Americans for the Arts

This week Stanford University released a study on iPhone addiction. The 200 college students surveyed said: “On a scale of one to five, where five is full blown addiction and one is not addicted at all, 10 percent of the respondents ranked themselves as a five, 34 percent a four …”

Now, I am a few years out of college, but I am whole-heartedly addicted to my iPhone. That’s why I was excited to hear about Americans for the Arts’ inclusion in a new free app called CauseWorld (also available for Android). It’s a micro-giving social media app that is easy to use and allows you quickly (and frequently) support your favorite causes. CauseWorld works similar to Foursquare: just open it up when you are near retail stores or local businesses, check-in to receive Karma Points, and then donate those points to one of the featured causes such as bringing art to schools. Karma Points are actually real funds provided by sponsors, Citibank and Kraft foods.

It seems that everyday cell phone apps are opening up new doors for promotion, fundraising, and productivity for those working in the nonprofit arts. So here is my list of the Top 10 iPhone Apps for the Arts.

What word (or words) best NAME the community that we represent?

Consider the breadth of organizations, missions and functions of our sector: theatre companies, music organizations, dance groups, art museums, galleries, zoos, science centers, natural history museums, botanical gardens, arts presenters, libraries, cultural heritage organizations, independent & art film presenters, poetry groups & so much more!

We are obviously bigger than an “Arts Community.”

American Express and cause-related website TakePart.com have chosen to feature Americans for the Arts as one of only 10 Arts & Culture organizations in their new social media Members Project campaign. The participation of Americans for the Arts means added visibility and exposure for our organization and its work in arts advocacy and other critical programs, but also a chance to win a $200,000 award from American Express. TakePart.com is a go-to site for volunteering and donating in a variety of topics and causes and is the social action network of Participant Media, the social change-oriented media company behind An Inconvenient Truth and Food Inc.

The Americans for the Arts page of the Member Project can be found here, with links to registering for TakePart.com and for voting in the campaign which runs through May 24, 2010. If you have a Facebook account, you can easily register from this page through Facebook Connect.

Tiffany Bradley

I had the great pleasure to see Grammy-winning musical artist Angélique Kidjo last week at Town Hall, a nonprofit venue in the Theater District here in New York City. I always feel guilty, because it feels like I spend more time traveling for work than actually seeing arts performances! And there’s no point in studying audience development if you are never actually in an audience. (It seems a bit disingenuous actually!) The performance was great, the house was full, and everyone had a great time. Here are some arts marketing takeaways that I think apply to all of us:

Late is the new early: I first heard about the show three weeks before it happened (via print media of all things!) At that time, I thought it sounded like a good idea. I then proceeded to do nothing. I remembered that the show was happening two days before the actual performance. It seemed like an even better idea, so I bought a ticket. At seven in the morning online before heading to work. As much as we marketing folks hate the last-minute ticket buyers, we are the last-minute ticket buyers! With all the demands on my time, I never plan ahead. So yes, we really need to have every single bit of information relating to a purchase decision easily available 24/7. We all know this, but it bears repeating. If I have my credit card out and can’t figure out curtain time or parking or what I’m supposed to wear, I might just stay home with Netflix.

As an arts marketing blogger I have covered a lot of stuff. But one thing I haven't covered enough is how to bring in groups to see your work.

Having a group sales strategy is key for arts organizations, particularly ones that perform in smaller venues. Not only do groups feel up those seats, they also bring in a very nice energy to the event. So let's talk about how to get them in:

1. Start early. Most organizations that bring groups to events starting planning those group outings months in advance. For example, the show my day job is running now starting contacting groups in late May.So if you want to start bringing in groups for your late winter, early spring events, the time to get moving on that is now.