Competing interests

I am not into the Twilight series- have your pick of reasons why- but so many people are!

‘New Moon’ Takes In $72.7 Million on Opening Day

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

“The Twilight Saga: New Moon” took in $72.7 million in its first day to break the single day domestic box office record previously held by “The Dark Knight,” which had a $67.2 million opening day last year, the Associated Press reports.

How do we court this audience, the tween audience away from mediocre literature, fantasy narratives and arcane gender roles?

I understand the value of good entertainment, I have spent many an afternoon watching dumb movies or trash television but how do we engage these audiences with existing art, that has many of the great qualities of the entertainment genre but actually supports artists, local organizations and promotes personal/ intellectual growth? Can we capture the tween audience without pushing the same product?

Arts organizations are suffering in this economy- why is it that boxoffice records are being broken? Is it just mass appeal, platinum marketing accounts, or is it deeper?

Annual Museum Section of the NYTimes

My favorite annual edition in the NYTimes is the Museum's section... Go figure?! The articles this year are especially poignant in lean times- when many museums really have the opportunity to engage with their audiences, create open-community spaces and think outside the box in terms of programming.

Speaking of lean times, apologies on lean posts. Been busy, and though this is no excuse for a blogger that espouses about quality and regular content... please accept this apology- and the entire museum section of the NYTimes as my excuse until this weekend.

Yours,

Tara

Google innovates classical music, mashup to come

Google had a brilliant idea, create an online symphony tryout to engage professional and amateur musicians and create a truly international symphony. This may benefit Carnegie quite a bit, who will be hosting all of the chosen performers (chosen by audiences on YouTube) but the opportunities for symphonies all over the world abound- because suddenly they have an opportunity to connect, jump on the bandwagon and get online!



Perhaps my favorite aspect of this project is it came from the outside- from outside the organization, from outside the nonprofit/arts sector and from fans who could do something. And this is for people who are not season ticket holders, not professionally trained, it blows the stuffiness of classic arts performance out of the water. I cannot wait to see the mashup and what is to come, perhaps the Opera is next?