at one of the latest articles from the Chronicle of Philanthropy by Margie Fleming Glennon and there is also a Build-Your-Own Fundraising Thermometer that is available via fundraisingbrick.com. Basically what you can do is that you can set a goal, have a thermometer list that goal, and then incorporate it on your website. So that link will be available to you as well.

But to wrap this up, I recently had a conversation with Liz Kane. She is the Assistant to the Vice President and General Manager of Seattle Symphony, and also the former Chief Research Editor here at AMT-Lab. So basically, I had a chance to speak with her about what Seattle Symphony specifically is doing during the pandemic to help their organization and to respond to their audiences and the current fears and worries that are going around. She mentioned that Seattle Symphony’s approach was slow and moderated as opposed to shutting out everything at once. Like “you must make a decision, like right now.” But basically, but rather like trickling out some ideas like that to help, like, bring a little bit more calm. Currently, they do have a gift match campaign that one of their board members is helping out with. This is a board member who's been basically a very longtime supporter of the symphony. And he has helped the organization through lots of good times. And of course, like right now, like lots of troubling times as well. For every donation that a patron makes to Seattle Symphony, he is going to match it until concerts are opened again. So which—

Grace: Woah…

Alyssa: Which is very impressive, yes!  

So another thing that Liz had mentioned is that Seattle Symphony had live streamed a concert. Of course, they're not able to do this so much anymore. But for the concert that they live streamed, they've received 400 donations from this alone. So there is still plenty of support. It's a living, breathing support that's still currently like taking place, and Seattle Symphony, of course is no exception to this.

But one piece of advice that was given what for other arts managers out there: of course, stay calm, stay positive, and really, because people are in isolation and quarantine right now, people need an outlet and now is a really good time to make the community closer.

Grace: I think that's a fabulous way to put it. I don't think there's any other way to say it.

Alyssa: [laughter] Oh, my goodness. Yeah, it was a very insightful conversation. And you know, like, it's basically proof that again, like, we arts organizations are resilient. We are creative. We are here to help serve the community via arts, via music, via dance, any sort of like creative expression. Sure, like 100% for sure, like we are keeping an eye on our health, and for our creative health, for spirit, arts is really going to be vital more than ever now to help us get through this.

Grace: Absolutely. I guess just to finish this off a little bit, um, one of the things that if you are interested as a listener in just getting access to more resources and more ideas in this current time, AMT-Lab did a wonderful article that is currently on our website at www.amt-lab.org that you can check out, which is really cool. There's a lot of wonderful things that our Director, Dr. Brett Crawford, our Editor in Chief, Lydia, and our Podcast Producer, Alyssa, helped throw together for our community as well. And obviously, you know, if you come across something that we don't have and you'd love to share with the community, please share with us if you've started your own virtual tour, where you come across one that we don't have, we'd love to have that as a source and as a, just something to share with our community. So please check our page out as well as share those links with us.

Alyssa: Absolutely. And if there's one thing that I would like to say to wrap up this episode, as well, we— you know, we hope that you can take these inspirations to inspire your organization and inspire your audiences. And I've mentioned before that arts organizations are very resilient and very creative. But I definitely want to let you know as well: you too, the arts managers. You are also resilient and you are also creative. And one way or another, we will get through this together and we will be okay, no matter what.

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Thanks for listening to the Arts Management and Technology Lab podcast series. You can read more on the intersection between the Arts and Technology at www.amt-lab.org. Or you can listen to more interviews and discussions in our podcast series on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play or Stitcher. Thank you for joining us.

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Audio transcription for AMT Lab’s Podcast Series is supported by Otter.ai.

***Correction: The quote on donor fatigue from the “During Fear & Uncertainty – How To Fundraise” webinar was quoted by Lori Jacobwith, not Steven Shattuck.