[Forum] Berkshire Arts Forum.
Joshua Field
joshua at joshuafield.com
Tue Mar 13 00:28:13 EDT 2007
i'm going to step back from this conversation after this post, but a
couple of notes/questions:
1. question: what do people want out of their relationship with this group?
we are a diverse group which likely means that we have diverse needs. i
know folks have mentioned a desire to gain better connections with
buyers, a desire to consolidate marketing, etc. (i agree with kurt that
we need to answer this in order to have some concrete goals, and
face-to-face might be the best way to do that.)
- my answer to that question:
my motivation for involvement in this group is a desire to see the
berkshires grow into an arts driven community because i'm invested in
staying in the berkshires and the cultural/arts focus of the region
played a primary role in my wife and i deciding to move/stay here.
having gone to both a high school for the arts and art college, i spent
most of my formative life surrounded by the arts and if the berkshires
were "america's premier mathematics resort" instead of "cultural resort"
(i know, they changed that tagline, but you get the point), we likely
wouldn't live here.
2. note: my interest in building the berkshirevisualarts.org site
initially was just to have a site that focused solely on visual arts in
the berkshires (because it was such a hassle to sift through all the
performing arts in other media to try and find gallery/museum events). i
still think there needs to be a resource that is just focused on "visual
arts" - if only because there is so much going on in the area,
particularly in the summer. that doesn't mean this list needs to reside
there (though, the email list really doesn't have much to do with the
website, since our dialog happens via email).
3. note: the forum (email listserv) ended up on the
berkshirevisualarts.org server because i had the server already running
and the listserv software happened to be already installed on that
server when we had the meeting at the eclipse mill gallery. it seemed
like a quick and easy way to give the group a forum for dialog (which
has seemed to work pretty well thus far). i added the message boards a
while back but after some conversation with ed sedarbaum, i decided that
it might not make sense to introduce until the list grew a little bit. a
good analogy is hosting a party - it will be a lot less fun if people
are spread all over the neighborhood than if people are in one location.
--
// www.joshuafield.com
// joshua at joshuafield.com
// +1 [413] 329-4789
// 121 Union Street, Studio 1E
// North Adams, MA 01247 USA
Kurt Kolok wrote:
> I agree that we need to avoid duplication. However we cannot do this
> if we're not discussing and listing the NEEDS that we all feel we
> have. Since that topic didn't seem to get any activity on this list
> I'd suggest we focus our next face-to-face meeting on creating a
> thorough list of ALL the needs of the individuals in the
> group/community. I would like to see us literally go around the room
> and ask each individual to provide their thoughts. Without that
> initial step we will never achieve the cohesion Ed referred to.
>
> Re: Artstart--I'd love to see that become the true resource it is
> meant to be. I understand resources were up in the air until recently
> and very glad to see that the grant came through for staffing. Joshua
> has done an amazing job with berkshirevisualarts.org and ideally I
> think it would be nice to see the two sites merge--assuming Joshua
> doesn't want to keep berkshirevisualarts as a separate entity for a
> different function. In addition to having all the right tools/info,
> the site needs to be visually appealing for people to want to use it
> on a regular basis. If the bulletin boards and forums are not
> associated with one site they will not be used efficiently.
>
>
>
> Edward Cating wrote:
>> I love to see unbridled energy, but I think that the abundance of
>> forums - and good intentions - serves to illustrate a few points.
>> First, the arts community in NA really WILL respond to communication
>> tools, particularly if they are perceived to come from the grass
>> roots. Second, there is a pool of talent willing to help implement
>> the technological infrastructure required to make this work. Third,
>> and most tellingly, we do not yet have the cohesiveness as a
>> community to be fully aware of the resources already available.
>>
>> In my opinion, ArtStart, with its fully-functional web site, artists
>> listings by category, great visuals, and a connection to G51 and The
>> Berkshire Cultural Resource Center, should be the center from which
>> any new forums or group discussion boards branch off. Maybe this is
>> as simple as adding links to the various other forums on the ArtStart
>> Links page. Maybe we need to rethink the need for multiple forums.
>> But in any event, it seems a shame that ArtStart has not received
>> more interest and use. It appears as though the community wants
>> exactly the kind of portal that ArtStart is designed to be, but is
>> somehow not aware of it. Particularly when one considers Jonathan's
>> statement, "And then there is ArtStart which we were about to invest
>> time and energy into doing a lot of what you both have
>> done....hmmm...", there appear to be resources that have already been
>> allocated to getting a lot of what we all want done. We should not
>> waste such gifts.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 3/12/07, *Jonathan Secor* <Jonathan.Secor at mcla.edu
>> <mailto:Jonathan.Secor at mcla.edu>> wrote:
>>
>> Jason/Josh--
>>
>> And then there is ArtStart which we were about to invest time and
>> energy
>> into doing a lot of what you both have done....hmmm...
>>
>> Maybe we could all talk for five minutes. I was about to put
>> together a
>> committee to work with Sean Riley and making ArtStart more useful
>> to the
>> entire arts community, but definitely don't want to repeat great
>> work that
>> is being done already.
>>
>> jds
>>
>> Jonathan D. Secor
>> Director of Special Programs at MCLA
>> MCLA's Gallery 51
>> 51 Main Street, North Adams, MA 01247
>> 413-664-8718
>> jonathan.secor at mcla.edu <mailto:jonathan.secor at mcla.edu>
>> www.mcla.edu <http://www.mcla.edu>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Edward Cating
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>
>
> --
> Kurt Kolok
> Owner/Director
> Kolok Gallery
> 121 Union Street, 1e
> North Adams, MA 01247
> +1 413 664 7381
> kurt at kolokgallery.com
> www.kolokgallery.com
>
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