Keeping Up With the Times

I read this article for another class and think it applies well here also. The Philadelphia Orchestra has been tracking declining record sales since the internet grew in popularity within the last decade. Because of online sources for music, fewer and fewer people are buying CD recordings. The Classical music venue has been among the hardest hit.

In order to combat this, the Philadelphia Orchestra signed a deal with IODA, a company in San Francisco, to help bring its live recordings to amazon.com and iTunes. Songs that were not previously up for release are now easier to distribute, and the orchestra plans to post 10 live recordings every year.

Kid-Friendly Symphony Orchestras

The New York Philharmonic has long been renowned as a first-class way to experience Classical music. But this venue is not just for adults with a wide knowledge of orchestral music. The New York Philharmonic has been making an effort to appeal to the younger generation as well. They understand the importance of instilling a love for the arts at an early age to establish a deep respect for the hard work, dedication, and beauty of this discipline later in life. The New York Philharmonic established a separate website just for kids, where they can play music related games, learn about instruments and composers, make their own instruments, and compose music. As a teacher, I am always looking for new ways to get my students interested in music, and I have personally found that multimedia and websites are easy ways to grab their attention.

http://www.nyphilkids.org/main.phtml

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City had been one of my favorites for a long time. Even though I can't make it up that often, I can now receive updates on new exhibits, get info on other area museums, and see videos of exhibits on YouTube that also contain text explaining the history of the items. All of this is seen from one simple click from my Facebook page. There is a lot of information on this fan page that features the artwork of the day, special talks and events, and news stories coming out of the museum.

www.facebook.com/metmuseum

A Tour in the Palm of Your Hand....

I saw this article a few weeks ago in the NY Times. It is a reveiw of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum's new exhibit called Design USA: Contemporarty Innovation. The tech part is that Apple donated 100 iPod touch devices for use in the exhibit. Visitors use the device as they walk through to get more information on the displays. On the iPod, artists talk about thier work, tell stories about how it was conceived, there are videos, pictures, etc to help you understand the exhibit. As the article points out - the exhibit becomes a "rabbit hole" of information.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/arts/design/15design.html

Normally this would get me very excited about how technology can be integrated into museums to make them more interactive, but after reading this article, I wonder if adding tech devices might also take away from the "museum" experience. Will they make the museum less of a cultural experience and turn it into just another flashy attraction? And is that a bad thing?
Last week on Project Runway, the contestants went to The Met to be inspired by iconic fashion designs from the collection. I am a big believer that a museum should act as "muse", inspire, educate! If a visitor is too busy pushing buttons and looking down how is that different than surfing the web at home?
On the other hand, the iPod & other technology have the ability to make a museum exhibit less static, more dynamic and educational so that you take away more than you could in the past. I think it will be interesting to see how these types of exhibits and new technology are used in the near future. As with everything, some will get it right and some won't. I am looking forward to visiting those who do!!