Community: bloggers@brooklynmuseum

When Shelley and I went to visit Cass Bird at her Brooklyn studio last week, we weren’t sure what to expect.  We had known her work via Global Feminisms and our Feminist Art Base and there are some artists that our curators think would be great for the Twitter Art Feed—Cass was one of them. Cass is a photographer, but what we ended up discussing was how photographs and other images (books, advertisements, diagrams, etc), when juxtaposed, can create something really interesting and appealing.

Cass Bird (American, born 1974). I Look Just Like My Daddy, 2004. Chromogenic print, 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Prints and Photographs Council and the Robert A. Levinson Fund, 2005.40.1.

So this month, Cass will be posting to the feed a variety of things including her own photographs, photographs from other photographers she likes, and various other visual and pop culture images. Though she won’t be “curating” the feed, the end result will be a strong collection of pictures that reflect her personality, her artistic process, and her own work. Like Joseph Kosuth’s month on the feed, we really have no idea what to expect from her. One of the reasons we started the Twitter Art feed was so we could give artists an opportunity to experiment with a few vehicle for their work and, in doing so, give 1stfans access to an artist in a new way. I promise that access to Cass for a month will not be dull!

Just a heads-up: Cass’ own work often contains nudity, and 1stfans should expect that to be the case for other work she posts as well.

In an ongoing effort to be as transparent as possible, I want to take a minute to explain the Membership promotion we’re doing for today only with Groupon: a one-year Family and Friends membership (normally $85) for $35. Groupon (the word combines “group” and “coupon”) is a website that offers discounts on products and services in various cities by promising businesses a minimum number of customers. By harnessing collective buying power, Groupon is able to match up customers to businesses so both sides get something out of it.

Though many Museums discount membership (whether because of the economy, or to entice people to join through the mail or in-person), I have heretofore been completely against the idea of discounting the price of membership here at the Brooklyn Museum. The biggest reason discounting doesn’t appeal to me is because we work hard to make our membership levels affordable and are constantly reviewing the value of benefits at various levels. Additionally, I think when you offer membership for a lower price you essentially admit that you think the membership is worth less than what you were charging before. Lastly, I think it undermines the Museum’s current base of generous supporters when they pay the full amount and you let others-first time members, for example-pay less.

That being said, I came to see the partnership with Groupon as a good thing both for the Museum and for members because of its potential to reach new audiences. We’re always looking for ways to make Brooklyn Museum membership appeal to all sorts of folks, and Groupon’s commitment to providing good deals to people who like to get out and support their local communities is something that we agree with.  More to the point, we have a Rock ‘n Roll photography exhibition coming up for which the Members preview will be a really fun party, and we want to give as many people an opportunity to attend this opening event, which will include a performance by Blondie. This opening, at which hundreds of people will come to the Museum to enjoy art and each other’s company, seems like the right occasion to introduce new members to the Museum. It’s also important to keep in mind that we are not spending money on this promotion: we share the revenue with Groupon, but we don’t spend thousands of dollars on printing, mailing, etc. as we do with our direct mail acquisition campaigns.

Fundamentally, Groupon started “in order to make it easier for people to enjoy the great things in their community.” As someone who works at an institution whose mission is to become as accessible as possible for our all segments of our community, that philosophy makes sense to me. As with 1stfans, this one-day promotion is an experiment and we want to be up-front about that. But as with all projects at the Museum, if we can tie them effectively to our mission and communicate effectively with our constituents, everyone can be satisfied. I’ll do a follow-up post after the Member’s opening on October 29^th to let you know how things went.

We found that 1stfans really enjoyed Nick Fortunato’s project for June’s Twitter Art Feed because of the idea that history could come alive again and be relevant in a social networking age. Trish Mayo, this month’s artist for the Feed, sent in a similar proposal based around the issue of how historical figures would receive twitter if they were alive today.

Trish Mayo. Hot Bird’s Last Stand, 2008. All rights reserved.  Featured in Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition.

Trish is a photographer by trade—her work was featured in our Click! exhibition in 2008 and was recently part of an exhibition at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights.  In addition to having her work featured in the New York Times, she has a huge following on Flickr. Trish’s proposal was selected from the open call and we’ve noticed that the proposals we receive via this channel tend to be from artists who use Twitter everyday and have a great understanding of how people interact with the medium in their everyday lives. Here, in Trish’s own words, is her project for October’s Twitter Art Feed:

IF THEY ONLY HAD TWITTER - pity those poor people who lived before twitter was available! I propose to give those twitter-less people a chance to comment on the online social networking phenomenon using their actual words by posting a series of quotes. Taken out of context these quotes can seem to show support, skepticism or trivialize twitter and other social networking sites. Reading these words spoken or written many, even hundreds, of years before the twitter age should make us think not only about what we are saying now, but also about what has been said before and how it resonates through time and space.

Duke Riley has been on our minds a lot over the past month. I’ve received a crash course in his work and the man himself as a result of the Museum’s involvement with his naval battle “Those Who Are About To Die, Salute You,” which played out (in all of its insane, tomato-stained glory) two weeks ago. As I was busy getting pelted with tomatoes from point-blank range, it dawned on me that Duke had created a very “New York” experience. This is the type of spectacle—getting a couple thousand people to wear togas to a mock naval battle fought in a public park in the middle of Queens—that is completely ridiculous and yet seems somewhat unsurprising given what goes on daily here in NYC.

Duke and Squirrel via pixietart on Flickr.  All Rights Reserved.

What we have not done so far in the eight months of the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed is feature someone whose art often involves New York City itself, and that is why we’re pleased to announce that Duke Riley is going to be the Twitter Art Feed artist for September. Like other artists who have participated in the Feed, Duke’s work is in the Museum’s collection. That piece, “The Bright Passage” (2006), depicts the imagined inhabitants of Mill Rock Island, a little-known piece of NYC real estate just north of Roosevelt Island on the East River.

Duke has spent time in some of New York City’s least-visited (and accessible) spots, so we thought it would be interesting for him to give 1stfans access to the New York city he has come to know. Hence, “Duke Riley’s Map of New York City,” which will be an online map on which Duke will tweet out the locations that relate directly to his work. He’ll tweet out a location and a sentence about what that location means to him every couple days, and then at the end of the month the map will provide insight into how one of New York’s most notable (and notorious) artists working today.

Update 10/1/09 - Now that September is over, we thought it would be nice to share Duke’s map with everyone. Below is Duke Riley’s Map of New York City, which was revealed to 1stfans members via twitter over the last month:

View Duke Riley’s Map of New York City in a larger map

One of the questions we often get about 1stfans is whether it is our “young members” group. Most NYC Museums have “young patrons” groups targeted towards people aged 21-40, with annual dues ranging from $100 to $1000. The idea behind these groups is that young people, especially in NYC, strongly value the social aspects of membership and also like meeting other young people. By creating special groups dedicated to serving those social needs of a specific age group, Museums are able to cultivate the “next generation” of annual donors. From the Member’s perspective, groups like these provide an opportunity to mingle with social peers who also have an interest in art. These groups, some of which began as a way for museums to engage the children of Trustees and major donors, are, by most accounts, very successful today.

Though traditional young patrons groups share similar motivations and goals with 1stfans, let me explain why the parameters for 1stfans are different.  One major reason Shelley and I started 1stfans was to provide a membership structure that appealed to two specific segments of our community: Target First Saturday visitors and online followers. Because both those groups are filled with people of all ages, it didn’t make sense for us to limit 1stfans membership to anyone within a specific age range. Though we have to rely on news stories to tell us that people who use social media aren’t just young folks in their 20s and 30s, we’re able to see with our own eyes (take a look at the picture above) just how diverse in age our 1stfans are who attend the monthly Target First Saturday meetups. Yes, there are plenty of young people in 1stfans, but I consider that more a reflection of our general visitorship (one of the youngest and most diverse in the country) than of a specific effort on our part to make 1stfans appealing for a younger crowd.

And that’s the main difference between 1stfans and other young patrons groups: the goal of 1stfans is to make our membership base reflect our audience as a whole, and with young patrons groups the goal is to attract a very small subset of folks within a certain age and income demographic. Both efforts are critical to securing the future of museum membership; we as institutions just go about it in different ways. For many 1stfans, their $20 membership is the first membership they’ve ever had at any museum. In those cases, 1stfans is their introduction to the concept of museum membership, and we realize that for many people both locally and far-away, Brooklyn Museum membership—like the Museum itself—should be about access and opportunity for as many people as possible, which means no age restrictions.