Friday, March 28, 2014

I'd love to see an arts events calendar

...into which artists, publishers, organizations, etc, enter the date of their event and the city in which it will take place as soon as the date is set. 

Willow Ptarmigan this morning.

This would help avoid some unfortunate conflicts. Better yet, adequate lead time would give artists and communities more opportunities to make interesting and potentially generative connections and collaborations. This would benefit everyone. A national arts events website complete with interactive maps would be ideal. The eBird Canada website is a good example of how data and maps can benefit a community of birders, scientists and, of course, the birds. The technology is there.* Hopefully a similar site for arts events is already in the works.
___________

*The idea of a Sask Arts Events app met with enthusiasm on Facebook and Twitter last night.

3 comments:

Gerald Hill said...

Conflicts aren't necessarily unfortunate. They're signs of lots of activity. Why limit ourselves to conflict-free scheduling, which in a healthy arts community isn't possible anyway? Information is the more useful objective, I'd say.

Brenda Schmidt said...

"avoid some unfortunate conflicts" does not mean or imply the desire for "conflict-free scheduling." Why limit ourselves to the current short-notice system when we could have an events hub through which we can identify and follow up on potential opportunities to share and create new art? Sure, perhaps the current system, or lack thereof, would be just dandy if I lived in a city and/or had a position which afforded me the connections and the advance heads-up for events that will be later announced to those of us not in the know. The current system is limiting and needlessly so.

Pearl said...

central listings are wonderful. NYC used to have that. Ottawa has that thanks to Amanda Earl. it's hard to keep all the new people who start things informed but so helpful.