Archive for the ‘Building audiences’ Category

Play nicely with others! It seems that everywhere I go experts are talking about the benefits of collaboration, sharing and smart partnerships. I’ve recently attended two excellent and very different events: Webstock and an arts marketing workshop with international cultural facilitator Jerry Yoshitomi. However, a key message from both events was the value and importance of collaboration to help build your business or your audience.

One of the most recent examples of a successful collaboration in the cultural and tourism communities is the development of the Manaaki Card. The card is a discount card for tourists that includes a variety of Māori cultural activities, accommodation, arts and other wonderful tourism experiences.

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NZLive.com would like to offer a big congrats to the thoroughly deserving winners of Museums Aotearoa’s inaugural awards for industry excellence.

Jim Geddes has won the individual achievement award, nominated by his peers. He’s been described as quiet, unassuming, engaging and totally committed to his work. Jim is a bit of a visionary - he has a very strong commitment to bringing contemporary art within reach of smaller communities. He’s done what many thought impossible – put Gore on the national cultural map.

As Head of Arts and Heritage at Gore District Council, Jim has developed the town’s Hokonui Heritage Centre, the Eastern Southland Gallery, and the Croydon Aviation Museum and expanded Gore’s historical museum. Jim has also been Project Manager for the Southern Odyssey trail and chairman of Hokonui Moonshiners’ Festival.

Jim has also been recognised for his work in acquiring major gifted additions to the Eastern Southland’s collection including works by Ralph Hotere and the collection of Dr John Money. There is a great feature article from The Listener on The Art of Being Gore.

In other Museums Aotearoa awards news: Pearson and Associates Architects’ won recognition for their work at the Colin McCahon house in Titirangi, Auckland. Their design work involving interactive displays and audio-visuals saw them awarded for innovative technical development. The award will be shared with Neil Semple and his Christchurch Art Gallery team for development of their Audio on Demand service.

The service allows users to listen to audio tours of the museum collections either at the gallery or at home, via the gallery website. Interviews with selected artists and curators are available, as is a fascinating history of public art in Christchurch. During your next visit to the museum, make sure you gaze upon some of NZ’s most iconic works with the dulcet tones of Sam Neill narrating.

Whanganui Regional Museum won the exhibition/visitor achievement award for their work on Te Pihi Mata - The Sacred Eye: Partington’s Photographs of Whanganui. The museum and the Whanganui River iwi repatriated to Wanganui a large collection of photographic work by WHT Partington who lived and worked in the region from 1892–1908. ‘By working closely with iwi, the museum has presented the photographs to emphasise their historical, cultural and spiritual significance to the whole community and its visitors,’ said judging panellist Jenny Gibbs.

This really is a very good exhibition, which brings the history of the region to life, and ties it firmly into the present. Another nice feature is that you can order prints of the photographs on display.

For more information on the awards please visit the website of Museums Aotearoa.

For the Wellington Phoenix, 2007 was potentially more like a burning building than a fiery rebirth, and if you just look at the results, then the former is possibly quite fitting. It’s been a long hard road for the Wellington Phoenix thanks largely to the failures of their predecessors. The Kings were in constant disarray, and the Knights were little better.

However, if you want to get into comparisons – and I do – then the first year of The Phoenix has been a flaming success (alright, I’ll stop with the fire metaphors now).

Why a success you ask? Well, I’ll give you two little words – business smarts.

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‘It is one of the largest free community events in the world. In recent years it has become a highlight on the Auckland events calendar, regularly attracting crowds in excess of 200,000 and hundreds of performers from all over the Auckland region, New Zealand and the Pacific.’

Read the newest NZLive.com featured article.

by Terry Makewell, National Museums Online Learning Project (Victoria & Albert Museum)

One of the main linchpins for the new Web 2.0 world is user generated content. As I mentioned in a previous post this is moving away from the read only web to a read/write web environment where the user really becomes part of the experience. They are no longer just a passive viewer of the content. They are adding to it and even creating if from scratch.

Within the museum sector many different websites have been created with the aim of getting the user to participate. There are numerous degrees to the model of participation. These range from users commenting, tagging or taking part in forums through to the sole creation of content on websites through bespoke methods or blogs.

One thing that is always difficult, if not impossible, to estimate is the size of user uptake. The ‘if we build it they will come’ mentality has been consigned to the pages of web history. When building a site that calls for user participation it is important to understand what are the star features that will get your users in and using it. The trouble is that it is often very hard to know what these are. The audience is constantly changing and evolving and what they want and what they have come to expect is constantly changing and evolving. Each new website raises the bar slightly higher.

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