Greetings! Amongst the excitement of launching with our new schools and programs, one of our big initiatives this year is with the Arts Schools Network, the South Carolina-based network for k-12 and higher ed Arts programs.

Our latest development with ASN is the On Your Way Student Talent Recognition, a program where students from ASN-member high schools (map) can apply for a full-ride trip to Walt Disney World, and perform at the 2012 ASN Conference Orlando, FL.

On Your Way is recognizing students in:

• Classical Voice
• Filmmaking
• Musical Theater / Acting
• Visual Arts (All Mediums)

Formally, I’d like to introduce the newest member of our team, Katherine Bergman – Composer, Saxophonist, and Intern-turned-Sales-Lead. 

Katherine’s been with ArtsApp for about two months, making her way to us after working for Performance Today (American Public Media), and teaching privately in the world of music.

Here’s a quick bio, I’m sure you’ll be hearing from her soon!

Katherine Bergman’s background includes work in arts administration, music education, music performance, and composition. She holds degrees from Gustavus Adolphus College and the University of Northern Iowa, where she studied Saxophone Performance and Composition. Her primary composition instructors have been Jonathan Schwabe and Michele Gillman.

She has studied saxophone with a variety of teachers, including Chris Merz, Scott Kallestad, John Engebretson, and Tom Barry.

by Dejen 

We’re happy to announce our first International partner, the Instituto Sacatar,  based in Itaparica – BA, Brazil. Receiving applications from all over the world (they even offer a UNESCO program), we worked alongside Sacatar’s leadership to create an application and instructions in English and Portuguese.

The run down on Sacatar (from their website):

Hello Hello! We’ve got another quick announcement about a national partnership in which we’re involved! The National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts has decided to partner with us for a beta application process with the New World School of the Arts in Miami, FL.

This is a partnership that we’ve been working on for quite some time, and is a huge benefit for our high school applicants, many of whom apply for the Presidential Scholars program during their senior year of high school. (Last year we saw several of applicants using their YoungArts video for University prescreenings). Over 6,000 applicants are submitted you YoungArts annually, with 20 YoungArts Finalists eventually being recognized as US Presidential Scholars in the Arts.

We’re also doing some custom work to tie in ArtsApp-collected application forms with YoungArts information collected in previous years.

For YoungArts 2012 (application  deadline Oct 29, 2011), we are working exclusively with YoungArts applicants from New World School of the Arts in the disciplines of Photography, Visual Arts, Spoken Theater and Musical Theater. If you fit into this group, you can apply at www.artsapp.com/youngarts. If you attend another high school, orwant to find general information about the application process, click this link to go to the YoungArts website.

This is a big opportunity for all High School seniors (class of ’12) ready to take on the creative world.

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In the midst of wrapping up our college application process (with over 8,000 applications processed from Sep 1, 2010 – March 15, 2011) we’ve got an exciting initiative started with the Arts Schools Network. We’re powering their 2012 Student Recognition competition, ‘On Your Way,’ soft launching today at www.artsapp.com/artsschools

The Arts Schools Network (ASN) is a coalition of 100+ Visual and Performing Arts Schools and Organizations to provide best practice models of arts education through their member schools. You can check out their website here, and read their mission statement:

To provide the leadership and resources necessary to inspire and maintain excellence in arts education by supporting, serving, and creating network opportunities for leaders of specialized arts schools and complimentary arts and education organizations across the country.

We’ve been engaging with ASN since Summer 2010 (Dejen even went to their conference earlier this year), and are glad to be moving in this positive direction with a great group of people. For requirements, ASN is opening the initial competition to students in grades 9 – 12 (class of ’12 – ’15) at ASN-member schools, in disciplines of Musical Theater/Acting, Classical Voice and Film Making. The winner in each discipline will perform and be recognized at the Jan 2012 conference in Orlando, FL. Applicants will be reviewed by panelists at ASN-member Universities.

You can read the official announcement from ASN here and the deadline to apply is October 31, 2011 (so there’s plenty of time). We’re glad to be a part of this initiative, this is a good first step to bringing ASN schools and students together. Check out their website, the ASN is doing some great things.

Lately we’ve been keeping up with Entertainment Business Education’s ASN LIVE series (Arts Schools Network Live), a weekly internet broadcast of interviews with Arts Industry professionals.

Run by Haqq Islam, the series is just over two years old and is broadcast to Arts School Network Member schools throughout the country.

We caught up with Haqq at the NAMM Show in January, and asked him a few questions about the future of EBE:

You can check out more ASN Live at http://www.ebetv.com/, or subscribe to the Arts Schools Network Email newsletter here (see the right side of the page). ASN sends out weekly reminders on the latest broadcasts.

It’s great for passion to be reignited.

Getting back to my Central Time body-clock, I need to talk about the awesomeness of the Arts Schools Network 2011 Conference in Anaheim, CA. You can see/download the program itinerary here. There were some great site visits, and visiting with students from LA County High School for the Arts and Orange County High School of the Arts and an inclusive pass to the 2011 NAMM show (National Association of Music Merchants).

Walking through the halls of these high schools, the group (~100 of the Conference Goers, split on two tour buses) were led by students and staff to observe visual and performing arts classes, student performances and work on each campus. Just speaking with the young, creative minds shows opened my mind to the way that students are connecting with each other and staying inspired.

At this conference, I was able to present on a student recognition effort for all ASN member schools. We’ll announce more when the time is right.

But Below you’ll find some pictures from the ASN conference, the NAMM show (I met lots of cool people) and a quick video interview with Kristy Callaway, Executive Director of the Arts Schools Network.

We’re looking forward to next year’s conference in Orlando! The sessions alone are worth it, along with the opportunity to connect with K-12 and College Art School Leadership.

You can see more directly on the Arts Schools Network website by clicking this link.

Update, We’ve added a video interview with Kristy Callaway from the NAMM show / ASN Conference.

Official Bizspark logo

Hello All!

We’ve been busy! And getting some great feedback from our partners thus far into this application season.

The latest bit of exciting news (from our own internal developments) is acceptance into the Microsoft BizSpark program. Through this program, startups get access to Microsoft products and software, support from mentors and exposure to new partners in peripheral markets.

So, we have more toys to play with and new features and such coming soon. Bizspark is a three-year program, and the awesome thing is the only cost once you’re in the program is $100, payable after you leave the program.

For more information about Bizspark, click this link to go to their website.

Here’s some quoting Directly from the BizSpark website:

• Software. Get immediate access to current full-featured Microsoft development tools, platform technologies, and production licenses of server products (including Windows Azure Platform) for use in developing and bringing to market innovative and interoperable solutions.

Windows Azure Platform Benefits for BizSpark Members Develop and deploy applications to the Windows Azure platform, an internet-scale cloud computing and services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers. Learn more about the benefits here.

• Support.
  • Receive business development and technical training at highly subsidized costs or in many cases, no costs.
  • Receive two technical support incidents per startup. Each incident is managed by Microsoft until they are resolved, no matter how many calls it takes.
  • Receive access to MSDN Ultimate managed newsgroups, online library, and so on.
  • Get connected to BizSpark Network Partners around the world—incubators, investors, advisors, government agencies, and hosters—that are equally involved and vested in software-fueled innovation and entrepreneurship, and who will provide a wide range of support resources, including expert mentoring.
• Visibility. Get marketing visibility in front of an audience of potential investors, customers, partners and journalists and tap into a rich, vibrant ecosystem of peers, partners, and support resources around the globe.

Microsoft BizSpark is available in over 100 countries around the world.

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.

As Summer gets underway (and we ramp up for our next semester of creative-hungry Artists), I thought I’d let you in on a few of our plans:

1. More Feedback – The most crucial aspect of building a successful business is customer feedback. After our first year beta with Juilliard, CCM and Ragdale, we’ve been able to pinpoint (and change) the bottlenecks within ArtsApp.

2. Conferences – Phones and emails (facebooks, tweets, yadda yah) are great ways to keep in touch, but in-person conversations and interaction are great! At the end of May, we’ll be attending the Classical Singer Conference in New York, and pitching to a few schools in person.

3. Professional Programs – Outside of Academic Institutions, ArtsApp is partnering with some Nationally recognized programs and arts advocacy groups that will push the ArtsApp platform into new areas and services.

We’ll let you know more as it happens. For up to date info, you should follow us on Twitter!