Museum of Pop Culture (MOPOP)’s Post

#MoPOP CEO, Michele Smith, was featured as a guest writer for CONSEQUENCE, highlighting the troubling removal of digital media archives by MTV News. It’s a stark reminder of how easily our digital history can be lost: https://lnkd.in/gjw-BS68 At the #MuseumofPopCulture (MoPOP), we are acutely aware of the importance of preserving digital history. With over 1000 oral histories in our collection, we have embarked on a significant project to digitize these invaluable records. We want people all over the country to access these records; whether its for research or entertainment, it deserves to be preserved. The success of this project relies heavily on additional funding. Failing to safeguard our collection not only denies future generations of valuable knowledge but also has significant ramifications for society. We must prioritize preserving digital history and making it accessible to everyone. #DigitalPreservation #CulturalHeritage #Fundraising #OralHistories #SupportTheArts

The lagging return of audiences has contributed to the challenging financial climate for arts organizations. The Wallace Foundation funded research to uncover effective strategies for building audiences. Here are nine effective practices along with concrete examples of what worked. #audiencedevelopment #artsandculture https://lnkd.in/dsNpRf4F

The projects selected for this cycle include: Digitization of field recordings from the Austral Islands (1950-1982); Preservation of films documenting Chicago’s political landscape; Audio archives of the longest-running Asian American theater group in the U.S.

For the archive and museum sectors alike, there is a danger of our offers being taken up by schools already at a comparative advantage. This is from the new Fabian document on Arts for All: "(S)chool trips – and therefore the opportunity to experience the wonder of museums – are in decline as schools struggle with budget cuts. A survey by the National Foundation for Educational Research on behalf of the Sutton Trust found that 50 per cent of senior leaders reported cutting school trips in 2023 due to financial pressures, a rise of 21 per cent compared to 2022. This is an issue of equity, accessibility and opportunity, with 68 per cent of senior leaders in the most disadvantaged schools having to make cuts to trips, versus 44 per cent in the wealthiest." Their proposals include loan boxes ("easily accessible material from their exhibits and archives, such as high resolution images"). https://lnkd.in/eYGD9Su9

🖥️ Internet Archive has launched an MTV news repository of nearly 480,000 articles! 🖥️ When mtvnews.com was disabled hundreds and thousands of articles about music and pop culture were removed from the internet. So, the the not-for-profit Internet Archive assembled a searchable index of 479,020 of MTV News web pages to keep this piece of cultural history alive. The new collection ensures that much of MTV News’ articles remain accessible in some form, including MTV News’ well-known “Mixtape Mondays” 🎧 When asked about their work, Internet Archive said: 'Without such artifacts, civilization has no memory and no mechanism to learn from its successes and failures. Our culture now produces more and more artifacts in digital form. The Archive’s mission is to help preserve those artifacts and create an Internet library for researchers, historians and scholars.' - and we couldn't agree more!  Read the whole news story here - https://lnkd.in/dyWsMwH2   #Archives #MusicArchives #Preservation

Love a morning when the first post is something incredibly relevant! Find the full study referenced in the article here: https://lnkd.in/gVJ9CpAH ________ Stand out quote: "Many companies are now experimenting with new models, for both political and practical reasons. There is a new interest in horizontal/collective leadership models, and more skepticism about traditional organizational and compensation structures. " We're seeing changes to structures that haven't been touched in decades out of necessity. Many performing arts groups are trying to get back to pre-pandemic audience levels by doing what worked before. But the audiences spend differently now and there’s little research as to what for sure works. New ideas need to be tried. But the only way you can do that successfully is to have a company efficient and flexible enough to handle multiple inter-departmental changes. With Pivote, you’ll end up with a company workflow so optimized and clear that you can adjust it with ease - no matter what external changes occur. 

Funding for the arts is essential for all

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Being free is not the same as being welcoming. Some free and low-admission organizations treat their admission strategy as the near-entirety of their audience expansion efforts. However, free admission organizations do not have notably different audiences than paid-admission organizations. Just because something is free doesn’t mean people who don’t have interest (perhaps because they feel unwelcome) will do it. We see time and time again that free admission is not a foolproof audience expansion strategy with reliably positive impacts on welcoming perceptions. Being perceived as welcoming requires strategy, effort, thoughtful programing, prioritization and – often – investment. It’s not as simple as putting a ‘free’ sign on the door.” From “Cost and Value: Are Museum & Performing Arts Tickets Worth It?” by Colleen Dilenschneider [subscription required to read] https://lnkd.in/eS5EF7p5 #SweibelArts #Ticketing #AudienceStrategy

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Being free is not the same as being welcoming. Some free and low-admission organizations treat their admission strategy as the near-entirety of their audience expansion efforts. However, free admission organizations do not have notably different audiences than paid-admission organizations. Just because something is free doesn’t mean people who don’t have interest (perhaps because they feel unwelcome) will do it. We see time and time again that free admission is not a foolproof audience expansion strategy with reliably positive impacts on welcoming perceptions. Being perceived as welcoming requires strategy, effort, thoughtful programing, prioritization and – often – investment. It’s not as simple as putting a ‘free’ sign on the door.” From “Cost and Value: Are Museum & Performing Arts Tickets Worth It?” by Colleen Dilenschneider [subscription required to read] https://lnkd.in/eS5EF7p5 #SweibelArts #Ticketing #AudienceStrategy

How interesting. I'm planning on spending some time over summer refreshing the content of our MA module, Curation and Conservation in the Digital Age, and these collections will be fascinating to look at.