Creating Community Through Art and Culture

Creating Community
Through Art and Culture

2010 Winter Solstice & Fundraiser
Community Cultural Exchange
Friday, December 17, 2010
6 pm - 12 am
Media Bureau Network 
338 Brown Street
Northern Liberties
$15.00 per person
$10.00 w/ a donation of a gently used blanket to support our 
Blanket Drive

 Local artists will be on site to showcase orginal art and handmade crafts, perform live music and share their written works. In addition there will be a Silent Auction and Exhibition. Proceeds from this event will directly support the CCE's mission to create community through art and culture. The CCE holds events such as The Exchange, a free monthly artist exchange at Copabanna (4th & South Streets), Art in the Park, a free weekly arts and crafts workshop at Starr Garden (6th & Lombard), Yoga for Everyone, a "pay what you can" yoga class and much, much more!

The Community Cultural Exchange (CCE) is a 501(c)3 non-profit with the mission to create community through art and culture. We do so by acting as a bridge between local art and culture groups, businesses, artists and the South Street area community. We facilitate programs and events of all disciplines including musical, visual, performing, literary and wellness arts.

On the Town

Michelle Lopez 

While some of us were working on our Halloween costumes, 650 vocalists burst into song inside Macy's in Center City. The "flash mob" was organized by the Opera Company of Philadelphia and is considered to be an encore of their performance inside Reading Terminal Market last April.

I think the concept of flash mobs is a brilliant marketing idea and I especially think it could really work with benchmark art forms, which seem to be suffering from lack of attendance. Creating a well-executed flash mob is no easy task.Organizers usually depend on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to inform and invite the performers as well as people who may just want to enjoy the event. The idea is to be random but some preparation is very necessary.

The "flash opera" in Reading Terminal Market garnered over 3 million hits and has been shown all around the world as an example of innovative use of the arts. Unfortunately for the Opera Company of Philadelphia, ticket sales were not recorded after that event, so they will never be sure if it caused a surge in ticket sales. But never the less, it has sparked interest Globally, and set precedent for other cities and art forms to pick up the baton and try their hand at a successful cultural "flash mob".

Going on simultaneously is the Miami based Knight Foundation Arts Challenge Philadelphia, which is awarding a $9 million dollar grant to anyone who can come up with a worthy cultural cause. The deadline for the contest is November 1st. The contest is open to any member of the community, whether it's a large art institution or 1 person with 1 really good idea. The application consists of only 2 questions because it is meant to be accessible to those who may have never applied for a grant before. The Knight Foundation has their own version of a national "flash mob" project titled Random Acts of Culture.

I think arts organizations have to think outside the box. Nowadays, most people are too caught up in their own worlds to seek out the arts because it is too unfamiliar or seems inaccessible. By bringing a sample to the public, they can really experience an up-close and personal arts event and decide for themselves. I also think its important for large foundations such as Knight to open their doors to receive ideas from the public and make such generous contributions to the public. Arts organizations have a tendency to remain with their doors closed and continue business as usual. And that is not working any more.

Arts Marketing Conference Update

Zeek Weil
Director of Communications and Events 

I spent four days in November in San Jose, California for the 2010 National Arts Marketing Project conference organized by Americans for the Arts. I have attended this conference, that brings arts marketing professionals from throughout the United States together for several days of instruction, networking and workshops, in the past, but this year I had the opportunity to present a paper as part of a panel discussion titled, Beyond Cocktails & Facebook: Strategies to Attract Young Adult Audiences.I was joined on the panel by Sarah Lee, a Senior Associate at Slover-Linett, an audience research and planning firm for the mission-driven world, based in Chicago, Illinois and Susannah Greenwood, Director of Local Marketing, Artsopolis Marketing Partnership in San Jose who moderated the discussion.

The presentation was in the first group of discussions on the first day of the conference and it was standing room only. It was both a humbling and enjoyable experience. I presented research conducted as part of my thesis requirement in arts administration, which I completed in May 2009. My paper was titled Audience Stewardship in the Arts through Preferred Communication Pathways and Places and it examined the preferred communication mechanisms of college-aged students. In a communications environment that can utilize hundreds of different communication mechanisms to reach audiences, arts marketing departments must begin to identify what communication mechanisms are preferred by their audiences. 

For the purpose of my research I asked college students what they preferred in four different communications categories: mass media, electronic media, social media and in-person. Any audience member can and should be asked about their communication preferences and arts organizations should deliver their communications via mechanisms preferred by their audiences. It doesn't help the organization or the audience member to send an email message communicating an arts experience if the recipient prefers communication via text message or Facebook.

Beyond the presentation, the conference provided a keynote kickoff lecture by Chip Health of Made to Stick, co-written with his brother, Dan, and a plenary lunch featuring Susan Medak, Managing Director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Chip talked about how to make our communications and messaging memorable or stick to recipients and Susan showed how nonprofit arts organizations can bridge the worlds of mission-driven art and commercial enterprises. She did this through the successful development of Green Day's American Idiot, transforming their album into a rock-opera that is currently running on Broadway at the St. James Theater. There were countless sessions, dine-arounds and an opening reception at the San Jose Museum of Art that brought everyone together in a great space filled with contemporary art. It was a memorable and educational experience and I want to thank the Westphal College and the Arts Administration program for allowing me an opportunity to attend. Attending the national arts marketing conference demonstrated to me that writing a timely and thoughtful thesis can offer any arts administration student an opportunity to present your work at a major national conference. So good luck thesis writers, I hope to attend your presentation in the very near future.

Updates from the AAGA

Tracy Buchanan, President of the AAGA

The Arts Administration Graduate Association (AAGA) has had a busy fall! We started out this year with some great events to welcome our incoming class to the program and Philadelphia. In early September we kicked of the term with a Welcome Orientation event at Pizza Rustica in University City. After a long day at the Graduate Orientation, we invited our incoming students to pizza and beer to get to know each other. A great time was had by all!

A few weeks later, in an effort to introduce our incoming class to current student and alumni, the AAGA hosted a Welcome Back Party at the Crane Arts Building. We could not have done it without Inliquid and 2009/2010 AAGA President Jen Schick who donated the Grey Area and the Ice Box for the evening. As an extra bonus, all who attended the party were rewarded with a sneak preview of the benefit v.11silent auction, Inliquid's annual auction that featured over 200 local artists and organizations.

In October, we celebrated arts and culture in Philadelphia, with our speaker event "Managing Arts and Culture in Philadelphia, Living, Working, and Playing in the City of Brotherly Love". Panelists included, Moira Baylson from the Office of Arts,Culture, and the Creative Economy, Tina Brock, from the Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, Tamar Lelkes from Live Connections, and Leigh Goldenberg from the Arden Theater. They did a fantastic job of discussing what they think makes Philly tick and why it is unique. After the speaker event, the AAGA called a member meeting in an effort to better understand and serve our population. We would like to thank our members for their contributions and ideas, keep them coming!

Throughout the term the AAGA board has been working hard to engage our students, listen, and create meaningful events. One of our biggest goals this year is to have an open and fluid conversation with our members and to create an agenda that reflects who we are collectively. In an effort to do so, we have surveyed members so that in the coming terms we can address, directly, the desires of the AAGA.

We are now starting our major preparation for the 8th Annual Art Auction, which will be held on Friday, February 25th at 7pm.  It is promised to be an epic auction, stay tuned for more information, and we hope to see you there!

If you have any questions about any AAGA events, or would like to get involved, please visit drexelaaga.com or email aaga@drexel.edu.

Online Program News

Dear Readers:

This is another exciting year for the Online Arts Administration program. We admitted our third entering class, this time with 25 students who came to campus during the second week of Fall term for a brief but very intense residency. Our incoming class is another talented and varied group, with backgrounds in all of the performing arts, visual arts, art history, and other fields. Geographically, about half the class comes from the Delaware Valley, and about half from around the country. Just a few of the states represented are Florida, California, Arizona,Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina.

In late September, the online and campus programs jointly sponsored a reception with guest speaker Tom Kaiden, President of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. Tom's talk not only reminded us of the increasing importance of research, but also of the vibrancy and challenges of the arts and cultural sector in Philadelphia and beyond. Many thanks to the AAGA for their active support of this event, and for warmly welcoming the online students into the fold.  We look forward to continuing to increase the involvement of the online students in the AAGA. I encourage all online students to find ways to get involved with AAGA, whether you can come to campus or not.

Since your last Artsline, the online program has been very proud to announce its new Online Arts Administration Award for Academic Excellence. This award is given to the three students in the online program earning the highest GPA. Students must have completed 24 credits toward their degree to be eligible. Congratulations to our first year winners: Susan Matyas, Stephanie Roberson, and Audrey Szychulski. The second round of awards will be announced at the end of May 2011.

The past few years have been difficult for many who work in arts and culture, but I see the field as being in a time of great innovation and opportunity. Technological innovations are changing the way we do many things, including producing and consuming the arts. We're doing more online, we're finding new ways to make use of online tools, and we're using the Internet and mobile technologies to find new ways to foster creativity and sharing of creative work.  Just a few examples are the flash mob events developed by the Opera Company of Philadelphia (www.operaphila.org), and the Internet2 project that will take place at Drexel this April. As part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, new music group Relâche will perform newly commissioned musical compositions to accompany a series of silent French films from the 1920s, and the entire performance will be broadcast live via Internet2 to audiences in France and elsewhere. I hope to be able to establish an Internet2 connection from Hanoi University so I can join you on April 17!

Just in case you missed the news, this summer the Department of Performing Arts reorganized, so the Arts Administration programs are now part of the Department of Arts and Entertainment Enterprise. We say thanks to Lin Yeo for her past work in support of our programs, and good luck in her new role as Department Administrator for Performing Arts. And we thank Bridget Lynch and Lisa Matthews for their continuing excellent work on our behalf.

Dr. Jean Brody

Welcome to ArtsLine

Hopefully you've linked here from our online newsletter.  This site will exist simply as a place for the expanded text articles of the ArtsLine Newsletter for the Drexel University Arts Administration Program.  For more information on the program or to sign up to receive the newsletter, visit the link section in the sidebar.

Thanks for reading!