Want to know more about your Twitter followers?
Posted on 17 August 2011 | Comments Off
If you’re like most arts organisations, you’re using Twitter to talk to your regulars and to reach new audiences. But how much do you really know about who is following you?
SocialBro is a new application that aims to help you manage and analyse your Twitter community. It is currently available in beta for most operating systems. At the moment, SocialBro’s site doesn’t have that much information to offer, so make sure you follow the link to SocialBro’s blog which is more helpful.
And take a look at Luis Benitez’s Socialize Me blog for a good introduction and a list of features that are in the pipeline.
Artfinder uses iPhone/iPad apps to attract new audiences
Posted on 11 August 2011 | Comments Off
Start-up Artfinder is aiming to attract new audiences into art galleries and museums with
- - a smartphone app that can recognise paintings and sculptures
- - a Facebook game to categorise artworks, and
- - an online recommendation service
The recommendation service is based on an online collection of 500,000 artworks from more than 2,500 galleries and museums including the National Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum. The images of artworks are supplemented with artist biographies, guides and articles.
Read the Financial Times coverage of Artfinder here. (You’ll need to register but it’s free and only takes a minute.)
Visit Artfinder here.
There’s an obvious link between artworks and smartphone apps. In the commercial art world, the Richard Green gallery has recently launched its own iPhone app designed to take advantage of that link.
Orange Tree Threatre joins IT4Arts
Posted on 29 July 2011 | Comments Off
Orange Tree Theatre has joined IT4Arts becoming its ninety-ninth member.
The Orange Tree Theatre is London’s only permanent theatre in the round and one of its most highly respected off-West-End venues. The theatre’s unique space creates a powerful intimacy between audience and performer. The Orange Tree is entirely committed to this form of theatre and all its productions are in the round.
The auditorium seats 172 on two levels: the ‘lower’ with comfortable bench style seating which places you on a level with the action and the ‘upper’ with individual seats and just one row of seating around the perimeter of the space that allows you to view the action from above.
Writing in The Guardian, Michael Billington described The Orange Tree Theatre as a “A pocket sized National Theatre”.
The theatre is situated in the heart of Richmond.
Learn more about IT4Arts newest member here.
Photo courtesy of Orange Tree Theatre
Headlong Theatre joins IT4Arts
Posted on 22 April 2011 | Comments Off
This month, Headlong Theatre became IT4Arts’ ninety-eighth member. Headlong describes itself as ” … dedicated to new ways of making theatre. By exploring revolutionary writers and practitioners of the past and commissioning new work from artists from a wide variety of backgrounds we aim constantly to push the imaginative boundaries of the stage. Headlong makes exhilarating, provocative and spectacular new work to take around the country and around the world.”
Headlong is based in London’s Soho.
Learn more about IT4Arts’ newest member here.
The Conversation Prism
Posted on 22 April 2011 | Comments Off
According to The Conversation Prism site: “The Conversation Prism gives you a whole view of the social media universe, categorized and also organized by how people use each network. V 3.0 introduces new groups and networks and also removes those networks no longer in play.”
Any arts organisation interested in the ever-changing social media landscape will benefit from downloading and reviewing The Conversation Prism graphic.
Nascent Park Theatre joins IT4Arts
Posted on 17 April 2011 | Comments Off
The Park Theatre has become the 97th member of IT4Arts. It will be a 200-seat main house with a smaller studio theatre and is due to open in 2012. Located by the Wells Terrace exit of Finsbury Park tube/rail/bus station, the venue is less than ten minutes from the West End.
Follow the development of IT4Arts latest member by tracking The Park Theatre’s blog here. Be sure to check the Blogroll in the right column. There are links to The Park Theatre on Scribd, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra grows its audience digitally
Posted on 10 April 2011 | Comments Off
Like most arts organisations, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra wanted to grow its audience—but recognised that it could only stage so many live concerts each year and that traditional audio media like vinyl and CDs were in terminal decline.
Two years ago the orchestra turned to the internet to extend its reach through its Digital Concert Hall. The subscription-based initiative boasts 5000 subscribers who pay 150 euros a year to access the orchestra’s 32 Berlin performances. Subscribers can also access an archive of recorded performances.
A custom high-quality audio and high-definition video system captures the live performances and streams them around the world.
Find out more in the FT’s story here. You need to register but it’s free and only takes a minute.
Workshop news
Posted on 17 March 2011 | Comments Off
Plugging into the Wireless Internet
Presentations from this workshop are now available for download. IT4Arts members can access them here (password required). Marcus Austin’s presentation about developing mobile-friendly websites has been updated with additional links to sites useful for mobile developers.
Digitise, Monetise, Optimise: Making and Saving Money with IT
This workshop was originally scheduled for April. It will now take place on Thursday 6 October. Details of speakers will be published here as soon as they are available.
Workshop dates
Here are dates for forthcoming workshops. Please make a note of them.
- Thursday 16 February 2012
- Thursday 26 April 2012
- Thursday 7 June 2012
Crafts Council joins IT4Arts
Posted on 12 February 2011 | Comments Off
This month the Crafts Council became the ninety-fifth member of IT4Arts. The Crafts Council’s goal is to make the UK the best place to make, see, collect and learn about contemporary craft. It does that by acting as an exchange for knowledge of, support for and expertise on contemporary crafts. As the national development agency for contemporary craft, the Crafts council works with a strategic range of partners to help promote craft to the widest possible audience.
The Crafts Council’s work falls into four areas:
- producing a programme of events for makers to showcase and sell their work directly to the public
- running schemes to support emerging and established makers and curators, and create conferences and seminars to encourage debate and share best practice
- providing an information service for anyone interested in contemporary craft and researching the contemporary craft sector to provide a national and regional overview and to highlight current issues
- staging exhibitions in national and regional museums and galleries
Learn more about IT4Arts newest member here.
Google Street View steps into 17 galleries
Posted on 6 February 2011 | Comments Off
The Google Art Project announced in London last Tuesday takes the search giant’s Street View technology into 17 of the most important art galleries in the world allowing users to “walk” around the exhibits. Street View is combined with Google’s gigapixel technology which allows “visitors” to explore paintings they discover at unprecedented levels of resolution. Individual brush strokes and hairline cracks become visible.
In the UK, Tate Britain and the National Gallery are participating in the Google project.
Explore some of the coverage of the Google Art Project below.
Android overtakes Nokia
Posted on 31 January 2011 | Comments Off
Interesting news and timely, too, in light of our February 17 Workshop “Plugging into the Wireless Internet“.
The FT is reporting that in the fourth quarter Google’s Android smartphone operating system overtook Nokia’s Symbian OS to become the most popular mobile platform according to figures published on Monday.
Read the FT’s full coverage here. (One-time free registration required.)
Members can learn if there are any places left for the Workshop by contacting Martin Black.
IT4Arts February workshop: “Plugging into the Wireless Internet”
Posted on 18 January 2011 | Comments Off
Last July, we quoted Google UK’s Matt Brittin, “The big shift is to mobile internet. Between 25 and 30 percent of consumers use their mobiles to access the internet. But in three years’ time analysts believe more people will be accessing it from their mobiles than from a desktop.”
The EIAAs 2010 Mediascope Europe study across 15 European revealed that, overall, 71 million Europeans browse the mobile Internet in a typical week. With almost an hour a day actively spent wen browsing with their mobile (6.4 hours per week), the mobile internet is proving more popular than reading newspapers (4.8 hours) or magazines (4.1 hours).
Morgan Stanley’s 2009 “The Mobile Internet Report” is generally regarded as the most authoritative source. The report reveals that in the US, voice calls account for only 70 percent of mobile phone usage. iPhone owners have an even greater appetite for mobile data; voice calls account for only 45 percent of their mobile usage. This trend from voice to data is increasing and accelerating.
These dramatic changes bring both opportunities and challenges to arts organisations who need to reach and grow their audiences. IT4Arts’ February workshop focuses on helping arts organisations plug into the wireless internet.
Date, venue and line up of speakers and topics follows.
ENO Chairman awarded Knighthood
Posted on 1 January 2011 | Comments Off
Vernon Ellis, chair of the board of ENO and a regular speaker at IT4Arts workshops, has been awarded a Knighthood in the New Year’s honours list. He was awarded his honour for services to music.
Mr Ellis, who has chaired the ENO for five years, has been a generous private donor and helped to seed funding to restore its venue, the Coliseum, with a £5 million gift.
According to the Press Association, “He was elected chairman proper in 2006 and the ENO’s troubles have since been quelled. Mr Ellis said of his award: ‘This is a huge honour. I would really like to dedicate it to all the extraordinarily talented and committed people that it has been a privilege to get to know and to work with over the last decade.’”
In all, he has given more than £7 million to around 70 arts organisations, almost all of them musical.
Two new IT4Arts members at year’s end
Posted on 30 December 2010 | Comments Off
IT4Arts membership reached 94 in 2010 thanks to two new members—Visiting Arts and LIFT—who joined in December.
Visiting Arts
Visiting Arts was established in 1977 as a department of the British Council, working to bring international and culturally diverse work from overseas to UK audiences. Visiting Arts became an independent charitable organisation in 2001 and since then the organisation’s role has developed into being a facilitator for high quality international relationships between artists and cultural professionals.
Today, Visiting Arts’ purpose is to strengthen intercultural understanding through the arts. The organisation fulfils it purpose by
- Providing information and intelligence to help people engage in intercultural activity
- Creating opportunities for artists and cultural professionals to explore new connections
- Expanding the skills and knowledge of artists and cultural players
Other activities include
- Producing and distributing a free monthly e-newsletter, help-sheets, targeted briefings and the latest advice through print, web and face to face meetings
- Establishing and fostering opportunities for ground-breaking artist exchanges, and contributing to some of the world’s biggest and most innovative festivals
- Organising and running training programmes, in-country workshops, overseas country-visits, networking events, work placements, residencies and collaborations
Visit this new member’s Web site here.
LIFT
Established in 1981, LIFT—London International Festival of Theatre—has risen to become one of the most important events in the British arts scene with an influence that reaches far beyond London.
From its offices in the Institute of Contemporary Art, LIFT works with artists from across the world to find new ways of seeing the city. Its rich and varied programming has presented extraordinary events in conventional theatres and more unusual spaces—street corners, disused power stations, churches and canal basins.
Founded on the conviction that theatre has the power to surprise and stimulate as well as entertain, LIFT has constantly challenged the status quo and continues to actively engage different audiences and communities.
Learn more about this new member here.
Dutch art exhibit integrates social media and sensors
Posted on 29 December 2010 | Comments Off
Visitors to the STRP art festival in Eindhoven, Holland this Fall got to experience the integration of art exhibits with Twitter, Facebook, a recommendation engine, a print-on-demand service, tag clouds and RFID chips.
Before their visit, attendees were encouraged to fill out online profiles describing themselves and signing in with their Twitter and Facebook accounts. On arrival, registered attendees were given Radio Frequency Identification chips (RFID) in a variety of formats (badges, bracelets or their municipal services card) associated with the online accounts they had created.
See ReadWriteWeb’s full coverage here.
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