Arts in your neighborhood movie theater

I’m most intrigued by this idea of using movie theaters for something other than movies. If you’re a fan of public radio’s This American Life, then you already know that the show is gearing up for a nationwide cinema event on May 1. The event will be a live broadcast of the TAL television show (which I have not seen) and a live Q&A with creator Ira Glass. You can catch the trailer here. This reminded me of the Metropolitan Opera’s cinema broadcast experiment, which happened to be mentioned on NPR this morning. When the Met first announced in 2006 that it would be broadcasting live, high-definition simulcasts of its Saturday matinees in movie theaters around the world, many observers wondered whether the experiment would succeed. Apparently, it has been a huge success — the 2006-2007 broadcasts reached an estimated audience of more than 325,000 viewers, and the Met upped the broadcasts from six to eight for the 2008-2009 season. Milan’s La Scala, England’s Glyndebourne Opera and the San Francisco Opera are following suit. Have the Met’s broadcasts affected attendance at the opera house? Yes – in a positive way. This Playbill story has more details. Now let’s see what else we can bring to the neighborhood movie house!

Meet the artist — it gives me a thrill

I admit it. I am a sucker for meeting certain kinds of artists, especially ones whose work seems miraculous to me. I am not alone in this regard, obviously, and it’s always a smart move for arts organizations to connect patrons and donors with their ensemble and guest artists. Most recently, I had a brief – very brief — encounter with the contemporary classical music composer Robert Chumbley at yesterday’s Chicago Chamber Musicians‘ “Freshly Scored” concert in downtown Chicago. The “Freshly Scored” concerts focus on works composed in the last 20 years and each concert includes an Actual Living Composer – ! This time, the ensemble performed a world premiere of Chumbley’s Three More Self-Studies, followed by a reception with the composer himself. Yes, I shook his hand and told him how much I enjoyed hearing the piece under his baton. Contemporary classical composers are an under-appreciated and very elite group, and I am grateful for what they do, even if I don’t necessarily love everything I hear. I don’t love everything Mozart wrote, either!

Debashish Bhattacharya + WNUR + Old Town School = Great!

I am not an expert in Indian classical music, but the recent performance of Debashish Bhattacharya at Chicago’s Old Town School was most memorable – in a good way. If you’re not familiar with his work — I certainly was not — Bhattacharya is an incredible innovator in the realm of Indian classical music and the art of the raga, and has created his own “Trinity of Slide Guitars” to produce his amazing sounds. From a marketing standpoint, what I found interesting is that the media sponsor for the event was the Lotus Beats international music show on WNUR, the Northwestern University student-run radio station. Student radio is not always top of the list for arts marketers, even though some stations — including WNUR — have a significant following beyond the student body. Should arts orgs be seeking more partnerships with this overlooked media category?

Let’s ask! Part 2

This isn’t really a part 2, but I was thinking about surveys and survey questions. I recently heard an anecdote about a Chicago arts organization conducting an internal branding survey that asked, among other things, “If you were a car, what brand and color would it be?” Interestingly, every person identified with a green VW Beetle. What are the implications of this? Who knows? I don’t know about you, but I would resent being asked to identify myself with a car–a consumer product that is typically market-researched to death and designed to meet a specific customer need. I’m not made that way! More important, this kind of question has no place in arts marketing and branding. Arts organizations usually exist because someone–an artist or a visionary presenter–wants to create a particular kind of arts experience. Defining and communicating the benefits of that experience is what branding is all about. In short, don’t compare yourself or your arts organization to an irrelevant object. What’s the point?