10,000 Invitations: A Roundtable on Arts Institutions and New/Social Media
Posted by: Lisa Radon on Oct 13, 2009 at 09:00PM
4 Comments
I have been thinking a lot about how museums and arts institutions are using social media, podcasts, video etceteras to amplify their exhibitions and programs. Some, like the Mattress Factory with it’s SM clearinghouse page and Brooklyn Museum with its BrklnMuse iPhone app, are adventurous and on the ball.
Not long ago I had a 140 character tête-à-tête via twitter with @jaymjordan (Jay Jordan, a curator in Louisville) who had chimed in on an exchange about arts institutions and social media outreach saying that new/social media efforts are all well and good, BUT not as important as the actual experience of art. I responded:
@jaymjordan one way to conceptualize it is to think of info,ed,programs as 10,000 invitations (+reinvitations) to the experience of art
The invitation can be a tweet about an upcoming show or a wall text that asks you to consider more deeply or an artist talk that gives you new perspective on work on display. Issuing these invitations in myriad ways is every bit as important as hanging the art. If you build it, they will come, but only if you issue the invitation.
So it is that for the upcoming New Communicators, I’ve invited some of the best minds from Portland’s arts institutions to share the ways they’re using new and social media to engage audiences.
The Portland Art Museum creates conversational videos about works in the collection, creates a community website for its China Design Now exhibition, and tweeted as M.C. Escher. Portland Center Stage creates show preview videos that go viral and uses Twitter in innovative ways. The Museum of Contemporary Craft creates video and podcast and invites audience response. PICA integrates Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube into its TBA Festival blog.
In education, programming, and marketing, we’ll talk about what’s worked and what’s on the horizon as the landscape continues to change with new tools and new challenges all the time.
RSVP for 10,000 Invitations. It’s October 30 from 4-6 PM at The Gerding Theater and The Armory, and it’s free.
I’m going to be talking to:
Christina Olsen, PhD
Director of Education & Public Programs, Portland Art Museum
Beth Heinrich
Director of Marketing & Public Relations, Portland Art Museum
Cynthia Fuhrman
Marketing and Communications Director, Portland Center Stage
Patrick Leonard
Public Relations, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art
Rebecca Burrell, Public Relations and Marketing Specialist, Museum of Contemporary Craft
Namita Gupta-Wiggers, Curator, Museum of Contemporary Craft
I agree more with Jay
and think that social media is a hoax
because it is really un-social
if you think about what social really means
A hoax, Richard? I, for one, appreciate that social media helps me connect with friends like you who I don’t see as often as I’d like. ::::::As to “what social really means,” according to my friend Merriam Webster, the etymology goes a little something like this: Middle English, from Latin socialis, from socius companion, ally, associate; akin to Old English secg man, companion, Latin sequi to follow. Companion, associate, follow. Fascinating. ::::::::I do agree that there’s nothing like the real thing, baby. Like to associate with companions and associates in real life, but like my SM too.
Hi Lisa
sorry this is a little long and windy
I think you hit the nail/reply button on the head.
The two of us are a great example of how social media has changed interaction.
We never ever in those 3 to 4 years we know each other have met not for coffee nor to go to a movie or any private natural setting that would indicate that we have something slightly resembling a friendship.
There was an incident and it was an evening/art group dinner where the conversation was streamed over Radio as part of a conceptual project and one more time at Manor of art.
Most all the other interaction we had was in passing by each other or leaving comments on FB.
I know I am stretching my argument a bit but I think it is worth it.
The dictionary won’t help us much because at the gold old times contact meant actual physical contact or by letter pigeon maybe sending a runner was also an option but I guess strongly that it really meant that you had to be present.
Back to the two of us.
We have been infected with the communication bug where we assume that we know each other from online profiles.
Now I personally have multiple on line profiles/personas and depending on the people or field they cater to have their own purpose.
I mostly use to internet purely as an artistic tool and don’t consider it much more than a hoax I play on myself with the help of others.
So I think that I know you and I think I like you but honestly I don’t know anything about you.
Maybe one day we’ll meet and have coffee like in a real social encounter.
What will do for “social” varies with the individual. I would have loved having this kind of social media when I lived in NYC and was too tired (after awhile) to go out. Can’t make every show and can’t see everyone I am interested in, so I lost touch. I still lose touch here but it’s easier to at least know vaguely what they are up to – like what they make, if they are artists and have their work online somewhere. No, they are not all good friends, we don’t really know each other, none of that. But many I know enough – know as much as I need, and some more than I ever dreamed of through social media. Just ran across a dealer here yesterday – he’s on my facebook. Hey how you doing, you just had a birthday and wow I loved those childhood pictures!