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Hello readers,

I'm aware that it's been a while since I posted so I thought I'd better get something up that suggests I haven't completely disappeared.

Work has been crazy for the last couple of months but I actually think it might be easing off a little bit. In any case I've got a number of things that I want to write about in the next little while so keep an eye out for those. In the meantime, check out the two sites below, one completely new, one a redevelopment and both still developing, to see what I've actually been doing for the last few months.

Developing these sites as well as a number of other things that I've been working on has given me plenty of opportunity to focus on the how, what, why, to whom and to what end questions around communication and I'll be reflecting on those questions here as well as all the usual.

Thanks and more soon.........

Iris Contemporary Art Network

Fabrica

Guest blog post

I was recently asked to contribute a guest blog post to Culture 24's Museums at Night blog on the Arts and social media. So just in case you've missed out on me (repeatedly) linking to it on Twitter and Facebook, here's the link.

Comments as always welcome.

#thirty30

77 Million Paintings by Brian Eno. Image: Lumen London

We're gearing up for the Brian Eno show 77 Million Paintings which has its preview on April 1 and opens the next day. I worked out today (March 2) that from tomorrow it's 30 days to the preview. I've also been thinking about different things that we could do to build on last year's work around social media and the arts and putting the two together I came up with the idea of 30 days - 30 tweets. Essentially I'm planning a series of 30 tweets, one per day, about the show. They might be facts, observations, links, pictures, audio clips. The tweets might touch on the practicalities of the process of putting the show together, some of the themes, interviews with people involved, the artist, etc. The aim is that they'll have a light touch. Although the primary platform that I'll be focussing on is Twitter the tweets will also be expanded for Facebook.

Then I thought it'd be great to hashtag them so they become findable and at the end of the time form an online resource. Hopefully on the way they'll be an entertaining and informative way to get people engaged with the show. The hashtag is #thirty30. As per usual I'll report back at the end and give some thoughts on how it turned out but I'd love to hear any thoughts in the meantime.

Belated (kind of) review of 2009

I was intending a look back over the year with some carefully thought out analysis of our adventures with social media during 2009 but frankly I haven't had time and 2010 is already ticking by at an alarming rate. We've had Brian Eno in the gallery today filming a piece for the Brighton Festival and talking about the work that he is showing here in the spring, 77 Million Paintings.

So I've been thinking very much about the year ahead and how we take things forward. The exhibitions that we've got coming up and the opportunities that they offer. We've got two big names in 2010: Brian Eno in the spring, Martin Parr in the autumn and sandwiched between a lesser known but equally exciting Belgian artist whom I won't name as it's not 100% confirmed.

The social media opportunities that these three shows offer are as different as the shows themselves will be. My focus is therefore identifying and making the most of those opportunities to get people engaged, building on the creative participation ideas that we played around with last year and having some fun with it. Oh and probably boring people to death being evangelical about the future of social media and the arts.

I was recently asked to contribute a chapter and a case study to a book that's being rapidly developed (as we speak) on museums and galleries using Twitter. I'll post when it's available (I'm not getting commission so this isn't a sales pitch) but I'll also make the chapter and case study I wrote available somewhere. Maybe as a download if I can work that out.

A year ago Fabrica had no presence on Twitter or Facebook and I'm proud of the significant progress that's been made in that time. Social media has become central to my thinking about communication with our audience both current and potential, as well as creative participation and all the other things it offers. More importantly it's starting to become embedded into the organisation.

Thank you to those that have followed us or become fans in 2009 - it's been great to start to get to know you and I'm looking forward to more dialogue in 2010. I am officially excited.