To give you an overview of what someone who works in museum marketing does , I thought that I’d outline my typical day. In order to do that, I recorded my activities throughout the past Monday. While some of you were relaxing (or partying) on your Columbus Day off, I was hard at work with my fellow colleagues at the IMA.

Image taken from ugotbling.com

COLUMBUS DAY, OCTOBER 12, 2009*

8:27 Arrive at office. Plug in laptop.

8:35 Sip coffee and respond to emails sent over the weekend.

8:50 Research the 100 Acres: Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park for IMA  Magazine article.

9:15 Write interview questions for article to send to Ed Blake, the  landscape architect for 100 Acres.

9:32 Email interview to Ed Blake.

9:37 Discuss signage in Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion with Marketing Manager.

9:42 Register for Next Audiences Summit.

9:52 Review marketing budgets from last 2 years.

10:22 Read NYT’s article about the Louvre’s attempt to ‘Loosen Up.’

10:34 Get distracted by Jamie Oliver article in NYT’s Mag.

10:39 Review Web site content. Put together work plan to present in the afternoon’s Web team meeting.

11:22 Read Geoff Von Burg’s blog entry.

11:31 Email this week’s TV schedule for Sacred Spain commercials to Max, curator Ronda Kasl, and Nugget Factory.

11:38 Check attendance numbers from the weekend.

11:39 Organize opening weekend debrief meeting for Sacred Spain.

11:45 Polish up communication pieces for potential Winter Nights and Summer Nights media sponsorships.

12:18 LUNCH (Lean Cuisine and Fage Yogurt).

12:38 Watch Gentleman Broncos movie trailer.

12:41 Send movie trailer to Dan Dark.

12:44 Change Twitter name from @IndyArtGirl to @MegLiffick.

12:50 COFFEE.

1:00 Catch up on emails from the morning.

1:30 Web Team!

2:50 Review and edit Group Tours corporate mailer for Sacred Spain.

3:15 Respond to email from Contemporary Curator Lisa Freiman about the prestigious national award that her husband received. Congrats, Ed!!!

3:17 Create an initial inventory of marketing materials that can include media/corporate sponsor recognition during 2010.

4:02 Continue to draft 2010 marketing plan for Public Programs.

4:48 Brainstorm about communication ideas for TAP.

5:21 Respond to remaining emails.

5:42 Leave office. Head to gym.

6:13 Check email while running on treadmill at gym. DANGEROUS!

6:16 Attempt to respond to an email while on treadmill at gym. EVEN MORE DANGEROUS!

8:15 Read IBM’s social media guidelines while watching Will Ferrell on Man Vs. Wild.

8:30 Close laptop. No more work for the day.

*Please note that I have left out some details such as phone conversations, specific email correspondences, bathroom breaks, and Facebook and Twitter checks.

Next up (Oct. 28), I’ll tackle the ginormous topic of branding a museum. Stay tuned.

But, you might be quick to point out, that’s yesterdays news.  And you’re right.

Goodies on ArtBabble

On Tuesday Kate wrote a brief news story on ArtBabble’s front page, so I thought I would expand on that.

What have we been doing since April?  A lot.  After the launch, we received a tremendous amount of requests on how to become an ArtBabble partner.  It was slightly overwhelming, but also inspiring.  We went through the process of assessing all of the requests, working closely with our original partners as advisers (actually setting up an Advisory Group), to identify the next steps and next batch of video content.  Since IMA staff run ArtBabble (kind of like a second job) we had to figure out the balance of growing ArtBabble and keeping up with all the other projects at IMA – the blog, exhibition(s) planning, video production, Flickr, an iPod Touch tour, grant writing, Bird cams, office pranks, meetings, you get the picture…This meant instead of adding 40 new partners at once, we had to consider adding in stages.  Somewhere in the middle of this, we added a new Goodies page on the site, and started a Play Art Loud Flickr group featuring AB bumper stickers.

So, the next step is a Phase Two launch of ArtBabble on Tuesday, July 28. Mark your calendars!  We’re talking lots of new partners, lots of new videos, and a more diverse selection of art content.  This Phase Two launch will be followed with more rolling launches as we’re able to manage the new partner relationships and content preparation for AB.  It’s all leading to what we hope will be the premier destination for viewing art videos online.

So, please feel free to help spread the word about July 28.  I would love to hear any comments, theories or suggestions for next ArtBabble steps. And we still have lots of bumper stickers.

More ArtBabble Goodies

In the midst of writing this post, I announced it on Twitter, soliciting questions about ArtBabble.  Below, you’ll find the list of some of those questions, with my responses.

Why create something new instead of just using a channel on YouTube? Long list of reasons – improved art search results, the prospect of creating an art-focused video community, the ability to create a space managed by museum professionals, incredible video quality, transcriptions, the Notes that appear to the right of each video, a chance to seize a real opportunity online….

How did ArtBabble get championed in-house and how did it get funded? We already had a successful  in-house video team, and were already developing Web sites in-house.  Max Anderson, Rob Stein and I had been talking about some version of IMA TV for a couple of years – ArtBabble seemed like the best approach (something more relavant than just IMA content).  Since video and web development were already a big part of IMA efforts, it was a pretty straight project forward to initiate. The site was developed entirely in-house by IMA staff, with support from the top down, and was funded by a grant from the Ball Brothers Foundation.

If y’all got any do-overs w/ respect to ArtBabble, what would you change? Such a tough question. More videos, and more partners, but this will take time.  And, I would love some Robot Art content (but that’s me).

How will the site evolve? In terms of content and partners, it will evolve through these rolling launches as quickly as IMA staff can handle this process.  The actual site will evolve with new features…but that’s further down the line.

Could a visitor contribute? Not right now (except for comments), but it’s something we’re thinking about.  So, who knows in the future…

Babble On!

]]> http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2009/07/09/what-next-for-artbabble/feed/ 6 http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/09/12/documenting-right-now-out-here/ http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/09/12/documenting-right-now-out-here/#comments Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:18:46 +0000 Richard McCoy http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/?p=965 Though I’m writing this post from NYC I don’t want you to get the impression that I travel a lot.  The vast majority of my days are spent down in the “service level” of the museum conserving objects.  But today is a rare exception:  I’m at the Conflux Festival for the rest of the weekend with IMA adjunct curator Rebecca Uchill to experiment with ways to enhance our work with documenting variable art – art without a static original visible state (such as time-based media or ephemeral art).

Here’s a link to our project description.

Since the Conflux Festival is “The art and technology festival for the creative exploration of urban public space” we thought this would be an ideal place to expand our ideas and methods for documentation as we prepare for a number of upcoming projects in the contemporary department.

So, here’s the plan: we have a bag full of recording equipment that those ever-helpful Nuggets let me use (note to self: don’t get this bag ripped off) and a bunch of interesting projects and artists to investigate.  Rebecca and I have identified three perspectives for “viewing” an artist’s work:

1) Artist Vantage Point
The artist documents his/her perspective of the work.
2) Participant Vantage Point
The participant in a work documents his/her experience.
3) Witness Vantage Point
The witness or observer documents the work.

Of course, there’s some cross over between these three perspectives, but by identifying them this way we’ll be able to pick specific projects that best illustrate them.

Here are some projects that we’ll be working on:

49 Waltzes for the Five Boroughs: Grand Finale by John Cage, a realization by Twiceband.

“The piece calls for participants to do a performance of their choice, or make an audio recording, or listen to the environment at any 49 of 147 randomly selected locations in New York City. For Twiceband’s realization, we are using the locales originally selected by Cage (using the I Ching), and will document all of the waltzes with text, audio recordings and photography.”

Here’s a link to a NYT article about this project, and a link to Kurt Gochstalk’s blog that discusses the project.

9/10 by Lucas Murgida

“A cabinet will be constructed and left on a sidewalk. I will be hidden inside and not reveal myself until someone assumes possession and brings the cabinet to their home.”

Here’s a link to Lucas’ Twitter (http://twitter.com/lucasmurgida) and Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucasmurgida/) sites, where you can follow his adventure live this Saturday.  Also, here’s a link to his web page (http://lucasmurgida.com/) , where you can see a picture of him in the cabinet.

Acting Stranger by Andrew Schneider

“I act out and document short, scripted scenes with complete strangers as my scene partners. We set up a date, time, and location. The camera is rolling when they arrive, the only words out of our mouths are scripted, and there are no “thank yous” or “goodbyes”. We interact as dictated by the words. There is no direction. There are no second takes. There is nothing that is not within the context of the scene. We experience each other. The scene ends. We leave.”

I think there’s still time to sign up for a scene , if you’re gonna be in the City.  Here’s a link to Andrew’s blog.

Urban Disorientation Game Led by Calvin Johnson and Scott Knowles

“In this 2-3 hour game, participants are blindfolded and driven to a location several miles away from Conflux Headquarters. The game-players are divided into teams, and each team will be led by a UDG “guide.” The guides will each supervise a team, making certain that all precautions are taken to insure a fun and safe play of the game. Teams will not be allowed to use cell phones, maps, or transportation of any kind other than walking, and will only be provided the most minimal of tools in order to find their way back to the Conflux.”

Here’s an article in yesterday’s AM New York that mentions the UDG, and also that this is the last year for the Conflux Festival.

Clearly, Rebecca and I have enough to do to keep us busy for the next few days.  So busy that I don’t think I’ll even have time to visit any museums, but I’ll certainly have dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in the world: Candle 79.

But this year I’d like to ask you to lend me a hand in taking care of the IMA’s outdoor sculpture. No, no, I’m not talking about actually getting you to join me in doing the labor, but I’d like to ask you to participate in a kind of experiment in documenting some of the sculpture on the grounds – that is to say make Wikipedia entries and upload some pictures of the IMA’s sculptures. If you don’t’ already know, anyone can make Wikipedia entries!

This idea came out of the fact that I’ve been interested in the number of existing Wikipedia entrances written about individual works of art: for example Van Gogh’s Potato Eaters and Damien Hirst’s, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. Also there are good entries about two artists who have sculptures on our grounds, Barbara Hepworth and Mark di Suvero (including a note that di Suvero’s Snowplow is at the IMA), but I can’t find an entry for any individual works in the museum’s collection; so let’s start with the outdoor sculpture.

Maybe at this point you’re asking yourself why someone here just doesn’t make entries for the IMA collection. Well, I’ve thought about it some and decided against doing it myself because I work here and it might be a conflict of interest. See this article in the New York Times for a bit of rational, Seeing Corporate Fingerprints in Wikipedia Edits.

Or maybe you’re thinking to yourself that there’s got to be something in it for you before you consider taking the job. And maybe there is. Certainly, I’m going to be stoked to see even one entry in Wikipedia about our outdoor sculptures. So as far as payment, I can offer to announce your work on this blog. Admittedly, the payment is minor but the work is great.

So, what do you think? With individual entries of the sculptures and pictures uploaded into the galleries, we could begin gathering information about our sculptures. And if you had pictures to upload, they uploaded to the IMA’s Flickr Pool. Not only would I think this is just plain cool, but it would be helpful because we could start keeping a kind of public record of our pieces with notes to their condition.

I think this could be the cleverest thing going on this summer, but perhaps I’m out on a limb here and no one will even do one.

What do you think, you want to help?

Don’t get me wrong, the downfall of a two-timing governor is fascinating. Typically, I’d be all over that story, but Wednesday’s The New York Times (NYT) had more thrilling tales buried deep within…

What could possibly be more captivating than a bona fide sex scandal? If you peel yourself away from page 1 and dig deep into the paper, past sections B, C, and D, and continue all the way to section H, you’ll find the NYT’s annual special section on Museums. It’s 44 pages dedicated to the art, business, and people of museums.

I’ve spent the majority of my short career at the IMA, so I’m not sure what other museums do on the fateful Wednesday in March when the Museum section is published, but I am fairly certain that the scene is similar. For the first 30 minutes in the morning, there is a hush that settles over the administrative and curatorial offices. Everyone is silent as they comb through the articles – coffee in hand – searching for articles that mention the museum. By 9:30 am the silence is broken with the first flurry of emails. If your museum is mentioned, these emails have subject lines like: “Kudos”, “Congrats”, and “Have you seen this?” The organization then settles into a collective afterglow for the next few hours as the business of the day is tackled. The second round of emails begins after lunch as folks begin to read rather than skim the articles. These emails usually are a bit more critical with comments such as “that is an interesting quote they used,” “I wonder why they chose to feature fill-in-the-blank museum in this article?” and my favorite from this morning, “Who knew there was a cryptologic museum?”

I love the NYT’s Museum section because I love museums. On the morning it is delivered, I get so excited that I can’t do anything else but read it cover to cover, over and over again. Office door shut, eyes glued to the words, I anxiously flip the crisp, thin pages as I search for details or nuances I may have missed the first time around. It’s pure, unadulterated Museum-geek porn for me. Sure the picture of the IMA’s Design Curator, Craig Miller, in yesterday’s article titled “A Curator Who Even Considers the Office Chair” isn’t as sexy as a Playboy centerfold spread, but I think it’s pretty danged exciting. My knees went weak when I read the first line of the article, “Killer Statue – Psyched about the Site.” Dan Frost opens with “THE Indianapolis Museum of Art has its own video channel on YouTube.” YES!!!

For most people, I’m sure that the sex scandal on A1 yesterday was a bit more titillating than the article about museum research on H1. However, if for no other reason than to discover what earthquakes, slumber parties, and Eddie Izzard all have to do with museums, you should read the articles in the Museums section.

Are Museums more interesting than a political sex scandal? I guess it’s a matter of personal preference. I’ve told you what I think. Tell me what your thoughts are.