In the eighth installment of our Let’s Talk series, Alyssa and Grace sit down to dive deeper into ways arts organizations are adjusting to coronavirus mandates across the globe by adopting new technology, contemplating automation, and trying out new fundraising strategies.
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.
[Musical Introduction]
Alyssa: Hello, AMT-Lab listeners, and welcome to the eighth Let’s Talk episode, brought to you by the Arts Management 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 will discuss technology adoption, automation, and fundraising. Please note that we are recording this episode as of April 24, 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. We are practicing social distancing by recording over Zoom, therefore, you may hear differences in the audio quality, particularly as we switch from speaker to speaker.
[musical interlude]
Alyssa: So, before we get started today, we just like to take a moment to let you, the listeners, know that since we are exploring recent news topics in our Let's Talk series, a large portion of this news is going to be updates on the arts in this pandemic. As a research center at Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University, our goal has always been to research and report on trends and technology that may serve your organization. Our Let's Talk series was created to ideate, rather than report, but you know, nevertheless, we strive to make sure that the sources that we discuss are fair and truthful.
Now, there's been a lot of articles popping up during the pandemic, and it's taking some time to swim through engine searches and social media posts. However, there was one article that popped up in my social media from a colleague that I met at a conference in Dallas. This article isn’t related so much to arts and tech, but you know, I think that we can all relate to it as we're staying home in social distancing and isolation and attempting to find a new, albeit temporary, rhythm to our lives. This article is from the Chronicle of Higher Education, and it's from Aisha S. Ahmad and it's called “How to Salvage a Disastrous Day in Your COVID-19 House Arrest”. Very great title, first of all. [laughter]
Grace: I actually really loved this article, um, I felt it was so pertinent because I'm sure many of our listeners can relate to just feeling like your day is… wasted half of it, your-, you don't want to do anything else. And honestly, when she was talking about how to restart your day, and just kind of taking the moment, at whatever time of day it is, if it's 1pm, 3pm, you know, 10 in the morning… Honestly, best advice that I have read so far in terms of being remote and working from home.
Alyssa: Absolutely, yeah. So, to give a quick rundown of the article for our listeners, what the author suggests is in case you are stuck in a rut throughout the day and you realize, um, halfway through that half of the day is gone and you [don’t] feel as if you've been entirely productive, then what Aisha suggests is to take a moment: shut off all screens, all technology, your cell phone, maybe the TV if it's on, your laptop, take a moment to, you know, shower, get dressed, quickly eat something. Then, start off by doing a simple chore and then go from there, so that you start to feel better and a little bit more energized. The other half of the article suggests book-ending the day. So, in other words, this is ending the day at a specific point, turning off the screens again, you know, taking a moment to have some time to yourself, change, straighten up the room, do at least one positive thing so that you have an affirmation, and then go to bed and hopefully you'll wake up feeling a lot more refreshed. I've actually been trying to do this a little bit more myself. I've been trying to like, end my day, like, and actually be in bed sleeping by 11 o'clock every night and so far, like it's been mostly, mostly successful.
Grace: Same. I'm notorious for just keeping on working, I'm horrible about stopping my day at a specific point in time. I'm always thinking about what's going on next – even in normal, you know, working, you know, whenever before this when we were working actually from offices and things like that, I would come home and be like, “Oh, wait, I need to do that thing too”. I wouldn't – I'm horrible at that. So, practicing this is definitely something I'm looking forward to doing if only to, you know, continue maintaining a routine while we are social distancing.
Alyssa: Yeah, totally. I know that – and if we have any student listeners out there that might agree with this – I know that it's very difficult when we have tons of homework that we need to do, like once we're done with classes and, you know, sometimes that might take up the majority of the night. Whereas once you're in the adult world, once you're working a nine to five job or whichever hours that you are working from, it's a little bit easier to slip into a routine. And sometimes it could be easier to have that time to yourself – whether that's changed or not via the pandemic, I can't speak for sure on, but you know, like, to still, like, have that set routine and something a little bit normal in this time of not normal-ness. For sure, really I think that this is really solid advice and I will keep this with me as we continue to move forward in the pandemic.
Grace: Absolutely.
Alyssa: All right. Well, let's get amped with AMT Lab!
Grace: Okay, so for our first topic, technology adoptions have been a trending topic for a while, we've all been keeping our eye on this, and it can be as complex as introducing a new CRM or as simple as replacing the scanner in your office. However, as long as an organization follows basic strategies in an organizational change, such as communication, obtaining necessary buy in and making resources available then a new tech adoption can be painless. However, due to the recent changes that have been necessary because of COVID-19, many organizations and companies suddenly had to adapt to remote work and new communication tools. In addition, as we discussed in our Let’s Talk special from March, many organizations have to be creative in their programming as well. As a result, we've seen live stream concerts, online artwork shops, virtual museum tours and so much more. The sudden adjustment has been stressful and if these tech adoptions are successful, there's a solid chance that they could become a permanent staple in the way we experience the arts.
In addition, office culture may also be permanently changing, and many considerations have to be made for current employees. According to an NPR article titled, “The Office As We Knew It Isn't Coming Back Anytime Soon. Maybe It's Changed Forever” by Yuri Berliner, employers are beginning to think about changes such as automatic doors, HVAC systems, adjusting the number of people in the building at certain work times, and even parent employees who can't report to work because their children are displaced from in-school learning.
So, my first question for you Alyssa – Do you think that managers and employees of arts organizations might be struggling with this sudden tech adoption.
Alyssa: You know, absolutely, I would not be surprised if a large majority of them are. From what I've been seeing from my own social media channels and from some of the research that I've been conducting on this, you know, like, there hasn't been much time to really develop a strategy unless there's been a crisis management plan that has already been integrated into the organization. There hasn't been much time to like, really communicate these changes, there's no safety plan to really fall back on because of the pandemic. Basically, we had to make the change, and we had to make it very quickly. And you know, it takes an inhuman amount of adaptability to transition smoothly into this, like, I can't really blame an organization who is struggling, like, to have their employees adopt to remote technology and remote working, or new communication tools, or even programming in a different way. It's a struggle and, you know, that's something that employers, like, should be understanding [of] if they aren't already.
At the same time, you know, like, this is kind of a time for exploration and experimentation for a lot of these arts organizations. You know, we've always been doing our best to be creative in how we approach our programming and communications. For example, maybe an organization can’t choose to livestream but maybe they can hold online classes instead, or just record videos of artistic chats to post later on social media. But organizations also had to think about how they have to change up their digital marketing strategies. You know, like maybe they can take an example – I'm going to use an example from the Pittsburgh Glass Center where they put together art kits for purchase and allowed curbside pick-up for them so that people can still work on their own personal artistic inspiration in a way. You know, maybe museums do have these virtual tours.
And you know, like, what do you do for this audiences that don't really have internet access or good cell phone service available? Like wherever they're quarantining? You know, like, basically, arts managers are thinking about this and they're experimenting to see what exactly is successful and what isn't. I mean, heck, Burning Man is going virtual this year! That's, that's fascinating news. I am really curious to see like how exactly they're going to do that. The good news is that, like, I feel that a lot of patrons and audience members out there like, they're more, they're more than understanding from what I can see. And they're doing their best to, you know, to still support these arts organizations and check out their content. But, you know, like, the struggle is still gonna be there nonetheless. So, that's something that arts [inaudible]
Grace: Seeing the innovation that has come out of this struggle has been mind-blowing. Um, just the way that people are starting to do digital seasons is really cool and even some places are starting to find ways to provide live content, while still maintaining guidelines per you know, whatever state they're in, and the CDC, that's been really, really cool to see. Um, and I do, I do love that they're finding new ways to kind of increase and maintain audience engagement, which has definitely been a concern I know for many, many different arts organizations. You know, how do you keep the audiences that you've been developing for years?
Going off of what you were talking about, you know, with individuals who don't have access to internet and, you know, maybe struggling to access a lot of these digital materials. How do we support those who are struggling with remote tech adoption?
Alyssa: You know, from the audience perspective, that's a really good question and it's a really difficult question to answer. Um, there, there has to be some way to reach out to your audience that is not necessarily a-, that, that may not necessarily, like, require an internet connection because, you know, again, like not everybody has internet. But there are perhaps many patrons and audience members out there that may struggle getting onto the internet in the first place, or may not be familiar with new technology, like if they have to learn Zoom for the very first time and never had to use it before. And one way that can be accomplished is via snail mail, but in some cases a lot of our organizations may not necessarily have access to a lot of the printing materials that would be at their office. So, one way to go about that via other communications is over the phone. And you know, we'll talk a little bit more about this when we start discussing our fundraising topic but what a lot of arts organizations, particularly their development departments have been doing is giving a lot of their loyal patrons, some phone calls, like, just to check in on them and see how they're doing and make sure that like, they're okay and they have everything they need. I myself have received a couple of these phone calls, actually and, you know, like, they've surprised me, and I was able to say, you know, I'm okay, thank you for checking. And it's actually kind of heartwarming, I, I appreciated getting those messages.
Grace: Wonderful to hear that there are some arts organizations who are taking the time to do that. So that's, that's good. That's nice.
Alyssa: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, from the employee to employer perspective, um, if you do have any employees that are indeed struggling with remote tech adoption and trying to work from home, whether they have kids at home and there's not really an office space, or you know, like working remotely from home, it's just a new experience, they don't really know like, where to get started with that, or they're just struggling with everything like emotionally right now – and they have every right to in my opinion, because it is it is epidemic.
Grace: Absolutely.
Alyssa: There are lots of great resources that are currently on the internet right now for anybody who is struggling with remote tech adoption. I like to recommend Fractured Atlas and some of their articles. Nina Berman has a really great article called “The 10 Best Resources for Virtual Working: Reframing Productivity, Communicating Successfully, [and] Supporting Mental Health”. And there is one great quote in particular that I want to mention, and it's the quote, “sometimes working from home can feel like living at work”, which I personally identif[ied] with a couple of times. But you know, like, Nina takes a moment to mention tons of resources for how to handle everything in terms of mental health, how to best set up your office space for the most productivity, how to shape your schedule. It's, it's a very great read, I highly recommend it. And in addition to this, Fractured Atlas does have a series called “How We Work Virtually” and it's just different members from the team talking about how they set up their workspaces and how they set up their schedules. And this has been without a doubt, like, the most helpful thing that I've read for my own personal, like, work schedule, um, I’ve taken some of the advice, like I set up a new office space, I set up like a very strict schedule, and it's made my work ethic increased tremendously. I've been very happy with it.
Grace: That's nice to hear. Um, I'm curious, do you have thoughts on you know, let's say an employee doesn't have great internet access, um, and they work for an arts organization. Are these resources that can be shared via like hardcopy or over the phone by employers to employees to kind of help encourage them, kind of in the way that organizations have been reaching out to their patrons, the way that you got those phone calls? Could you see that also being an option for employees who may be struggling with the low internet access piece?
Alyssa: Mm hmm. You know, that's a really tough question to answer. Um, there…. So, it is possible, I think, in terms of some of the positions that might be out there. For marketing, I'm not really sure how you would go about that necessarily. If you're in operations, and you can communicate mainly by phone or if you're develop-, if you're in development, and you can take on the task of calling up some of your patrons, or if you have a chance to do handwritten notes, although I can't imagine that would be the most efficient way of communicating. You know, that's really a question that might have to be worked with on a case by case basis. I think perhaps employers will need to talk to some of their employees to figure out specifically how they can still contribute and how they could still help, or even if there might be a way that they can be temporarily set up with better service. Like this might be an area, like, where you may have to, like, take a look at your budget and figure out if there's a way that you can grant them temporary work surface, like, even if you got to send them to a hotel or something, although, again, I'm not sure how that would necessarily work during a pandemic. But if there's one thing that an employer should definitely be doing, it is contacting their employees and making sure that they will still be okay and that they do have some way to work. So, it is a case by case basis, but you know, like, the employer still has to act in some way, um, and there's definitely like some ways the employer has to help, like, you just may have to be a little creative about it. And a little accommodating.
Grace: I know that was a tough question. I wanted to toss that one in there, um, just to get your thoughts on that because I know we've-, a lot of people address you know, how, what about patrons who don't have internet but also on the other side, you know, what about the employees who may be struggling with low internet depending on where they live and things like that? So, thank you for answering that question. Um,-
Alyssa: Yeah, not a problem. Actually, like, my dad, like, he works from a remote workplace and he's had to be sent to a hotel a couple of times, like when we would lose power and you know, like if there's a way that you can, as an employer, like send, like help an employee get better internet service, like upgrade the plan a little bit, like temporarily, you know. These are creative solutions and if you want to succeed as an arts organization, then, you know, you should consider these things in my opinion.
Grace: Yeah, it sounds like flexibility is going to be massively key for arts organizations moving forward. I want to get your thought on something else as well. Because we've been talking about, you know, tech adoption and things like that, with the changes that have been happening and we sort of briefly mentioned what the future could potentially look like, with maintaining these technologies. Who do you think's going to maintain these new tech, post COVID-19? Do you think museums will keep their virtual tours, do you think livestream concerts are still going to be there? Online classes, remote workspaces, I mean all the different things that we've seen arts organizations develop and create. Who do you think is going to keep those on and who might drop them?
Alyssa: Aha. So this is a tough thing to research actually, because this data is still currently being collected. There is a lot of surveys that are taking place right now from organizations, you know, such as, I believe SMU Data Arts, maybe the AAM for the museums in this case. You know, like, everybody's still experimenting at this point, and we can't truly get an idea of like, how much is being kept until post COVID-19. But, you know, if I'm going to make a prediction on this, I'm going to say that arts organizations may keep whatever happens to be successful, like, if their virtual tours happen to be successful, then, hey, that's another way that you can engage your audience and get them to, like, check out the work or maybe even encourage them to visit you like in person, like if they have to ability to do so. You know, it's some of these livestream concerts, like if they managed to make a paywall successful or they can have these concerts broadcast and they ended up like being successful on their platform, while they still have the ability, eventually, to host concerts in person, then you know, like, they may keep it. I guess, like, the biggest thing is that, you know, programming and technology, it can't really replace the full experience that you get from seeing the museum or a concert in person or an experience in person. However, it should complement it, um, and if the new programming tech is going to complement the work they do, then why not keep it? Unless it's not like fiscally responsible, then you probably don't want to do that, but…
Grace: Yeah, I think, I think you've hit it really on the nose there. It's going to be interesting to see who, who keeps it, how they keep it, you know, whether it's one of those things where it becomes single ticket purchases, or it's part of a season package, things like that. It'll be really interesting to see who does that. So, if our listeners know of anybody who's even thinking about this, or is doing research on this, please comment. We'd love to hear, you know, anyone who's starting to think about this, or if you've got kind of a lead on someone who's starting to plan for this, let us know. We want to keep you guys updated, and we want to stay updated too, so send it our way.
Alyssa: Absolutely, yes. We love hearing about any ideas that you might have that you might be able to share and we're curious to hear your predictions too. So, let us know at any time.
All right. So, we have spoken about some of the changes to office life and remote work and arts programming within technology adoption. Another significant portion of technology adoption, inside and outside of the arts world is automation. We've previously discussed automation in episodes as a potential concern, such as within artificial intelligence music projects in our sixth Let's Talk episode. But now, with the amount of layoffs many are experiencing, plus social distancing and sanitation concerns, automation is trending again. Currently, we're seeing examples of automation in the news with healthcare and digital contact tracing. For example, Murphy, Adams and Gandudi of Fast Company mentioned the example of thermal cameras on bomb squad robots and drones that are now being used to detect fevers in public. Another example comes from Kylie Foy of the Lincoln Laboratory in MIT News who discusses the details of contract tracing by utilizing Bluetooth signals within cell phones, while keeping privacy concerns at bay for use of the United States. Of course, while readers are able to see how this technology is being used to help flatten the curve, there is also anxiety that is being sparked from these articles and conversations due to automation itself and what exactly that could mean for future employment. So, let me get this big question out of the way that's been coming from some of these articles: Is COVID-19 becoming the age of automation, both in the present and in the future?
Grace: So, I think calling it the age of automation is taking it and exaggerating it way further than is actually happening. Um, robots are definitely vital when we're working to continue to tasks that are necessary, but also providing social distancing as per our CDC guidelines, and the WHO, and, you know, different state regulations that are happening. Um, I think that one of the biggest concerns that people have is that they feel like, Okay, well, if this robots in this place, then doing the job that I was doing, then there's no room for me. Actually, the truth is that if we're going to introduce robots into our art spaces, then we have to be able to retrain the staff for helping that robot, even if the robots automated. The automation of a robot has to come from somewhere and utilizes human developed commands in order to do its work. So that said, there is still that availability for jobs for humans to be on the back end. They may not necessarily be doing the tactile piece that the robot may be doing but there's still the option for distance, you know, in terms of commanding that robot or even controlling the robot if it's something that's done by distance, remote control, that kind of thing. We've seen museums use these kinds of things a lot recently, especially for those museums who are implementing this new technology. Um, the robots are gonna need a little bit of help and that comes from us. [light laughter]
So, I'm just going to quote Shahin Farshchi from a Forbes article: “The loss of jobs has not been caused by automation”. You know, the overall point here is that robots are not intended to replace the jobs that we have, but complement them so that we can keep everyone safe, and continue thinking about “we” rather than the individual, because that's what we're struggling with right now. It’s the sense that, you know, we want to make sure that as much as we're keeping ourselves as individuals safe, that we're keeping the next, you know, three or four people down the line safe as well. And I think that's the concern, that it's really difficult to kind of reconcile that for when you're dealing with so many different things that are – it's emotionally, you know, you'[ve] potentially been furloughed or lost your job – you know, I think that's a real concern, but, you know, that's where that issue sits.
Um, in terms of robots not being intended to replace the jobs, that being said, the replacement of sanitation and factory workers is definitely a concern that needs to be addressed and we're seeing that a lot within healthcare. But I think, as companies restructure and begin to hire again, once things happen, and things start to slow down, um… well, it remains to be seen how that plays out. I think we just have to wait, we have to be patient and see, I really and truly think that it's not going to replace, this is not the age of automation in the way that some people are thinking. It may become that we do a lot more work in tandem with robots and things like that, but that could end up being a beautiful thing, you never know. So, we'll just have to wait and see.
Alyssa: Of course, yes. And that's a very fair answer and I appreciate that. It is something that any employers who are listening, like, should be perhaps considering like moving forward, if they are in a position where they are going to restructure, like, then there has to be a very responsible restructure around it.
So, you know, when it comes to retraining, you know, since we're both like, millennials, like pretty close to Gen Z, we're able to easily adapt to technology and experiment with it and figure out like how exactly it works, like we're able to pick up without really easily. For other generations, or even like just other workers in general, they're not able to do that as easily. Um, there's some challenges that some workers that may, um, come across technology like, you know, they may see this and they may struggle and you know, they may have the fear that they won't be able to learn this technology as quickly as others. And you know, that's a real barrier and technology adoption too. How do we alleviate those fears and how do we help employees learn that this new technology or these new robots like in, in their training or their, their, or their day-to-day work lives?
Grace: I think it goes back to the concept of flexibility that we were talking about before. Um, I think that there's potentially going to be this space where, um, if you have staff that are either uncomfortable with learning some of the new technology required to kind of direct these robots, and you have the ability to maybe bring on part time staff, who can, you know, supplement that, I think that might be something that could possibly alleviate that tension there. You know, I think it comes down to where we do have to be adaptive with all of this, you've got to work with the people who are in your organization and I think it's really going to be a case-by-case basis. Um, a lot of individuals, I mean, as much as we have constant contact with technology, there are a lot of people who might surprise you with what they do know and, you know, I think we just have to take stock of what we have available in our toolkits as an organization and who we have employed, or furloughed, depending on where the organization is at, in this current pandemic. Ah, so it’s, it's hard to say. That's, that's a tough one to really, you know, pick out and say, yes, this is what's going to happen, no, this is not going to happen.
Alyssa: I think, I think I understand what you're saying. So maybe like to summarize it, one way that you can say it is that you can trust in your employees and they may indeed have the skills available to adapt. As you know, like as we're in the arts sector, like we are highly creative, we are highly flexible and adaptable. But you know, you still want to make sure that those resources are available to help just in case.
Grace: Absolutely. And that's not to say that someone who is doing, you know, something that may seem completely opposite of, you know, directing these robots isn't really interested in that. I think also taking into consideration the actual personal interests of your individuals that work for you may surprise you. So who knows?
Alyssa: Excellent. All right. So, then my final question then, if that's the case. So, for these arts organizations that do have robots within their workspaces or within their organizations, you know, like some of them, like, if they have the technology available, that's great but maybe for a very significant portion of arts organizations like this type of automation may not exist. So, I guess like my current question then for, you know, in some cases, arts organizations may have access to these robots and this type of automation, and we can certainly adapt our employees around it, but for a large portion of these arts organizations, they may not necessarily like have robots or really have the budget for them but they have other types of automation that does exist within their organization, such as software automation or marketing automation. So, what does this mean in terms of how organizations are going to handle this within the future and considering the pandemic?
Grace: Yeah, so I think a lot of that comes down to how things start to reopen and how movement within public spaces starts to formulate, when it comes to people being able to get back out and do the things that we typically did before COVID-19. I think we're going to see a lot of societal changes, in terms of how people relate to other people in space, so that may affect some of this. Um, but certain strategies that can be taken that some people are already starting to contemplate, are finding ways to use automation to take temperatures at the door. You know, that may help at least identify individuals who, you know, potentially have COVID, if that's still a thing once this kind of reopens. Just also kind of acknowledging, okay, if there are concerns going on in the world globally, you know, these are tactics we can take to potentially mitigate that and identify these individuals for the safety of either themselves and/or the patrons and staff currently in the building. Purchasing that kind of technology obviously is going to be really expensive if you don't already have it in place and that's going to be definitely a barrier for this. Um, you know, workers are also, you know, when you add labor, that's, of course going to be, you know, adding to your expenses, especially when hazard pay needs to be considered, which in this case, it certainly does. But also, having someone behind the scenes, you know, monitoring that automation, regardless of what the function it's doing, is definitely going to be more cost effective. You can train people for it, if they don't already know, especially if it's something that's a relatively simple function and you definitely are going to have a higher quality experience because as much as automation is great, it's only limited to the coding that's being done and the directions that it's being given. The creativity piece comes from the human standing behind the scenes, so I think that is going to be really the key piece here is just listening to the ideas that are being developed by your organizational staff. And you never know, someone may come up with the most genius idea and if you don't listen and you don't pose these ideas, or at least pose the question, you'll never know. And so, I think it definitely, it's going to come down to some of that but again, it remains to be seen how things reopen. I think that's going to kind of determine what this does actually mean for arts organizations and the tactics that they have to create and employ in order to, you know, adjust to whatever the new normal is when we get there.
Alyssa: You know, absolutely. And you know, like the future right now like is going to be unknown, like whether they are going to start taking temperatures like for people that walk in through the door or maybe like they'll have social distancing for the way that they’ll handl-, for the way that they'll handle their seating. It’s going to be interesting to see how that happens but you know, you definitely need that human side for it. It's, it's like the, it's like the creativity is not only on the stage, but also within the organization itself.
Grace: Absolutely, I think that's a great way to put it. Um, I mean, as much as our artists are the ones who help, you know, create these wonderful things that we go and visit, the people behind the scenes, the arts managers, our administrators, our staff, are the ones who help get it to where it can be to the public. So I think, you know, you got to use, utilize that, let's play to our strengths. Let’s really focus on what we have already in our pocket and go from there because really awesome things come out of it. We've seen it happen before, you know, not necessarily in this kind of situation, but, you know, I think that there's a real strength to that, and we just need to trust in the people who are in this industry and we'll get there.
Alyssa: There was so motivational Grace, I love it. [delighted laughter]
Grace: So, for our final topic, we're going to discuss how the pandemic has impacted arts organizations by how they fundraise. So, we're approaching the end of the academic year and for ma-, many arts organizations this also means that you're probably approaching the end of your fiscal year. In our COVID-19 Special episode in March, we discussed a few fundraising and development ideas, including strategies for checking in and communicating with your donors plus offering various ideas for support. Given the circumstances, some of the donors have been quite generous and supportive of the causes that they care about; however, a pandemic and an incoming economic recession affects our arts organizations in the long term. So, it's vital for arts organizations to think about their fundraising and development strategies now.
A Mashable article by Haidee Chu suggested utilizing social media to help fundraise during COVID-19. Some of the examples used in the article covered the basics such as Instagram donation stickers, Snapchat’s AR filter, fundraising videos on Facebook, and retweeting news of fundraise-, of fundraisers on Twitter. A BBC News article by Jessica Bown discusses charity apps which is made possible by Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs. For example, apps such as Momentum can easily be used to donate to charities whenever you use a ride sharing app such as Uber or Lyft, you order groceries, you buy a morning coffee, or even when a followed celebrity tweets or star basketball player scores a three pointer! Giving can actually become pretty fun. So, another example is an app called GivePenny which can connect to Spotify for playlist fundraising or Twitch for live stream fundraising. Interestingly, her article also states that blockchain giving could be the biggest game changer here, meaning we could see a resurgence in the use of this technology for fundraising. Donors can set up a conditional contract and will only release their electronic payment once that-, once that condition is fulfilled, which could be highly appealing to donors who are concerned about information security.
So, considering all the different potentials for fundraising, what do you think, Alyssa, that fundraising is going to look like post COVID-19?
Alyssa: Yeah, so mainly some of the articles that you spoke about are articles that are currently trending online for help with fundraising. And you know, like, they're really, um, they're really basic information that's provided there because we assume that a large portion of arts organizations are already utilizing some of their social media and have already, like, made a plan for communicating with their donors and have found, like, various ways to maybe potentially fundraise, like, whether it's a gala that's coming up, or they're just trying to make a plan for remaining as flexible as possible, [you] know, like, which is scary. And for a lot of them, I do hope that they are receiving a lot of potential donor support so that they make sure that there is some way that they can keep on track of their plan and come out of this pandemic okay. But, you know, otherwise, I imagine that fundraising post COVID-19 is going to be pretty similar to the previous economic recession [in 2008] , like there's going to be some tough decisions that are going to have to be made in terms of budgeting, and, you know, any appeals that you talk about with donors or patrons are going to need to be spoken about pretty carefully. And you know, the-, it seems like that there are certainly, like, some fundraising practices, some ideas like some events that are out there that are pretty creative solutions. I mean, there was the article that you mentioned before, the BBC News article, that talks about micro donations and-
Grace: Right, with blockchain.
Alyssa: Exactly, yeah. And I haven't seen too many arts organizations taking this up because the idea of micro donations is pretty new and it doesn't really account for a large chunk of change. It complements it, rather than replaces it. Um, but you know at the same time, microdonations could be a really good way to reach out to new audiences in case they do want to support your organization in some way but they just don’t have much of the financial means to do so. You know, it’s an invitation to give just, you know, one dollar or five dollars, which is in many people’s grasp to do so. And if that channel is open and available, and that ask is there and there is an easy way for people to give, or even a fun way to give, like, if there’s um, you know, like a fun challenge that’s associated with that giving, then you know, like that’s suddenly, like, more support that’s accounted for and that’s new audiences that you could potentially be reaching out to.
There’s certainly a lot of grants that have been popping up, in terms of helping out arts organizations and even artists. You know, there’s a Next City article by Emily Nonko on Fayemi Shakur, who is a writer, artist, arts advocate, and the Arts and Cultural Affairs Director of Newark. Fayemi helped retool the Creative Catalyst Fund to help artists survive the pandemic shutdowns, and this was an interesting article because the Creative Catalyst Fund was originally supposed to help out artists in general, rather than help in an emergency situation. But they really took a grant and really reformed it, specifically to help out with this emergency situation. And you know, I’ve been trying to keep up with emergency grants and fund distributions as much as possible and for a lot of these grants in particular, like, they are being distributed to artists in need but some are running out of money and others have a waiting list. The Artist Relief Tree, for instance, according to a New York Times article by James B. Stewart, um, this fund is still collecting money, but it currently has 5,500 applicants on its waiting list waiting for funds to be distributed.
Grace: Yeah, I’ve noticed too that a lot of gig economy workers are, you know, who are maybe applying for unemployment are struggling with some of the classifications as well, so that’s being, that’s resulting in a push-, a delay of getting the funding necessary to kind of maintain just basic operations in terms of, you know, being able to pay rent, being able to purchase groceries, that kind of thing. Um, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes forward, both with established organizations as well as the gig economy, I’m not sure what’s going to happen there.
Alyssa: Mhmm. It will be interesting to see. You know, there might be some grants out there that may relax some of their restrictions and loosen some of their requirements, um, which may make a lot of these arts organizations and their grant applications, like, this may help some funding, like, come through as well. And of course there was a new part of the CARES Act that was passed today, as of this day of recording, April 24, 2020, that was just signed for small businesses, so it’ll be interesting to see where exactly that goes, in particular. But, you know, at the same time, these grants aren’t necessarily going to last forever. Like, say, one year, two years, after the pandemic has officially ended, but the economy may still be recovering from the pending recession that’s still going to happen. If anything, this is going to be another call for, um, a lot of these arts organizations to be a little bit more creative. You know, some of their programming, like may be key for this, like some of the programming they’ve been introducing, uh, like, while we’re in, while we’re social distancing right now. Some of-, even as restrictions relax, there’s a vaccine and we don’t have to worry about social distancing anymore, you know, like there’s still going to be a lot of careful fundraising and careful wording that will need to be done. And we can’t predict what exactly that’s going to look like, other than the fact that it’s going to be an economic recession and, um, we can probably look back to the past where this took place to help determine what our future’s going to be [like that]. But, you know, if there was anything that I would recommend right now, um, is that if you aren’t currently thinking about five years from now, then this might be an opportunity to do so as well.
Grace: Yeah, I think it’s going to be intriguing to see how some of the stuff we were talking about earlier, with the tech adoption, um, and the various things that are being done in the digital sphere by a lot of different performing and visual arts organizations, how those two kind of end up pairing together to try and ensure that support is available for arts organizations moving forward. So, it’ll definitely be interesting to see what organization’s choose to do, um, as things start to open back up, you know, in the preceding months as we move through this. Yeah, thank you for all of that wonderful insight.
Alyssa: [chuckling] Oh my goodness, not a problem. And you know, we at AMT Lab will continue to take a look, um, and do our research to see what sorts of data is being collected, what sorts of new grants might be available out there, and how exactly, like, the pandemic is going to shape our future, whether it’s one week from now, one month from now, one year from now or even like, five to ten years from now. You know, I have hope that there will still be, um, some form of stimulus or some additional grants that may be available to arts organizations. You know, we will continue to report as much as we can, we will continue to research as much as we can, and you know, one way or another, we will get through this together.
Grace: I absolutely agree.
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Thanks for listening to the Arts Management and Technology Lab podcast series. You can read more on the intersection of the arts and technology at www.amt-lab.org. Or, you can listen to more interviews and discussions in our podcast series on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher. Thank you for joining us.
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Transcription for AMT Lab’s podcast series is supported by Otter.ai.