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.