This is my aging but steadfast computer-steed, who I have (just now) dubbed Archibald. Archibald and I have spent quite a bit of time together over the past week and a half, and he and I, after a slow and halting start, have finally reached a tenuous agreement, the conditions of which are as follows: I don't do more than one thing at once, and he doesn't spontaneously shut himself off. If anyone was ever uncertain about whether or not arts nonprofits receive sufficient funding, faithful Archie here would be a large piece of concrete evidence for "not."What have Archie and I been doing, you may be wondering? We have been ENTERING DATA, the best part of every internship ever. The shows for the "Fringe" half of the Live Arts/Fringe equation* were finalized this week, and I spent a lot of time entering every artist (and there's about 150 of 'em!), venue, and showtime for every show into a large database shared by many theater and performing arts organizations in Philadelphia (part of list visible at right).
But that's over now, and the future is looking bright for good ol' Arch and I. I got started on my first long-term project today, which looks to be much more exciting than the past few days have been. I sat down this morning with our marketing director, Heidi, and Adam, a graduate student who's been doing audience research for us, sponsored by a Fels fellowship.
As it turns out, despite the fact that there are over 300,000 college students in the greater Philadelphia area (the second-largest concentration of students in the US, after Boston), very few of them are attending Fringe and LiveArts events. So, one of my jobs will be to do some research into how I can attract area collegiate types to Fringe events -- this will include contacting area universities, researching marketing techniques, etc. I spent most of the afternoon poking around on the internet, seeing what I could find out, and it turns out that the "18-24 demographic" is "notoriously difficult" to market to. I'll keep you posted on my progress.I also attended my second-ever staff meeting today, where we went over the timeline for the summer (we're almost on schedule!) and discussed such sensitive internal matters as who is or is not doing their dishes in the break room. The most exciting part of the meeting, however, came in the form of guest Matthew "Matty" Hart (www.mistermatty.com), non-profiteer and co-founder of Spiral Q Puppet Theater (www.spiralq.org), who's been working on a plan to reinstate an office of arts and culture in Philadelphia. This seems to be a particularly pressing issue given the Philadelphia arts scene, which I would describe as both "hopping" and "booming", and I encourage all of you, but particularly those who vote in Philadelphia city elections (if there are, in fact, any of you who do) to keep an eye out for mentions of both the office and Matty himself in the upcoming mayoral election.
Anyhow, that's all for now -- I'll post again soon!
*And a final note, before this entry gets heinously long: the distinction between the "Philadelphia Live Arts" festival and the "Philly Fringe" festival is the following: the Live Arts festival is curated and sponsored by our office (with the help of innumerable foundations, corporate sponsors, etc.) -- acts are invited, and paid, to come to Philadelphia during the festival and perform, and we find them venues and supply everything they need in the way of publicity, tech support, etc. The Fringe, on the other hand, is made up entirely of self-produced, self-promoted shows, in the style of the original Fringe Festival in Edinburgh (www.edfringe.com). Our office helps them with ticketing and publicity (to a certain extent), but the performers themselves are responsible for finding a venue, all technical considerations, etc. They pay a fee to participate, which covers (some of) our offices coordinating costs and buys them a place in our festival guide.
