Hey, you get to hang out with me.

Draw back you say? Yes.  We spend so much time interacting online, we never actually meet the people that read this blog, watch our videos, follow the IMA’s main site, or follow our tweets.  There’s a disconnect of sorts and it’s something we struggle with constantly.  We produce digital content to enhance our visitors experiences with art, artists and exhibitions.  A lot of these people may never visit Indianapolis or the IMA.  But what about our local audience?  We care, we really do.

All museums care.  And some are doing a great job of bridging the disconnect between the online and physical relationships.  The ever impressive Wexner Center in Columbus, OH (my old stomping grounds) has been heavily involved in their local Social Media Cafe.  Brooklyn Museum has pioneered the new model for museum membership with their 1stfans idea – a socially networked membership that brings visitors in to the museum. And the Mattress Factory uses Twitter brilliantly to uninstitutionalize an institution.  Wex, BM & MF are heavily involved in new media projects and publishing online – but they too have addressed the same issue we’re contemplating – it would be great to meet some of you.  (If there are other museums addressing this, I would love to hear from you).

So if you’re free this evening, stop by the IMA.  You can meet some of the museum staff, listen to some music, grab a drink and if you really want, try out our new iPod Touch guide.

TAP into Sacred Spain

Did you think I wouldn’t end by mentioning some technology?

The Pharmacy prescribes the following links to combat Monday online anemia.

astridandinez.com/blog

Blog: astrid & inez

astrid & inez is really just one person, Jessica, who claims, “I’m no expert on design or web graphics.  I couldn’t even say that I’m a two-bit designer–I may only be a one-bit.  I just love graphic design and handmade things, and sharing them with other people.” Check out her blog for all things design and DIY .

ArtBabble Video: Eleanor Antin: ‘Helen’s Odyssey‘

Art21 presents: Eleanor Antin’s exhibition Helen’s Odyssey (2007) installed at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in New York. Antin discusses the historical figure Helen of Troy, and how she became the inspiration for photographic works such as Constructing Helen (2007).

IMA Work of Art:

dress by Gernreich, Rudi (Designer)

Tweet:

MattressFactory: Just uploaded new MF #iPhone & #iPod wallpaper feat. Greer Lankton: http://bit.ly/3pYq5

Thinking about that page led me to think more broadly about IMA’s main website.  Inside the museum, the IMA site is a major topic of conversation amongst the web team.  We’re in the planning stages for a web redesign of imamuseum.org.  This will include a better calendar system, better integration of digital content, a new collection page and lots more bells and whistles I can’t mention right now.  This process has really made me consider one word and one section: Interact.

IMA's Interact Section

What is Interact?  It’s togetherness, it’s action, it’s a mutual or reciprocal action, it’s technology.  Is it?

For the past 18 months, we have placed much of our new media content in a section called Interact.  You can access it directly from the home page and find yourself immediately faced with options like ArtBabble, Facebook, Tagging, iTunes U, Blog and Dashboard.  It’s one stop shopping for those of you interested in technology at the IMA.  But I’m not convinced that Interact is the correct word for this section, or even the right approach to offering this content. Here’s a quick scan of approaches other museums have applied:

Similar to IMA but putting the active in interactive, MoMA’s new site features Multimedia (check it out below.) The cool Walker Art Center has it’s own channel.  And the ever impressive Mattress Factory Art, playfully offers Friendship Version 2.0.

MoMA Multimedia

Front and center. Brooklyn Museum is simply, brooklynmuseum.org (you have at least 10 links on the home page devoted to technology and new/social media projects) and community-based interaction is weaved throughout the site (are you really surprised?):

Brooklyn Museum

Layered within the site, The Tate Modern, has its Tate Player, TateShots and The Great Tate Mod Blog (below).  The Getty Museum has a video gallery, is getting Twitter right and does lots of other tech related projects. There’s no specific section like MoMA and others, is not fully integrated like Brooklyn, but offers superb content.

The Great Tate Mod Blog

Interact: So what to call it and where to place it?  It’s a challenge we face in the coming months to bring you a new site that is interactive, engaging, educational and focused on art.  We can create a dedicated section for technology.  We  can integrate it in all areas of the new site.  Or we can place it in various sections of the site based on a navigation structure.

We’ll be looking at lots of sites online – like the one’s mentioned above, but I would LOVE to hear your input.  What approach do you think is best? What would you do?