Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog » SFMoMA

What next for ArtBabble?

Daniel Incandela — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:35:09 +0000

It’s amazing how time flies. It seems like yesterday that ArtBabble officially launched, all the way back in April. I remember many of the IMA staff, and even our friends at Art:21 working into the early hours of the night to make sure everything was ready for the launch. I might have even enjoyed a glass of scotch to celebrate when I finally went to bed around 3am. It was a proud accomplishment for many of us at the IMA who had poured a tremendous amount of effort into creating the site. On top of that, we were beyond thrilled to partner with organizations like Art:21, LACMA, SFMoMA, MoMA, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and NYPL.

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!

Audiotours, iPhones and much more

Daniel Incandela — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:26:48 +0000

In previous posts, I’ve not been shy in expressing my respect, admiration or jealousy for other institutions. So, it’s surprising it took me this long to mention the Tate Modern. Earlier this spring, I e-mailed Jane Burton, Creative Director at Tate Modern, to introduce myself and express my sincere appreciation for the work they produce – especially video – and you know how much video The Nugget Factory produces. This e-mail turned into an invitation to a conference on handheld technology at the Tate Modern organized by Jane and Nancy Proctor of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM’s doing some pretty innovative things too. This post hopes to share some the experiences in the conference: From Audiotours to iPhones Workshop.

Developed for IMA's American Galleries in 2005

Rewind a few years. Does anyone remember the American Gallery handheld project – ArtXplore – that the IMA piloted in 2005? It was a short-lived project that helped (indirectly)shape much of the current technology strategies at IMA. It was a difficult project, with some victories, lessons learned and a big part of the technology, evolutionary process at our museum. Since 2005, we have re-focused our efforts to create digital content that visitors in any location can access. Although we do offer audio tours at the Lilly House, a cell phone tour for the Gardens and Grounds – our primary strategy has to increase the reputation of IMA globally, and share our stories about art with a much larger online audience. It’s an approach I support, but with the opening of the Art and Nature Park next year, should we try another attempt with some sort of handheld device? Perhaps.
Information on From Audiotours to iPhones Workshop, case studies, speaker bios, flickr images, you name it, can be found HERE. It is an amazing basket of information, applicable to anyone interested in the ways museums operate. The conference represented some of the most innovation and brightest minds working in museums today – excluding myself of course.

You really should visit this wiki!

The workshop featured tales of success, failure and the in between. It highlighted the brilliant tours created with Antenna Audio/Discovery Communications at Tate Modern and SFMoMA. It showcased the many devices possible – custom devices, iPod’s, iPhones, PSP’s, Nintendo DS and more. It delved into the ways information is sent to a device – GPS, infrared, WAP, RFID and OTHER options. It showed what the biggest and smallest museums are capable of creating, innovating and overcoming. And it brought out the personalities of these museums – a paleontologist experimenting with different approaches to the visitor experience, a one-person department from the San Jose Museum of Art, and many of the up and coming museums that will soon be influencing and leading the arena of museum technology.

I was honored to be at the Tate Modern, sit on one of the panel discussions, rub elbows with insightful and brilliant colleagues, but most importantly, eager and motivated to create something new at the IMA.

You’ll have to wait and see.

Trying to Stay Cool

Meg Liffick — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:51:41 +0000

So, a few months ago, I wrote a blog listing my “art crushes.” From art critics to museum directors, I bared my soul to the arts world. Michael Kimmelman, Tyler Green, Will Gompertz, Kathy Halbreich, and Phillippe de Montebello, I still love you all, but I’m afraid I’ve forever ruined my chances of being cool. It’s pretty difficult looking hip when you’re admitting you’ve got a massive crush on the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. So this summer, I’m making an attempt to overcome my innate dorkiness. I’m going to spend the next few months visiting some of the hippest museums in the US. Here’s my plan to stay cool this summer.

June at SFMoMA – I’m headed to San Francisco next week, and SFMoMA is on the top of my list for places to visit. There’s just something about that museum that makes me feel super hip when I’m in its presence. I’m fired up because I just discovered that I’m going to be there during the opening week of Frida Kahlo. I’m thinking about buying a membership to the museum just so I can hang out on Thursday night at the member reception. If that party is anything like what I’ve imagined, the cocktail hour is going to look like an opening of a Marc Jacobs store.

July at the MCA Chicago –I have to say, I am enamored by the MCA Chicago’s marketing team. Particularly the person that writes the eNewsletters. Even if you don’t live anywhere near Chicago you should sign up for their eNews. It is the perfect mix of wit and info. This July, I’m looking forward to a couple of things at the MCA. First, Jeff Koons opened last week and I can’t wait to see it. I’m also really looking forward to attending a First Friday event. Every month, the MCA brings in a DJ, features the work of local artists, and apparently has figured out a lighting system to make everyone at the party looking stunningly beautiful. Check out the pictures!

August at The Walker - My pulse raced when I read a headline from the Walker Art Center’s May enewsletter, “Walker on the Green: Artist-Designed Mini Golf.” Finally, my dream has come true! Before I was a museum professional, I was a golf professional. For a full summer after graduate school, I taught golf lessons at a country club. Other than meeting Leroy Neiman at a tournament, I have never found a way to incorporate my love for golf and my love for art. THANK YOU Walker Art Center for doing it for me! Thank you for making golf cool!

Folks at the Walker – I’m coming up this summer to play a round, and as a gesture of my appreciation, I’m offering free putting lessons to the entire staff!

Video almost Killed the Radio Star.

Daniel Incandela — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:09:10 +0000

I’ve got audio, not video on my mind, which is an oddity. We have a whopping one audio guide online but over 50 videos available. Recent events however, suddenly presented several audio experiences, highlighted emerging projects, revealed new music and provoked thought on this forgotten subject. This might surprise you, because we have don’t typically dabble with audio content and we are such a video-centric new media department. That’s about to change though. Charge your iPods.

(struggling for an image, I decided to show my favorite Pioneer HDJ-1000 headphones…courtesy of pioneerelectronics.com)

So what happened recently to cause this shift? It’s been a convergence of experiences really, and it all occurred kind of like this:

I was on 38^th Street…
This past week I found myself standing in Best Buy, initially contemplating a purchase of a Wii or PS3 (I bought neither). After a few minutes I wandered into the music aisle. I typically download from iTunes but occasionally I buy a CD. I stood in the rap section and an entire world of 80’s old school opened up. I walked out with 2 CD’s – KRS-One and Eric B. and Rakim. I’m listening to Follow the Leader, right now. This set the tone for the rest of the week and the audio coincidences followed.

Meanwhile back at work….
Think of music online and it’s a hard not to think of iTunes. My colleague Despi spent the past week preparing, organizing and finalizing our audio and video content for a new partnership with iTunes, called iTunes U – essentially content from universities and cultural institutions, such as museums. She’ll be blogging about it later, so I don’t want to reveal too much. The IMA on iTunes, pretty cool and it’s kind of a big deal.

Thinking of LOST and Copland…
Previously on…..not LOST (but I can’t wait for the season to start). In past posts I’ve mentioned a project we’re working on with musicians from the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. This project will become an audio guide for our American Galleries, featuring performances from ISO musicians. So when I’m not listening to 80’s hip hop, I’m also now into Debussy, Stravinsky and Barber. We’re in the selection stage for what songs will be recorded and will begin this process very soon….

Local music…
For an upcoming fashion exhibition Breaking the Mode, we are acquiring runway footage featuring work from the designers in the exhibition. You can’t really have runway footage without music, so our web and flash designer Matt Gipson suggested a local band he knows, The Sound Defects. I recommend visiting their site and listening to Kick Stand. We’re working with them to feature some of their sounds in the videos we will produce online (I know – it’s a video…but there is a good audio connection here). Coming soon to imamuseum.org….in some form.

For a totally new experience…
If you’re in iTunes, search for ‘spurse audio tour’. It’s an audio guide we produced with the artist collective spurse, a couple of years ago. Their exhibition is long gone, but the audio tour lives on and might make a comeback. Check it out – I did recently and had a chuckle. It’s not your typical audio guide.

So what does this all mean…
Well, these were my experiences for the week of Jan 21-25, 2008. We may never be an audio powerhouse like MoMA or SFMOMA – but you will begin to see some new and unique audio experiences – and we haven’t given up on audio yet. In the meantime, if you have any audio project ideas, please leave me a comment.

Now who’s ready for The Buggles?

On The Road

Meg Liffick — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 20:57:41 +0000

It’s been a really busy month for me. That’s no excuse for my lack of blogging. It’s just an explanation. So here’s what I’ve been up to…

Ingrid Calame- On November 1, the IMA opened our latest Forefront show Traces of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway by Ingrid Calame. Calame opened the evening with an engaging and entertaining discussion of her artwork. Her focus on her techniques and methods was especially interesting. Calame’s final works are wonderful without context, but I think that understanding her work process makes this exhibition all the more astonishing. If you missed the artist’s talk at the IMA, you can read the article that the New York Times ran at the end of October featuring her work in Indianapolis. Check it out by clicking here .

You can also view images from the opening event at our flickr site

Miami- The morning after the Ingrid Calame opening event, I caught a flight to Miami and headed to the National Arts Marketing Project Conference presented by Americans for the Arts. During the day, I spent my time attending sessions on Web 2.0 and market research. At night, I spent my time hanging out in South Beach. On Sunday, November 3 I presented in an informational forum the NAMP Conference folks dubbed “The Mosh Pit”. Basically it was a chance to present creative and effective communications strategies in an informal setting. I presented on behalf of the IMA on the effective use of video as a communications tool. Distributing hot pink and teal DVDs containing some the “Nugget Factory’s” greatest productions, I spent the entire 4 hours with a crowd of fellow arts marketers inquiring about how they can produce videos. It was nice to share our experiences. It was great to hear about other organizations’ experiences. Ultimately, it reminded me as to how far the IMA has come since our first ever YouTube posting in June 2006. I took some pictures at the conference and posted them to the IMA’s Flickr account. You can check them out by clicking here.

San Francisco- So after the conference in Miami, I flew to San Francisco for vacation. While I wanted to, I couldn’t completely shut off my work brain so while in San Fran I spent a few days exploring the DeYoung (I LOVE GOLDEN GATE PARK!), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and SFMOMA. Of all the great art that I saw during my adventures, my favorite piece was a video work by Rineke Dijkstra titled The Buzz Club, Liverpool, England/Mysteryworld, Zaandam, Netherlands, 1996–97. The work is both humorous and haunting as it depicts teens from two different night clubs (one in England, one in the Netherlands). It is definitely a highlight of SFMOMA’s collection.

Back to Indianapolis-I worked two 3-day weeks before leaving again for Thanksgiving. Basically, I spent those days replying to emails, updating content on the IMA’s Dashboard, writing surveys and working on communication plans for 2008.

Hometown for Thanksgiving-Not much to report. I ate too much of my mom’s homecooking, napped more than I have since I was a toddler, and worked with my family on the design, construction and implementation of our Turkey Trebuchet (I have an entertaining family!). Since I’ve mentioned my VW’s dashboard in a previous blog, I thought I would share an image from my trip back from Southern Indiana. It’s not often that you can capture such a significant moment in a car’s life. I’m glad I had my camera handy!

So that’s my November! My December will be action packed as well. We’re launching an online survey and an onsite survey. I’ll talk more about that next time, but in the mean time, if you have anything you would like to share about the IMA’s new Web site, please feel free to email us at web@imamuseum.org or you can just respond to this blog. We’d love to hear from you!