Hello Team! After opening up membership for free until September 2011 (April’s announcement) we’ve exchanged some great feedback with our new partners, brainstorming some great ideas and feature releases to enhance the ePortfolio process for artists, students, schools and organizations.

We guarantee that you’ll like what you see, and thanks to additional support of our advisory board and Investors (not to mention our hard-core development team led by Matt and Terry) we’re able to offer our services for organizations and schools for free until September 2011.

Here’s a snapshot of our new partners, what we’ve been building, and our growth:

1. Boston Area Brigade: Boston Conservatory, Boston University School of Music, Longy School of Music, New England Conservatory, Walnut Hill School for the Arts (Our first High School!!)
2. Midwest Express: Ragdale Foundation, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
3. In New York: Mannes College – The New School for Music, Manhattan School of Music, Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival
4. Curtis Institute of Music
5. University of Miami – Frost School of Music
6. The College of Music at the University of Colorado at Boulder
7. Cali Connection: USC Thornton School of Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music
8. Summer Programs: Eastern Music Festival, Texas Music Festival, Bang on a Can (NY)

What we’ve built – More details (and videos) on these soon, but we’ve implemented the following based on feedback from our partners (and personal afflictions for greatness):

• Increased upload sizes – Where our previous limits were 900MB, we’re more than quadrupling that to 4GB!
• Formbuilder (Video to come) – Collect detailed, custom information from applicants (previous instructors, years of study, ‘Is this your first time applying?’). Our Formbuilder is highlighted in the applications to The Boston University School of Music and the Texas Music Festival.
• API / Webservice to export custom and detailed information into local databases (including Filemaker / Filemaker Pro, Drupal, and many more!!)
• Our New Hire – Gerald Gizzit, super support!
• UI Enhancements – Still in Super Stealth, but will be making an appearance soon.

If you want to chat, ask about sales or just high five us, email info at artsapp dot com.

Monday, Feb 22, the New York Times ran a tech-forward article about Tufts University Admissions, now accepting YouTube videos as a “delightful way to get to know the applicants.”

High School Seniors made videos as an essay supplement to the application for general undergraduate admission. There is tremendous value in allowing applicants to present themselves visually, and take full use of technologies that many in this college-bound generation grew up with.

A few quotes directly from the article (available at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/education/23tufts.html):

“We’ve got some who are really good with the technology, there’s a real technical savvy out there in this generation, and this lets them show off their splicing, their stop action, their animation,” said Lee Coffin, the dean of undergraduate admissions.

Even without prompting, admissions officials say, a growing number of students submit videos. Maria Laskaris, the dean of admissions at Dartmouth, noticed the trend last year, and said this year had brought even more videos, mostly showcasing music, theater or dance talents.

At heart, this is all about a conversation between a kid and an admissions officer

This also reminds me a little of  Google’s 2008 Project, YouTube Symphony, where musicians uploaded auditions for a free trip to Carnegie Hall, to play a commission from Tan Dun, under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas. A few words from Tan Dun can be found here (http://bit.ly/19EyUM).

The benefits with using a platform like ArtsApp for rich media is in the administrative backend reporting, privacy, control and integration with the existing application process. We hope to reach out to you as social web technologies continue to show value as educational tools.

Discussing the experience on the National Mall, Lapp was generally impressed by the variety of designs. Organization is an important aspect of a successful and competitive house (especially in areas like leadership, public relations, communication, and transportation); Lapp thought that each team handled their logistical issues skillfully, and competed with both rigor and courtesy.

By getting so many students from so many different parts of the globe involved, the competition succeeds in raising awareness about current problems in design efficiency. In the 2009 competition, the crucial event was “Net Metering,” in which the house is fitted with a meter to calculate its energy output. These numbers were tabulated on the last day of the competition, and decided the overall winner. Lapp suggests that while energy output is important to each solar house, the competition is weighted too heavily in this particular event. In his opinion, in coming years, the Department of Energy could think about redistributing the points in the ten different competitions to give more importance to issues like architecture and engineering. Currently, the Architecture and Engineering events (along with five others) are scored out of 100 points, while the Net Metering competition is scored out of 150 possible points. The remaining two events are scored out of 75 points. This means that Net Metering accounts for 15% of a team’s total score, which Lapp feels is too much.

Rice University's ZEROW HOUSE

One issue that Lapp feels was not addressed properly was that of cost efficiency. He said that Rice University, for example, created a functional and livable home called ZEROW HOUSE for about $100,000, but placed 8^th in the competition after attaining a low score in the Home Entertainment event. This particular event requires that the solar home provide power to a television and computer for a specified period of time. The affordability of the home was thus trumped by its poor score in an event that caters to the more frivolous items in the home. On the Solar decathlon website, the Rice University team describes their project: “Instead of building a house just for the competition, [we] designed a home they could give back to the community. The team has already negotiated an agreement with Project Row Houses, a local community development organization, to give the ZEROW HOUSE a permanent home in Houston’s Third Ward after the competition.” ZEROW HOUSE was the only competition entry to cost less than $250,000. By contrast, the winning house cost in the range of $650,000 – $850,000.

When discussing the judging, Lapp said that he would have liked more feedback on particular events, especially in Architecture. He also suggested that, while the single-family residence is a good place for students to innovate, the ideas about energy efficiency could be expanded to building types that are not privately-owned. Community centers, schools, libraries, museums, and other civic institutions would benefit greatly from the ideas that the Solar Decathlon competition generates. Lapp hopes that in the future, the competition will encourage the use of solar efficiency beyond the home.

Team California's competition entry (Stefano Paltera/US Dept. of Energy Solar Decathlon)

The Decathlon project began in 2002 with fourteen competing teams from the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and in the last few years has expanded to include teams from Spain, Germany, and Canada. Students are given two years to design and produce a solar-powered single-family residence, which must be built and tested locally and then disassembled, shipped to Washington, D.C., and reassembled for the competition. The houses include sleeping, dining, entertainment, leisure, and garden spaces. This year, the houses must provide dinner and a movie for a party of eight. Houses should adapt to day and night conditions, storing energy from the sun during the day and expending that energy for heating and cooling, hot water, and electricity during the day and night.

The competition highlights the need for young architects to discuss and discover new methods of energy efficiency; moreover, it shows that architectural aesthetics need not be sacrificed for the sake of efficiency. A number of designs this year move beyond the typical “box house” to create more varied and interesting plans. Collaboration is extremely important, and many of the teams consist of undergraduates and graduate students, representing architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, engineering, and business. In some cases, students from two schools in the same region have teamed up to compete.

The "rustic-chic" Cornell University entry (Photo: www.solardecathlon.org)

On October 16, there will be a clear winner, but the goal of the competition is to articulate ideas about how to create livable space that relies on resources that already exist. For example, students are encouraged to reclaim materials (such as wood and metal) from existing buildings and use them for interior and exterior finishes in their competition designs. The team from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign took wood from a Midwestern barn and used it as exterior siding for their house; Cornell University reclaimed wood from bourbon barrels to create living room furniture. The Decathlon supports student ideas and generates awareness about energy efficiency, which, as we move into the 21^st century, will become a more pressing need.

More internet browsing, more resource discovery. This weekend I was looking at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music website and found a great beginner’s resource to gigging and freelancing. Click Here to view the page yourself.

In a snapshot, Oberlin’s Gig Referral Service offers the following:

1. Procedures to join the Oberlin Referral Service (Oberlin students only)
2. A Musician’s Guide to freelancing
3. Faculty Referral Form
4. Sample Contract
5. Links for Clients to assess, hire, and evaluate Oberlin musicians.

I’m an advocate for schools and organizations providing these resources for students. Anybody who wants to freelance should have a look at these documents as a good starting point.

The area to caution is when an artist expects opportunities to just fall in his lap. Meeting and collaborating with other artists is as important as studying your craft. I would say that Networking with new people and artists is a CRUCIAL element of being a professional artist that is missing from Oberlin’s “Guide to Successful Gigs.” Without entrepreneurship, the arts cannot survive.

The links above are a good place to start, but as a beginner getting gigs and performing is a matter of letting people know what kind of art you create, not a matter of waiting for someone to book work for you.

That being said, Oberlin has a fantastic website. Lots of news, RSS Feeds, and a great snapshot of what this school has to offer. I especially like the designation of “Practice Rooms With Windows (150).

Twitter feeds and student stories also help prospective students get into the culture behind the institution. Oberlin is on point about hosting AND INFORMING PEOPLE of events on campus. Also, embedded videos on teacher bio pages give a visual representation of teaching methods and theories behind selected instructors.  Oberlin tuition isn’t cheap (~$50,000/year sticker price) but the school is surely making an effort to connect with young artists before they even step on campus.

Regardless, Oberlin’s ability to tell their story and integrate with social media on their website serves as another model for arts organizations to emulate.

by Dejen Tesfagiorgis

After a weekend of browsing websites and staying on top of our news, we came across the new website of the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen, Michigan.  But thanks to the internet, you do not have to go to Michigan to see their website, you can browse through your computer at home.

The thing that most impresses me about this website is Interlochen’s knowledge of its target market – young artists who have grown up with a high expectation of websites, technological integration, embedding, and feeling welcome through a website.  There was nothing wrong with their old website, but this new one totally blows me away.  Amongst other things, their new website features:

1. AddThis Content sharing links on each news article – Helps readers share Interlochen news with friends on social networks
2. Links to view the site in Spanish, German, French, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (Big Props on this!)
3. News tags to aid navigation between related topics on the site
4. Embedded videos that visually demonstrate news and the mission of the organization
5. A Camera that allows you to View the campus live -  Prospective students and parents can virtually tour the campus. This feature is a nice to have, but a great introduction to the environment

A few Suggestions

1. RSS Feeds – People who use RSS want your news immediately.  An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed would help get your news to the people, instead of the people coming to your website for news
2. Blog – Well at a big organization, who maintains the Blog?  Here we can see that “Megan” has done some contributing, but other than that nothing. People want to know everything about you.

The color scheme has a bit of a Twitter homepage vibe, but there is greater color contrast and visual organization on the new website.  Fantastic work, A.

Arts schools and orchestras, Take notes.

By Dejen Tesfagiorgis

I have to applaud the San Francisco Opera for its long running Opera in the Park series.  Although this is my first year hearing/reading about the broadcast, SF Opera has held this annual FREE concert in Golden Gate Park since 1972.

This is a perfect example of innovative and integrative marketing; effectively seeking new listeners and followers instead of relying on traditional methods of reaching an audience (postal mailings, word of mouth, reputation, website only).  Read the Full Article here

After reading this news on several arts websites and seeing the full article in the SF Chronicle, I decided to take a look at the SF Opera’s additional online marketing efforts. The results were as great as I would expect.  This opera house near Silicon Valley Opera has recognized and capitalized on the tech trends.

Have a look at the additional leverage of social media used to grow their fan base (and maybe even add them as your friend!!).  You have to give a little to get a little, and the SF Opera is definitely putting forth its best efforts to reach new listeners:

SF Opera on Facebook

SF Opera on MySpace

SF Opera on YouTube

SF Opera on Vimeo (Behind the scenes)

SF Opera Podcasts

However, I would suggest that the SF Opera Webmaster push you Bravo! Club more, maintain an opera Blog, and make the links to social networks more obvious from the SF Opera homepage. I was navigating the site for 5 minutes trying to find links to these social networks in ONE CONVENIENT LOCATION before deciding to search each site individually.  Also, social network links on your Contact Us page would be awesome.

All arts sites should have a look at AMERICANS FOR THE ARTS http://blog.artsusa.org/, on the right hand they display their convenient array of social networks.

Fans don’t have time to read and open mail, we demand information conveniently and immediately.  Artists are the best listeners, so listen to your fans and connect with them as they connect with each other.  How is your website?

Here’s a small video clip from YouTube of the ~27,000 some listeners in attendance June 5