Geared towards not-for-profit leaders, volunteers and especially development staff, these events are designed to be mid-day lunch breaks to fit into your already busy calendar.

To see their proposed list, check out this PDF.

If you are responsible for fundraising in your organization, or actively a part of the process, you should look into joining the AFP.  There are few resources as valuable then sharing ideas among your peers.

We’ve mentioned this fantastic group before, for their fall meeting.  This Monday they are holding their January event in the city, with a great lineup of speakers discussing summer programs, the cultural data project and a number of other topics to get yourself ready for 2010.

Co-Hosted by the New York State Presenters Network

and the Presenting Program of the New York State Council on the Arts

Monday, January 11th, 6 PM — 7:30 PM

New York City Center – Studio 5

130 W. 56 Street, between 6^th & 7^th Avenues

Stage Door Entrance

On the Schedule….

New York State Presenters Network Updates on Regional Tour, Summer Meeting, NY Touring Roster

Meet and Greet with fellow presenters, members of service organizations and NYS-based touring artists

– Also, while you’re probably thinking going into midtown Manhattan right at rush hour may not be the best idea, the blocks around that area are only $14-15 for the evening, which is a great price.  While we love public transportation into the city, if a few people go together you can easily split the toll and parking and have it less then $10 a person.  And think how valuable it will be for your organization – registration for the event is free…

Our new address:

Arts in Orange
15 Main St
Pine Bush, NY  12566

Mailing address:

P.O. Box 1145
Pine Bush, NY 12566

Stop by and say hello if you are in the area -

We had many strong applications this year! Thank you for your patience as we wait the final decsions – and best of luck to all applicants.

NYSCA loses $384,000 from the remaining local assistance funds in the CURRENT budget.

The State Legislature passed a $2.8 billion mid year deficit reduction plan on Wednesday.

The Governor, however, says the gap is more than $3.2 billion, indicating that the Legislature fell far short of addressing the full deficit, while the Comptroller DiNapoli estimates the gap at $4 billion. And conventional wisdom says that in a few months the gap will be even bigger…perhaps $6 to $9 billion.

In addition, the Governor is threatening to delay payments to schools, hospitals and municipalities to ensure that the State does not run out of money. Remember this is all about the CURRENT 2009-2010 budget. The Governor will be presenting his budget for 2010-11 in about a month. So prepare for a very, very tough 2010-11 budget fight for the State Arts Council!

Please see their web site for more information about what’s happening with the state and the arts, and join them on their Arts Day in Albany, 2 February.

“650 participating theatre companies offered more than 65,000 tickets to 1,700 performances”

Why?  To energize future audiences.  TCG believes if you want to grow theater in your area, you need to show people why theater is worth going to.  And the only way to do that is to give them a test drive.  And their results?

• 77% of those attending Free Night have gone to a theatre since the program, including 33% of those who only attend the theatre infrequently (two or fewer times or less). Further, 34% say they go to the theater more now than before the program and 86% of them attribute additional attendance to the Free Night program
• According to the online survey of the 2008 Free Night patrons, required when they made their ticket reservation, the program continues to attract a significant number of people who fall into non-traditional theatre participant categories, including infrequent theatregoers, young people, less educated, non-white and those with lower household incomes.
• Of those trying a new theatre during Free Night 2008, 33% returned to that theatre and purchased tickets, including 2% who purchased a subscription, showing the benefit of the program to the participating theatres

” In past years, over 3/4 of the people who participate have never been to the host theater before. And almost half of them come back and pay full price. Teresa Eyring says a substantial number are young, ethnically diverse, and don’t have a lot of disposable income. ‘What we’ve been able to determine is we’re reaching a new audience that does not meet the traditional profile of theatre-goer.’ “  – from “Free Theater Night Brings New Audiences“, a report by Jeff Lunden on NPR Weekend Edition Saturday

Convincing enough?

If you run a theater, large or small, we emplore you to join this event.  We know the actual date is months away (in October most likely, the actual date hasn’t been mentioned at the time of writing this) but if you want to be a part of this, you need to act now.  This isn’t ad hoc.  If you want to be an official part of the program and the marketing muscle it is creating, you must contact Robert Zuckerman of NYSCA who is acting as the statewide representative.

If you would like to discuss other ways to increase your audience and grow a diverse theater culture in Orange County, contact us as well.  We’d love to talk with you.

From their announcement:

In Fiscal Year 2011 (calendar year 2010), we will implement a series of changes to NYSCA’s annual application calendar in an effort to further improve our grantmaking process and better serve New York’s cultural community. As a result, a number of important deadlines, including the close of registration, will now shift to earlier points in the calendar year. Given these changes, it is tremendously important that you take careful note of NYSCA’s FY11 calendar, provided below. Please pay particular attention to NYSCA’s registration deadline (January 22, 2010) and first application deadline (February 17, 2010).

NYSCA CALENDAR – FISCAL YEAR 2011

• December 15, 2009 – FY11 Application Guidelines Available
• January 4, 2010 – Registration Opens
• January 22, 2010 – Registration Closes
• February 17, 2010 1st – Application Deadline
• February 17, 2010 – CDP Data Profile Completion Deadline (optional)
• April 12, 2010 – 2nd Application Deadline

I think we might hear this every few years, because of course adults by nature are out of touch with youth culture.  But this is quite different; this report is from a study on how our next generation interacts and learns within a digital information context.

I can spoil the results a bit – it concludes that all of the hanging out web sites – social networking, etc are essential to more structured and important tasks of direct learning online.

I believe this report is an essential read to anyone working in an arts organization that is struggling to find an online presence or to understand how they can take their art to a more digital medium.  Unlike many opinions and reports on such things, this one is direct and somber in its results.  Too many times, you hear or see a report and it’s nothing more then a thin veil to pseudo-science.  This is a good hard look at how our culture is changing.

By no means is this a step-by-step guide or easy answer.  It’s just the base, the floor to work up from.  I believe if you want to create an experience that your patrons can become a part of, you need to start understanding how more non-structured actions change when things are placed online.

In online book form: Book – Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out: Living and Learning with New Media

So many people who work in the arts go with their feelings, and of course that’s the best way to make many of our decisions.  But the type of ideas, networking, and concrete discussions about how your organization works and can operate is invaluable.  These are not large conferences with 200 people in a room and a bunch of hotel room chairs strewn about; these are small, interconnected groups where you have direct access to the leaders and the people next to you.

It might be obvious, but we like training seminars.

http://cfnps.org/New_York_Leadership_Series_03.aspx

This is happening on NYU’s campus in the city.

Arts in Orange runs a number of seminars in the area that deal with leading organizations.  We also keep an ongoing list of other similar events in the region for art administrators and artists alike.  I you are looking for anything to help your group succeed, don’t even hesitate to contact us.  That’s the reason why we are here.  For you.

First the application itself  -

Artnear is an iPhone application that lets your browse galleries around the world.  At the moment they are saying they have over 2,600 galleries in their system and works from 12,000 artists available to browse.  The information is added by the galleries hosting shows, so there is a very clear user mandate to help keep the information current (ie, it’s using crowd sourcing, rather then a centralized and edited list to keep itself relevant).

For galleries:  Head over to this link to apply as a gallery.  From everything we are told, it’s free to do so.  From there you can upload profiles of the artists you manage, put shows in the calendar and potentially reach a global audience of art lovers and buyers.

For the art lover (and who isn’t?):  There are two versions – the free application that is ad-supported and the paid ‘pro‘ version, which costs $4.99 from the iTunes store.  The pro version gives a few more controls, like being able to see upcoming shows (I believe it’s three weeks forward) and also to bookmark the things you like. You can bookmark an artist you like and follow when they are showing and where and if the gallery is good at keeping information updated, you can see some of the work as well.

In both cases, you can browse a world of galleries and artists that are involved in current shows.  You can keep up with art in New York, Paris, Beijing and everywhere in between (we’re hoping this post encourages Hudson Valley artists to get involved so we can keep updated with them).  Even without having ‘everything’ in it, it still opens an entire world of art to you that you have no other way of seeing.

You can also find out about art near you, hence the name.  If you are spending the day in Chelsea, you can load up the application and find out which galleries are showing work, get a preview of that work, and get directions to the show.  And if you are the traveling sort, what better way to see local work in Philadelphia, LA, London, Ottawa, Denver… you get the point!… what a better way to connect to local art while you’re on the road.  You’ll never find that information at a rest stop.

But also, you really do not need to go anywhere.  You can browse a library of art right on your phone, be inspired by the work of others, uncover some new talent and who knows, maybe connect with the artist themself.  The art world needs more ways like this of connecting together – don’t you think?

Forbes online rated it ‘best iPhone application for finding artistic inspiration.  We agree.