As numbers twirl around my head like 10-year old Chinese gymnasts (they are definitely NOT 16 that’s for sure), I thought I’d share with you some of my favorites. You can find a lot of these stats on the IMA’s dashboard, but some of the numbers are not accessible to the public…until now. In the Museum’s ongoing dedication to full transparency, here’s IMA by the numbers:

Full-time Employees: 197

Average Daily Blog Readers: 220

To Live Forever Exhibition Attendance through Aug. 11: 18,254

IMA Members: 10,454

Pieces of Glass in the Efroymson Entrance Pavilion: 225

Days until To Live Forever Closes: 24

Tickets Sold to Summer Nights Film Rocky Horror Picture Show: 714

Percentage of Web visitors from Indiana: 52%

IMA Curators: 12

Visitors to IMA, July 2008: 47,548

Cubic Yards of Concrete poured for 2005 renovation: 25,000

Square feet of IMA building: 492,000

Nugget Factory productions on YouTube: 100

Women named Pam on Staff: 5

Designers named Matt on Staff: 3 (2 graphic & 1 web)

Days until Power and Glory: Court Arts from the Ming Dynasty opens: 73

Number of Views to IMA’s first-ever YouTube video: 3,593

Number of days I’ve worked at the IMA: 1,354

]]> http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/08/14/ima-by-the-numbers/feed/ 1 http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/04/22/an-earthday-post-from-anne/ http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/04/22/an-earthday-post-from-anne/#comments Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:58:05 +0000 Anne Laker http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/04/22/an-earthday-post-from-anne/ Today we are pleased to welcome Anne Laker, our newest IMA blogger, representing the Education department. She is also known for her compassion for all things green, so please enjoy her inaugural post on this most appropriate occasion.

Never underestimate the potential of a bruised banana. Around the office at the IMA, my desk is known as repository for fruit that’s past its prime. Colleagues know—as an obsessive recycler—that I will repurpose their bananas by taking them home, tossing them in the freezer and using them in a smoothie.

The re-use ethic is the foundation of freeganism, the practice of strategic food salvaging. Freegans use their wits to rescue perfectly good food out of the back doors of grocery stores and other venues. Freegans and freecyclers can imagine other uses for other people’s garbage. [If you are an Indy-based freegan, please respond to this post!]

I love freeganism because it raises questions about transgression and imagination—topics with which an art museum concerns itself. What risks are necessary to alter current systems and make the planet greener? Can artists and scientists re-engineer our technologies, and our worldviews—in time to save our skins from climate change? Designer Bruce Mau, whose name gets mentioned a lot around the IMA, put out a book and exhibition called Massive Change. His agenda is to show how the world can be re-designed (think Google Earth, water purification machines, biotechnologies, etc.) to save itself. Creativity is required to re-think bad systems, such as the coal-fired power plants that make Indiana the second most polluted state in the nation.

The IMA is doing its part to reduce our footprint. Our director of facilities has figured out to reduce our average monthly electricity and natural gas usage by over 21 percent since the beginning of 2006. That said, we are still struggling to institute recycling in public places at the museum. We can’t find a local recycling vendor that will accept plastics 1 – 7 and actually recycle them as advertised. The good news is that our frustration caused us to move from plastic plates to china plates in the IMA Cafe.

If you’re looking to green your outlook, check out some amazing events coming up: artist Fritz Haeg, who lived in a geodesic dome, created the Edible Estates garden project, and recently built a beaver dam on top of the Whitney Museum, is speaking at Herron School of Art today, (Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22).

Architect Maya Lin is speaking at the IMA next Tuesday, April 29, about the Indiana geologic inspiration for her installation Above and Below on the balcony of the galleries of Asian art. And as soon as the Tobias Theater opens, watch for Garbage Warrior, a documentary about New Mexico-based architect Michael Reynolds who builds buildings from trash.

In the film, Reynolds refers to himself as “the turd in the punch bowl” of the architecture world. That’s one way to put it. I’ll say: Thumbs up for creative (and green) transgressions.

A group of IMA staff (myself not included) attended the Museums and the Web conference in Montreal last week. This conference is an annual gathering for the ever-growing crowd of technology-focused staff in museums around the world. They also host the “Best of the Web” Awards. IMA’s project, Roman Art Webisodes, was picked last week as “Best Podcast.” IMA’s Dashboard picked up an Honourable Mention in the “Professional” category. We are excited that our work has been so well received by our peers.

Also, last week we were notified that Roman Art Webisodes were also chosen as an Official Honoree for the 2008 Webby Awards. A very competitive and widely entered contest, we placed in the top 15 in the Non-Profit/ Educational category for Interactive Advertisting. I was most excited about this competition since last year they honored David Bowie and he is on the judging committee this year. What could be better than winning an award from the same people who gave one to Ziggy Stardust. Needless to say we are delighted.

In other news, the Media and Technology Committee of the American Association of Museums has selected IMA’s Dashboard as the winner of a 2008 MUSE Award.

So who knows what’s next for us! We have entered many other projects in a variety of competitions, so hopefully as spring continues to progress we will have more good news…

Stateside…
Cincinnati.com
Ideum
Museumlab

And one in Dutch… (I love the Dutch!)

http://www.museum-wereld.nl/museum-geeft-zichzelf-prijs/

For more than 5 years, I didn’t think another dashboard could rival my Passat’s for coolness. And while it may not be exactly the same thing, I think the IMA’s new dashboard might just do it. So what’s so cool about our dashboard? We’re really the first museum in the world to use technology like this. The public now has access to statistics about attendance, the art collection and even our budget. For instance, folks can check to see how much we have spent so far this year and how it relates to what we projected in our 2007 budget. Visitors can also check to see how many people have visited Roman Art from the Louvre or shopped in the IMA Shop. For better or for worse, the IMA’s dashboard let’s you see the IMA from the inside. Just like my Passat’s dashboard at night, I hope that the IMA’s dash will show a different side of the Museum that people wouldn’t normally expect. We will constantly be updating the information on the site so check back. We may just surprise you with our coolness!

Speaking of coolness, I spent a good 30 minutes today discussing beer coozies with the IMA’s curator of contemporary art, Lisa Freiman. WHAT?! Let me explain…On November 1, the IMA is having an opening event for the next Forefront show, Ingrid Calame: Traces of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway . Calame will speak at 7:00 pm about her work. Following the lecture, the IMA is throwing our own version of an “infield” party. We’re going to have kegs, tailgating food and yes, coozies. Here’s the details:

Join us for Opening Night / Thursday, November 1
7:00 pm ARTIST TALK
On the opening night of her exhibition, Calame discusses her work. Supported in part by the IMA Contemporary Art Society.

8:00 – 11:00 pm PARTY
Check out the exhibition – open until 9:00 pm – and then join us in our own infield in Pulliam Great Hall for a cash bar, light snacks, and the music of The Twin Cats. Special thanks to Lee Adams Tire.

IMA Members: FREE / Students with ID: $5 / Public: $10
RSVP for the party by Thursday, October 25 by calling 317-920-2651.

I had no doubt that we would get a crowd opening weekend. However, I am surprised at the enthusiasm the visitors have for the exhibition. For art that is over 2,000 years old, it still has an impressive fan base. It’s been really great to see the reaction people have had to the marketing campaign, but more importantly, it has been really nice to see the reaction people have had to the exhibition. People really love it. And the entire IMA staff is breathing a collective sigh of relief after opening weekend.

Everyday when I arrive at the office the first thing I do is check the attendance for the day before. Generally, the IMA hosts about 1,000 visitors a day. Since last Friday (the member preview day), we have doubled that figure daily. Can we keep this pace up? I hope so. In fact, I hope that as people see the exhibition and tell their family and friends about it, the number will continue to climb.

If you are interested, you can track our attendance by visiting this page.

I’ve been living with this exhibition for a year now and it’s really hard to believe that it’s finally open. Soon our lives and our blogs won’t have the Romans at the center. On to the next big thing I guess!