National Arts Marketing Project (NAMP) Presentation Providence, RI, November 2009

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ArtSpark is about the power of ART CONNECTING WITH

SOCIAL MEDIA

VS.???ART=

CREATIVITY

ArtSpark is about supporting artistic creativity in its own right as well as art’s and artists’ contributions to economic development.

In order to rally support for the arts currently, most of the arguments in favor of funding focus on $$ - like how much artists contribute to economic development, the importance of the Creative Class and the creative economy (Richard Florida), etc.

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Making a living in the arts (as an artist) – crazy or no?

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Funding for the arts, particularly individual artists, is dismal here in the US, and has steadily declined since the “Culture Wars” of the 1980’s under President Reagan.

Meanwhile artists struggle to make a living, even in a meager way, lack health insurance, etc.

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Art continues to engender suspicion and fear…

“If I Ran the NEA…”

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-ca-nea1-2009mar01-sg,0,2746871.storygallery

The tag line of our country’s National Endowment of the Arts is “A Great Nation Deserves Great Art” and we couldn’t agree more – unfortunately the NEA continues to be a marginalized federal agency with insufficient funding for the arts – and almost no funding for individual artists.

The center image refers to a great LA Times article which asked individual artists: “If I ran the NEA…”

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The mission of ArtSpark is to ignite widespread artistic expression and creativity.

ArtSpark believes that investing in creativity is essential for community vitality, cultural wealth, social capital and social change.

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While there are several aspects to ArtSpark’s use of social media, we’re focusing this presentation on micro-funding for artists and arts projects – a central part of ArtSpark’s strategy.

ArtSpark adds a critically-needed mechanism to the arts funding landscape via the web: known as micro-funding, crowd-sourcing or crowd-funding, micro-philanthropy, etc.

The image/photograph captures the old model of philanthropy/philanthropist…

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…(the old model of philanthropy) is being replaced with citizen philanthropy where anyone can fund the arts and artists using online social media tools.

ArtSpark democratizes arts patronage.

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Online social media fundraising tools allow artists to be supported by small groups of fans, patrons and community members…

Artists can do a lot with even small amounts of $$ support.

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OR LARGE groups of fans, patrons and community members.

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ArtSpark is about harnessing the power of the ripple effect of the web –

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the positive viral effect of people connecting both virtually and on the ground.

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This power has the capacity to change the way arts are funded…

ARTISTS

PATRONS

FANS

AUDIENCES

COMMUNITIES

ARTS ORGANIZATIONS

NEIGHBORHOODS

CONNECTS:

CREATIVITY

What does ArtSpark DO?

Connects artists, fans, patrons, community members, arts organizations to create a new arts ecology.

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Community can be on lots of different levels: virtual/online…

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…in a particular community…

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…AND across communities, countries and cultures.

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ArtSpark is about SPARKING RELATIONSHIPS!

ArtSpark includes: participation of fans, growing audiences, touring/connecting with new communities, collaboration between artists, also sharing art via performances, openings, shows, readings, etc.

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COLLABORATION

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MAKING ART

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AND FUNDRAISING

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WHAT COULD BE THE IMPACT OF ArtSpark?

ARTISTS

PATRONS

FANS

AUDIENCES

COMMUNITIES

ARTS ORGANIZATIONS

NEIGHBORHOODS

IMPACTS:

CREATIVITY

Benefits to all partners : artists, arts organizations, neighborhoods, fans, patrons, community members

Leading to: new public awareness of how art and artists contribute to society and that creativity serves and enriches us all.

ANNUAL $$ to the arts with different levels of giving…

300M Facebook users and 20M Twitter users, so even 1M ArtSpark participants isn’t too preposterous.

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What ArtSpark will most likely look like????

WORKS FOR INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS AND ARTS ORGANIZATIONS – PROJECT FOCUSED – PROJECTS WILL BE LISTED ON http://art-spark.org AND ALSO…

CENTRALIZED AND DECENTRALIZED MECHANISMS ACROSS DIFFERENT PLATFORMS: EXISTING SOCIAL MEDIA (TWITTER, FB, ETC), ARTS ORG WEBSITES, ARTIST WEBSITES/PAGES.

VIRTUAL SPACE AND LOCAL/ON THE GROUND.

Differences and similarities with current online microfunding sites – none focuses exclusively on micro-funding for artists and building in collaboration/participation and audience tools.

ArtSpark learned a lot from these existing micro-funding sites…THANK YOU!

How you can get involved/participate:

http://art-spark.org

SIGN UP TO BE INCLUDED IN UPDATES AND FOR UPCOMING NEWSLETTERS.

FACEBOOK FAN PAGE: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ArtSpark/82325796056?ref=ts

(Facebook Causes Page coming soon…)

TWITTER:

http://twitter.com/ArtSpark

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ArtSpark supports and energizes the ART COMMONS.

ArtSpark will launch in 2010.

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