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Digital arts experiences to enjoy from home

With arts venues, events and festivals being cancelled or postponed for the foreseeable future, it’s a good time to start exploring the offerings online.

Here are a list of great quality digital arts resources you can consume from home, including arts education resources for families.

With arts venues, events and festivals being cancelled or postponed for the foreseeable future, it’s a good time to start exploring the offerings online.

Here are a list of great quality digital arts resources you can consume from home, including arts education resources for families.

Many of these are completely made available for free or at low-cost to the user, so if you love something, you might consider making a donation to help out artists and arts organisations at this time.

For kids and families

Author talks and workshops

  • In the next fortnight, the Sydney Opera House will be streaming live digital workshops such as Staging Stories and the Story Factory workshop.

    For any parents wanting to give their kids some quality arts education at home, all of the SOH digital education resources are available online with teacher notes.

  • Storyline Online has a collection of favourite kids books read by famous people, like Arnie the Doughnut read by Chris O’Dowd.

Digital art apps for kids

There are some amazing art apps designed especially for kids by some of the world’s most iconic cultural institutions.

  • As part of the Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence at Home, Mo Willems invites you into his studio every day for his LUNCH DOODLE. Learners worldwide can draw, doodle and explore new ways of writing by visiting Mo’s studio virtually once a day for the next few weeks.

  • Tate Kids has art making games, quizzes and videos that will make parents want to play too!

  • NGAkids interactives offer an entertaining and informative introduction to art and art history, from the US National Gallery of Art. There are a variety of computer-based activities and things to do at home.

  • Artsology helps kids learn to appreciate the arts by providing them with the opportunity to play games, conduct investigations, and explore different forms of art.

  • Kids Think Design explores careers in fashion design, graphic design, interior design, book design, product design, film and theatre, architecture, animation, and environmental design.

Virtual museum experiences

  • From the Sydney Opera House’s Digital Education team, families can access LIVE digital tours from home this week, such as the Guwanyi Walama tour of the Aboriginal history of the site.  

  • The British Museum, located in the heart of London, allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies.

  • The San Diego Zoo has a website just for kids with amazing videos, activities, and games.

  • You can also tour Yellowstone National Park, and explore the surface of Mars on the Curiosity Rover.

For adults

Virtual art exhibitions and talks

  • The NGV is sharing daily content and inspiration using the hashtag #NGVEveryDay. You can also visit the NGV website for virtual exhibition tours and talks, and explore NGV Channel for videos, essays and interviews. They’ll be sending frequent updates in their e-newsletter, with lots more content to follow and activities for kids and families especially for school holidays.

  • For those unable to proceed with travel plans, the Google Arts and Culture app, available on iOS and Android (and web), is like Google Street View for galleries and places of cultural interest. It allows the user to explore highlights or entire floors of institutions like MoMA New York, Uffizi Gallery, Florence and The State Hermintage Museum in Russia.

Virtual orchestras

  • The Berliner Philharmoniker can be enjoyed from your TV, computer, tablet or smartphone thanks to the Digital Concert Hall. Each season, around 40 concerts are broadcasted live in HD and there are hundreds of recordings, numerous interviews, Education Programme films. Redeem the voucher code BERLINPHIL by 31 March and receive free access to all concerts and films in the Digital Concert Hall.

Courses

With thanks to all those who have contributed suggestions, including the Sydney Opera House, NGV.

We’d also like to credit other pages and posts where we have sourced this list from, including Jules Buckland on Facebook.

If you have items to add to this list, email us at info@thepatternmakers.com.au

Cover illustration by Rose Blake is from Meet the Artist: Andy Warhol published by Tate at https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/make/paint-draw/make-pop-art-warhol

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We're listening...

This week, we’re launching a podcast. ‘Theory of Creativity’ is a series of weekly interviews with experts in research, economics, innovation, advocacy and policy. Here’s some of the reasons why we’re taking time out from client work, to do some listening and learning.

This week, we’re launching a podcast. ‘Theory of Creativity’ is a series of weekly interviews with experts in research, economics, innovation, advocacy and policy.

It has meant time away from client work, my team and my family. I’ve been asked ‘why’, ‘why now’, ‘why a podcast’ and my favourite, ‘shouldn’t you charge people for that advice?’ Here are my answers.

Where did the idea come from?

After participating in the Australia Council’s Arts Leaders Program 2016-2018, I reflected that many of our conversations on the program related to one of three central needs for arts and cultural organisations: reaching more people, securing funding and creating positive impacts through our work.

I’ve spent 10 years in the arts as a researcher, and seen how the right ideas and insights can enable teams to achieve ambitious goals. But applying insights in the arts is not straightforward. Partly because there are complex tensions between what’s artistically interesting, financially viable and socially impactful.

A new decade is here, and I firmly believe in the power of the arts to be a force for good in the world. But if we’re to realise the full potential of a creative society, as a sector we need to be bigger, better and stronger. With this podcast, I’m making sure cultural professionals can access the best possible thinking and insights, from experts that really know their stuff.

Who is on the podcast?

All the guests on Theory of Creativity are leaders in their field. In the first season, this includes experts in audience research, economics, policy and design thinking - who know how to apply these tools in the arts sector.

For many of the interviews, I’m joined by an Australian arts leader, including many of my colleagues on the leadership program. I’m grateful to colleagues who collaborated with me in developing the podcast: Simon Abrahams, Amy Maiden, Jade Lillie, Erin Milne, Kate Eltham, Morwenna Collett, Anna Reece and many more - you know who you are!

What is in each episode?

Listeners can expect to hear a friendly and frank interview with an expert. Each episode goes for about 45 minutes, and in that time, we cover, the details of their practice, key successes and challenges for that field, and tips for those applying these techniques in their organisations.

We also cover useful resources, further reading, and what lies ahead in their area of expertise. At 45 minutes, it’s designed to be digestible during a commute or workout.

Why a podcast?

Podcasts are the only media that I believe give you your time back. All other media - whether that be reading article, attending a discussion event, doing online training - require you to give up your time to engage.

Podcasts are designed to be consumed while commuting, cooking, walking, doing the laundry. As a busy working mum myself, I’m hooked on podcasts! If you haven’t yet got into podcasting - give it a go!

Who is it for?

The target audience for the podcast is leaders and mid-career professionals in the arts and culture sector. So, people working in theatre companies, museums, galleries, festivals. They might be CEOs or Artistic Directors, Marketing Managers, Program Officers or Directors of Development.

It’s for anyone who is thirsty for more knowledge, more insight, who believes that we have greater potential as a sector.

How have you produced the podcast?

Pretty much everything has been done in-house by me and my wonderful team. I used the media room at our co-working space Hub Hyde Park to conduct interviews. I bought a second hand Yeti microphone to interview while I’m travelling. I also use Skype for some interviews. In editing, we used free Audacity software. I purchased a music track by Pop Villains on music platform Premium Beat. Our freelance designer Marchelle Matthew produced the artwork for the podcast, and set us up with templates in Canva. My colleagues Jodie Bombardier and Aurora Nowosad produce the show notes for every episode, using transcription service Rev. The podcast is published via Whooshka, a free podcasting platform, and that pushes the episodes through to Apple iTunes and Spotify,

Knowing absolutely nothing about podcasting before I started, it has been a sharp learning curve, and really this is only the beginning. I could list 100 things that aren’t right about our first episodes, but I’m super proud that they are done and out there in the world. Now we can start work finding ways to improve the experience for our listeners.

I was able to access a small amount of seed funding from the Australia Council, which has enabled me to cover some key costs for the first season. Otherwise, we have done it all on a shoestring with a few late nights!

Shouldn’t you charge people for that advice?

This one’s easy. No. We’re honoured to work one-on-one with our clients - and we put in 110% on every job. But as a sector we have so much to do!

This podcast is about serving our wider community of culture professionals. If this helps us serve you better, job done.

What are your aspirations for the podcast?

I hope this podcast helps arts and cultural professionals stay informed about the techniques that are available to them, and to be wise to the success factors for applying them in their own organisation. I hope it helps build research literacy in the sector, and that we have better conversations because of it.

I hope it allows for more nuance, in discussing complex topics.

By undertaking the interviews, I hope to build my own understanding how how they can be applied in combination to grow and strengthen organisations. Already I’ve learned so much!

Ultimately, I hope that it helps us collectively to reach more people and do more good in the world.

I’d love to hear your ideas. You can get in touch any time with us at theoryofcreativity@thepatternmakers.com.au

Tandi_HexagonProfilePic.png

About the Author

Tandi Palmer Williams
Managing Director, Patternmakers

Tandi is a researcher and management consultant in the cultural sector (and now, host of the Theory of Creativity podcast!)

 
 

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Resolutions for a new and different year

Our team is back at work after the holiday season. It's early days, but we know we want to work differently in 2020. Here are some of our #newyearsresolutions.

As we welcome in a new decade, it's time for new ways of working.

This summer, Australia's tragic bushfires have had such an enormous impact: environmentally, socially, politically. It feels like the universe has shifted and we all need to rethink our place within it.

My team met for our first team meeting of the year yesterday, and I won't lie. I didn't get that exciting 'back to school' feeling that I usually do. It felt wrong to say 'happy new year!', chat about our holidays, how much we ate and what Santa brought for our kids.

Mostly, we talked about the fires (#AustraliaisBurning), about single-use plastics, about sustainable travel. We talked about how wrong many of our summer traditions feel (fireworks, plastic toys, Christmas lights, shopping on the sales).

We started to reflect on all our roles and responsibilities: what the Government should be doing, what businesses should be doing, and what we should be doing as individuals. As a team we are only at the beginning of this journey, and though we had lots of great questions (we are research geeks after all) we had few answers.

I don't yet have the answers of how Patternmakers will change, but over lunch a set of #newyearsresolutions emerged. I'm sharing them here to say publicly: we will be working differently in 2020 and beyond.

Patternmakers Resolutions for 2020

We will think about the impact of our decisions, and use our skills to help others understand the impact of theirs.

We will continue to serve the arts and culture sector as a force for good in the world - and we'll explore working with other good causes where we can make a difference.

We will be active citizens: openly reflecting, joining discussions and sharing our ideas publicly and often.

We will work with teams that want to make a bigger contribution.

We’ll prioritise the exciting and meaningful research questions to tackle, over #vanitymetrics and #boxticking.

We’ll be stronger and smarter, not bigger.

We will travel; slowly & consciously.

We’ll stay true to our core values of integrity, support, creativity and positivity.

We’ll put as much effort into looking after ourselves and eachother, as we do into helping others.

Do you have new year's resolutions this year?

...

The image featured above is from a Team Day we had in 2018, organised by Penny Cannan with Parva Little Things. We made our own lip balm and body scrub using pantry items like coffee grounds, essential oils and salt. I'd choose something like this over the pub any day!

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