In April, 2013, I participated in a One Day Artist Residency. A progressive and new program by Adam Reed Rozan, Director of Audience Engagement at Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts.
Worcester Art Museum is a beautiful place with an impressive collection of diverse works from several regions, periods and cultural groups. I learned about this museum & lovely collection by its well designed website and digitized online gallery. I have never been to Worcester, MA but I have literally spent the day there using a mobile phone and tablet.
New mobile technology is how I conducted the entire Artist Residency - by using digital media, the museums's online resources, social media and new innovations in audience engagement.
I used the new iPad program I designed - #DrawArt - to draw in real-live-time the online collection at Worcester Art Museum. Then I would Instagram the image (which cross posts to Twitter, Facebook & Tumblr). Each image on Instagram is posted with a link back to the original work at the museum. Social media was a great tool in engaging audiences. Some people even tweeted suggestions for me to draw of their favorite works and shared my posts with others. The museum used social media too by positing on Flicker, as well as Twitter & Facebook.
The highlight of audience engagement was that I included a link each time I shared an image for others to Watch it Live on a #DrawArt Digital Sketchbook that I created just for the One Day Residency which indefinitely extends the audience's experience with the ability to watch video playbacks of the drawings and the opportunity to learn more about each work, see the original art and link back to the museum online.
Other artists have contributed to the program in great ways. Artists are encouraged to learn more about the program and are welcome to participate by contacting the museum. I loved doing my One Day Artist Residency at Worcester Art Museum and hope that I may do this for many museums in the future! Its an engaging experience for both the artist, museum and audiences within social media.
