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

http://www.beardrevue.com

Blog: beard revue

It’s all about the beards, people. This blog has a simple description: ‘Review, commentary & discussion for the beard enthusiast. Up the beard ratio!’

ArtBabble Video: Creation of a Tibetan Mural

IMA Work of Art:

Madre Jerónima de la Fuente from Sacred Spain: Art and Belief in the Spanish World

Tweet:

rjstein: TAP is selling out regularly… Waiting lists and iPods not getting enough charge. Great problem to have! Time to buy more iPods!

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.

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

www.eatmedaily.com

Blog: Eat Me Daily

Eat Me Daily is a blog about food with a critical (and sometimes cynical) take on the culture at large, including media, books, cookbooks, art, design, celebrity, fashion, robots, and cookery.

ArtBabble Video: Director’s Journal: Virgin of Guadalupe

IMA Work of Art:

LOVE by Robert Indiana

Tweet:

vangoghmuseum: @boijmans Congratulations on the launch of ArtTube, a brand new videochannel! the Dutch #ArtBabble?

X-Ray of the Virgin of Guadalupe

Way back in September, Charlie initially wrote about TAP, giving our readers an early look at the software.  The application is designed to be extremely flexible, meaning that we will be reusing TAP for future exhibitions both inside the museum and conceivably outside.    Although the IMA attempted a multimedia guide back in 2005 for the American galleries (does anyone remember this?) – this will be the first time we’ve attempted this type of visitor-focused experience for an exhibition. And to think, the entire software development and authoring, content production and implementation was done entirely in-house (check out the video below for a closer look at TAP).

When it comes to new media production, a lot of footage and content goes unused in the final product.  In the case of TAP – we shot and recorded hours and hours of media for the tour.  Once it’s all edited and fine tuned, it boils down to about a 90 minute experience.  What happens to the hours of unused material? This brings me to Easter Eggs.  We wanted to provide some surprises in this tour and make use of content we ordinarily wouldn’t use.  In some ways, Easter Eggs are similar to a cameo by Alfred Hitchcock.  They are little surprises or experiences that were created to augment the real or planned experience.  In the technology sense, they are intentional, additional pieces of content that are hidden, hard to find – but the in the end, result in a funny or unexpected discovery.  What will you find?

The hidden location!

You won’t find Alfred Hitchcock on TAP – especially since he once said “Always make the audience suffer as much as possible” - but you will be able to locate secret 3-digit codes that will lead to you new stories.  How do you find these Easter Eggs?  Well, you can surf around HERE or come to exhibition and investigate.  You might find something – are you up for the challenge?

Check out the Tastes of Spain 2 week menu after the jump as I get back to Sacred Spain TAP design tasks and website updates. Stay tuned for Daniel’s post tomorrow with some exciting info about the multimedia goodies we’ve been working on!

Tastes of Spain (2 week menu):

Soups

• Roasted fennel and lentil soup with smoked paprika and chili oil (V/VG)
• White Chicken Chili

Sandwiches

• Flatbread Sandwich with Oven Roasted Vegetables, Red Pepper Hummus Spinach and Olive Tapenade (V/VG)
• Hot Turkey Sandwich with manchego cheese, roasted red peppers and saffron aioli
• Tuna Salad with capers and sundried tomatoes with Spanish olive oil & shallots (G&G)

Salads

• Spinach Salad with Grilled Chicken, shaved red onions, goat cheese, potatoes, mint and tomatoes tossed with sherry saffron vinaigrette (G&G)
• Mixed Green Salad with roasted portobello mushrooms, balsamic glazed beets, mandarin oranges, fennel, carrots, toasted paprika orange vinaigrette (V/VG)

Pastas

• Sundried Tomato Ravioli with Olives, Fresh Tomatoes, zucchini, squash and Artichoke Hearts (V)
• Cavatappi with Serrano Ham, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, grilled sweet corn with cabrales blue cheese and toasted almonds

Pizza

• Chicken Albondigas Pizza (Garlic, Chicken and Lemon Sausage) with Roasted Mushrooms & Sweet Peppers
• Indiana Tomato, spinach, eggplant & 3 olive pizza with Cabrales blue cheese and mozzarella (V

And you never know where a magnolia is going to show up.

Why, a lot of folks even thought I was from the South. They seemed genuinely surprised I was from some place as far north as Indiana. Just something about the way I spoke I guess. That was just so precious. I was there for the national meeting of the Garden Writers Association (GWA). My first. I finally joined this past winter after some more urging from Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp, the Hoosier Gardener. Plus Indianapolis will be hosting the national meeting in 2011 so I needed to get some idea of how they did it in Raleigh. Mark Zelonis, the Ruth Lilly Deputy Director of Historic and Environmental Preservation, attended as well so I wasn’t the only IMA staff there.

The conference consisted of a mixture of lectures and tours. I always like the tours best but enjoyed the lectures as well. Many were on the internet and social media (Surprise! Surprise!). I attended one or two of those.

But let’s face it. It’s no secret that I am a plant whore. I wanted to see gardens and plants. If I would have been invited to see some gardens during the lectures I would have been out that door faster than a nest of fire ants can attack a Yankee. (Did I mention I love Southern accents? Hell, I love all accents. Why should we all sound alike? Cause we ain’t.) Fortunately there were enough gardens on the regular schedule to keep me satiated – mostly.

Plant Delights is on every Plant Pig’s list of nurseries and gardens to visit. Tony Avent has created a truly unique place. The gardens are filled with plants that explore all the possibilities for gardens, especially in zone 7 North Carolina. But I’m always up for pushing the hardiness scale. One isn’t really surprised to find palms and variegated bananas at Plant Delights.

But I’m always taken back a bit when I see huge agaves in the ground knowing they survive the winter right there!

I showed remarkable restraint and only bought 5 plants.

The Sarah P. Duke Gardens (Duke University) are wonderful as well. There are wooded sites, lakes, terraced gardens, and wonderful plants everywhere. You can see everything from old Dawn Redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostroboides – like around the Sutphin Fountain) to native Loblolly pines to pink bananas (Musa velutina)

At NC State University there is the JC Raulston Arboretum named after the great plantsman and educator I wish I could have met. He believed in getting plants of merit out to as many people as possible so they would not languish in obscurity. He introduced an enormous number of plants to the horticulture world. And he wasn’t a purist considering natives. He wanted to find as many plants as possible to use in the North Carolina Piedmont and display them at the Arboretum so everyone had access to them.  Like any good garden, you can find design ideas for any part of the country there. And a good many plants hardy here. This Callicarpa americana ‘Welch’s Pink’ (American beauty berry) is one I would like to try.

It’s a garden I highly recommend and don’t miss the trial gardens. The hot peppers were just that. HOT!

One of the best parts of the conference was the closing night award ceremonies. Because SEASONS won the Silver Award for Best Overall Product in the newsletter category! Be on the lookout for an e-newsletter replacing it soon. Here’s a shot of the very happy IMA group with the award.

Now, just one more little thing. When I left for this trip it was summer. When I returned one week later it was fall. I’m not happy about that. When I find out who is responsible they are in big trouble. BIG trouble. You would think I could leave town for a week and you all could keep things from going to hell. I am most disappointed. It will be reflected in how I dole out my good graces. I need a lot more time to prepare for moving plants inside.

I’m going to let the images do most the talking, but please note that none of the design or content is completely finalized below.

MSTD A414 / A514: Museums and Technology (3 cr.) This course surveys the growing use of technology in museums. It examines applications for information management in collections, conservation science, and archives. It examines critically the use of technology in the service of education both in exhibit contexts and in the variety of educational programs and web-based dissemination of knowledge.

(I would normally put an image here, but I don’t have a good one.  Instead I’m going to plug our latest video, a trailer for our next major exhibition Sacred Spain: Art & Belief in the Spanish World).

Back to the real point of this post.

I’m working on the syllabus as we speak.  For some time, I’ve been mulling over the basic shell of the class and now is the time for action.  I’ve had plenty of ideas revolving around case studies, online publications, blogs, videos, and much much more.  But mostly, I’ve been struggling finding an acceptable balance between theory and execution.  I have respect for both sides, but I would definitely characterize myself as an implementer.  In plenty of blog posts I’ve mentioned launching or publishing incomplete projects (or rather, works in progress) and tried to communicate that mistakes happen, and it will be okay.  So I think one of my challenges will be finding the right balance between the two and communicating that effectively.

Without giving too much away, I do want to share some of the approaches I will be using in this class -

• Readings – online articles, publications, blog posts, tweets, you name it…
• Digital Case Studies – Online exhibitions, Web sites, blogs, Flickr, Twitter, videos, and more
• Usability Analysis – How well do some museum produced digital projects work?
• Live manifestation of class work (whatever that means) – something along the lines of what Nina Simon did for her Social Technology class.
• Guest appearances – Kind of like Arrested Development, but featuring experts from the field of Museums and Technology and content specialists from the IMA
• A Real Project – Students will create digital content proposals for a major upcoming IMA initiative.  If selected, students will get to work directly on that project, publish it and receive full credit for their concept.
• Internship! – That’s right, one lucky student gets to intern at IMA’s Nugget Factory (New Media).  Kind of like a reality show.

So, I’ve really not given anything away.  But if you think there is one site, article, video or project out there I MUST cover, please let me know. And, Museum Studies students, museum colleagues, blog readers, tweeters, and more – anything you’d like to add?

New Media will have a very busy summer, both inside and out.

Regarding the great outdoors, we plan on installing more of the bird cams in 100 Acres.  You may have seen this video, but our hope is to capture more activity of the critters that inhabit the park (hopefully a fox!), as well as the changes that will take place this summer with construction and the beginning of art installations.  We’ll be on hand to try and capture all the activity and of course snag as many artist interviews as possible for ArtBabble.  It’s not a bad time to wander out into nature with a video camera.

100 Acres, you should check it out sometime

Speaking of ArtBabble, we’re working very hard on growing the site and adding content.  From IMA’s perspective, that includes our own agressive approach to producing video content, which will focus on visiting artists, exhibition related pieces and a major documentary (more on that in a future post).  The broader strategy for ArtBabble is to grow engaging and innovative content from other AB partners.  This means more videos and more museums.  I speak for everyone at IMA when I say we’re excited about the new crop of organizations joining ArtBabble.

And if we weren’t busy enough, we’re also developing a handheld tour for the upcoming Sacred Spain exhibition.  This handheld experience will function on an iPod Touch and will be available at the IMA during the exhibition.  Charlie, Ed, Matt and Rob have all been busy developing the framework for the application itself.  For most of the summer, we will be working very closely with curatorial, education and design staff to develop and shape the visitor experience of this handheld tour.  We will focus heavily on building connections to the impressive works of art in the exhibition by using video, audio, high res imagery and a couple of other tricks up our sleeve.  The main goal is not the technology itself (although I think it’s cool), but the content or stories we tell to help our visitors discover connections to the artists or their works.  It’s a process much easier said than done.  But much more on this in another post.  In the meantime, enjoy a current mock-up of part of the interface.

Early interface design

So, what are your summer plans?

Sacred Spain will be at the IMA in the fall/ winter of 2009. So why are we shooting video now? We need to make arrangements to permit our presence (cameras and all) at Holy Week events in the spring. Since the subject matter of the exhibition inherently includes religious contexts, filming events related to them is more complicated than the traditional b-roll we shoot of museum facades or ancient monuments. Under curatorial advisement and with the help of Ilenia Colon-Mendoza, an Indianapolis expert in this subject matter, we have met with a variety of people already to convey our intentions and secure local permissions. So far, so good.

We hope the result of our work will shed some insight on the art featured in the exhibition which include a variety of works from the Baroque era. I must resist the temptation to name drop here as I do not have curatorial permission to do so, and I would not want to steal any insitutional thunder. Maybe if you ask for more, our curator (Ronda Kasl) will respond to your inquiries…In the meantime, you can see photos documenting our trip on IMA’s Flickr page. Enjoy!