We are shifting our news blog from Blogger to Wordpress. This change is primarily due to a desire to improve the look and readability of the blog. We'll be tweaking the new blog over the next day or two, but it's ready for you to check out now.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
ArtSpider's events and news blog is moving!
We are shifting our news blog from Blogger to Wordpress. This change is primarily due to a desire to improve the look and readability of the blog. We'll be tweaking the new blog over the next day or two, but it's ready for you to check out now.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Plans for 2010
With the New Year well underway, we are planning a series of improvements to the main ArtSpider site throughout 2010, as well as refinements to our methods of sharing information with all of you.
THE SITE
Coming soon: Profiles that feature images will get "top billing" on the site, and profiles with text in the bio field will be displayed above profiles that have no info posted at all. This will make the site look better, putting the more eye-catching and interesting information where it will be noticed first.
Later this year, we plan to make alphabetical sorting of each category pages' info an option, and eventually, to change the database mechanism such that a multi-talented member can sign up for more than a single category with a single membership.
EVENTS
We recently met several members of ArtsFest and have also heard from the director of the Floating Gallery (Facebook | Area603). Both of these organizations advocates multi-genre, multi-media arts events, as we do. We look forward to working with both of them to bring some energizing and invigorating events together.
We recently met several members of ArtsFest and have also heard from the director of the Floating Gallery (Facebook | Area603). Both of these organizations advocates multi-genre, multi-media arts events, as we do. We look forward to working with both of them to bring some energizing and invigorating events together.
CONNECTIONS
If you've visited ArtSpider lately, you likely noticed that we are currently featuring bloggers worthy of following on our home page carousel. We are seeking out articulate, creative NH people who blog regularly about the arts. If you have a suggestion for someone we should contact, please email us.
We are now posting all sorts of notices from around the state on our news blog. We have so much info coming to us to share that we've had to get a little selective in order to keep the postings down to a couple each day. We're considering creating separate blogs, either separated by region or by arts category. Does this seem like a good idea to you? If so, which method of categorizing would be more convenient for you? We welcome your input on this.
If you have news of an upcoming show, a special event, an interesting article, or something else you think other NH creative folk would be interested in reading and/or seeing, please send it to us.
YOUR IDEAS
We always welcome your thoughts, suggestions, and questions. If you have an idea for a site enhancement, for a way for us to reach out to more NH residents, for a special event, or for us to help more artists, craftspeople, musicians, and performers in the state, please let us know!
WE'D WELCOME YOUR HELP
There are three simple things that every ArtSpider member and supporter can do to help us out:
We always welcome your thoughts, suggestions, and questions. If you have an idea for a site enhancement, for a way for us to reach out to more NH residents, for a special event, or for us to help more artists, craftspeople, musicians, and performers in the state, please let us know!
WE'D WELCOME YOUR HELP
There are three simple things that every ArtSpider member and supporter can do to help us out:
- Make sure your profile on the site is up to date, has a good write-up in the bio, and has an image. If you are unsure how to set up your account, we've posted step-by-step directions on our LFAQs site.
- Encourage others in NH who you know do creative work to sign up. The more people we have represented on the site, the more valuable resource ArtSpider will be for everyone! Basic membership is always free, and always will be.
- Let us know of any businesses, organizations, associations, etc., that have been especially helpful to you, so that we can ensure that their information is listed on the site.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
January Newsletter
Hi, everyone!
We've been so busy with updates to our news blog and adding content to the main site that we haven't had a chance to share much here. But it occurred to me that this might be a good place to share the content of this month's newsletter, which was just sent out to members of ArtSpider:
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM ARTSPIDER
A lot is going on at ArtSpider. We have been busy posting news and videos on our news blog, refining and adding to the information on the main site, and connecting with creative people from all over the state. New members continue to sign up regularly. The calendar component is working well, and will soon be improved to give quick listing info by topic and region.
LET ARTSPIDER HELP YOU
If you have a special event or a show coming up, send us your press release, pictures, etc. We’ll share it on our news blog, and if we have space and enough advance-knowledge, we’ll promote it on the main site, as well. The info we post on our news blog is automatically reposted on our Facebook fan page and “tweeted” on Twitter, so your info will immediately go out to hundreds!
Want to have an image promoting your work shared on the home page carousel? Email us the digital file, and we’ll consider it for inclusion!
HELP YOURSELF
Have you posted an image and added a bio blurb to your profile yet? About half of our members have; if you haven’t yet, we urge you to take a moment to do it today. It doesn’t take long to set it up, and once the written information is in, it will increase your odds of being found in a search. Even a single sentence in the “bio” field and an email address will enhance the odds of your being found. Are you unsure how to update your profile info? If so, check out our clear, step-by-step directions on our “Less Frequently Asked Questions” website.
CONTEST
Each month this year, we will be creating an “Artist Profile” video or two for randomly-chosen, interested ArtSpider members. The videos will be posted online, promoted on our news blog, and will be able to be embedded on your own site. There will be no charge for the production and promotion of these videos. All you need to do to be part of this contest is make sure your profile is complete, with an image, at least one sentence in the “bio,” and contact information.
HELP ARTSPIDER TO GROW
Are you member of a guild, an arts association, a club, or other creative group? Do you manage a venue or work for an arts-related business? Check ArtSpider to see if there’s a listing, and if not, let us know! We continue to add resource information regularly, aiming toward the eventual goal of being the best reference site for creative NH people.
We are using more and more of the space on the site originally designed to hold ads to instead provide links to useful services, interesting artists, and helpful non-profit services. Please email us if you know of a particularly helpful business, service, or organization that we should share with others. We’ll be adding many new “floating tile PSAs” in the next month or two.
STAY IN TOUCH
Feel free email us with any questions, comments, or suggestions. You’ll get a response from a real human!
All the best for 2010,
Justine and Larry Graykin
We've been so busy with updates to our news blog and adding content to the main site that we haven't had a chance to share much here. But it occurred to me that this might be a good place to share the content of this month's newsletter, which was just sent out to members of ArtSpider:
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM ARTSPIDER
A lot is going on at ArtSpider. We have been busy posting news and videos on our news blog, refining and adding to the information on the main site, and connecting with creative people from all over the state. New members continue to sign up regularly. The calendar component is working well, and will soon be improved to give quick listing info by topic and region.
LET ARTSPIDER HELP YOU
If you have a special event or a show coming up, send us your press release, pictures, etc. We’ll share it on our news blog, and if we have space and enough advance-knowledge, we’ll promote it on the main site, as well. The info we post on our news blog is automatically reposted on our Facebook fan page and “tweeted” on Twitter, so your info will immediately go out to hundreds!
Want to have an image promoting your work shared on the home page carousel? Email us the digital file, and we’ll consider it for inclusion!
HELP YOURSELF
Have you posted an image and added a bio blurb to your profile yet? About half of our members have; if you haven’t yet, we urge you to take a moment to do it today. It doesn’t take long to set it up, and once the written information is in, it will increase your odds of being found in a search. Even a single sentence in the “bio” field and an email address will enhance the odds of your being found. Are you unsure how to update your profile info? If so, check out our clear, step-by-step directions on our “Less Frequently Asked Questions” website.
CONTEST
Each month this year, we will be creating an “Artist Profile” video or two for randomly-chosen, interested ArtSpider members. The videos will be posted online, promoted on our news blog, and will be able to be embedded on your own site. There will be no charge for the production and promotion of these videos. All you need to do to be part of this contest is make sure your profile is complete, with an image, at least one sentence in the “bio,” and contact information.
HELP ARTSPIDER TO GROW
Are you member of a guild, an arts association, a club, or other creative group? Do you manage a venue or work for an arts-related business? Check ArtSpider to see if there’s a listing, and if not, let us know! We continue to add resource information regularly, aiming toward the eventual goal of being the best reference site for creative NH people.
We are using more and more of the space on the site originally designed to hold ads to instead provide links to useful services, interesting artists, and helpful non-profit services. Please email us if you know of a particularly helpful business, service, or organization that we should share with others. We’ll be adding many new “floating tile PSAs” in the next month or two.
STAY IN TOUCH
Feel free email us with any questions, comments, or suggestions. You’ll get a response from a real human!
All the best for 2010,
Justine and Larry Graykin
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Thanksgiving
What a year! Justine and I have traveled a fascinating path, meeting countless people, learning more than we'd imagined about the various art scenes in New Hampshire, and enjoying a astonishing array of creativity in myriad forms.
It started about a year ago around a table in Deerfield, when Justine and I had a few initial meetings with Heather Johnson, Brett Weiss, and Dana van der Bijl. Early on, we have meetings with filmmaker Bill Millios and NH's Cultural Commissioner, Van McLeod. Judy Bush of Bush Bead Studio shared some invaluable advice, as did NHSCA's Jane Eklund. A brunch with Bridget LeRoy, Eric Johnson, and Annie Ballin and numerous visits to John Herman's NH Media Makers led to innumerable contacts and additional ideas.
Eventually, others joined us, notably Sean Wiley and Cheryl Roth, now Regional Coordinators for the southwestern part of the state and Manchester (respectively). We continued to meet with interesting people -- Justine with representatives of the League of NH Craftsmen, I with Ryan Linehan of the Kimball-Jenkins Estate, and together with the Exeter Arts Committee -- and had email correspondence with helpful folks like Susan Schwake, of Rochester's artesprit and artstream, and the multi-talented Joan Roefels.
We started visiting communities to have conversations about the project. Kind hosts included Ron St Jean of Ron St. Jean Photography in Rollinsford, Elise McDonald of Studio 99 in Nashua, and Aaron & Keri Wiederspahn and Laina Barakat of Starving Artist in Keene. At these meetings we met folks like artist/web designer Stephen Bobbett, City Art Nashua's Liz Racioppi, and writer Kathy Bailey. Michelle Collins wrote a nice article about the project, which was featured in an April edition of the Nashua Telegraph.
In June, we held our first-ever arts event, where works were shared by Sean; Cheryl's husband, painter Kim Roth; photographer Scott Bulger; mosaic artist LeeAnn Petropoulos; musician Sam Rheaume; and sculptor James Rappa. We also had a reading by author Cathy Vincevic and poetry recitation by Lindsay Coombs.
Our second event was in July at the MCAM studios in Manchester. Cheryl arranged it for us, and did a remarkable job. It featured numerous artists, including musician/publisher Dave Stevenson; musician/artist Oria Blue; sculptor Nat Witschonke; photographers Kathy Marotta, Tracy Lee Carroll and Sue Duggin; and poet Jasmine Roth.
July also found Justine and me on the airwaves for the first time. Robin Ann Peters, herself an talented photographer, invited us onto her WSMN radio program, "Art in Action." A kind and eloquent host, Ms Peters made us feel at home and helped spread the word further.
In October, Ms Peters and City Arts Nashua asked us back to their fair city for their annual ArtWalk. We used this opportunity to assemble our third arts event...and the first outdoor one. Although the weather was not the best on the first day, the second was mostly clear and made for a fun experience. Those days we featured an assortment of art by Bev Norton, striking images by members of the NH Photo Tour, and music by Audrey Danielson's group Emerald Strings. Nat Witschonke and LeeAnn Petropoulos joined us again, to our delight--we love their work!
I've little doubt that I've forgotten countless people -- folks who have helped us along the way toward creating ArtSpider.net, folks who have shared their talents with us, folks who have encouraged and inspired us. But for the record, to each and all, we are deeply grateful.
A final, special thanks to our collaborators on the ArtSpider site itself, Sullivan Creative. Pam, Carol, Tim, Dan, and the others involved all worked tremendously hard to create a site worthy of the vision Justine had and we all refined.
We look forward to year two!
It started about a year ago around a table in Deerfield, when Justine and I had a few initial meetings with Heather Johnson, Brett Weiss, and Dana van der Bijl. Early on, we have meetings with filmmaker Bill Millios and NH's Cultural Commissioner, Van McLeod. Judy Bush of Bush Bead Studio shared some invaluable advice, as did NHSCA's Jane Eklund. A brunch with Bridget LeRoy, Eric Johnson, and Annie Ballin and numerous visits to John Herman's NH Media Makers led to innumerable contacts and additional ideas.
Eventually, others joined us, notably Sean Wiley and Cheryl Roth, now Regional Coordinators for the southwestern part of the state and Manchester (respectively). We continued to meet with interesting people -- Justine with representatives of the League of NH Craftsmen, I with Ryan Linehan of the Kimball-Jenkins Estate, and together with the Exeter Arts Committee -- and had email correspondence with helpful folks like Susan Schwake, of Rochester's artesprit and artstream, and the multi-talented Joan Roefels.
We started visiting communities to have conversations about the project. Kind hosts included Ron St Jean of Ron St. Jean Photography in Rollinsford, Elise McDonald of Studio 99 in Nashua, and Aaron & Keri Wiederspahn and Laina Barakat of Starving Artist in Keene. At these meetings we met folks like artist/web designer Stephen Bobbett, City Art Nashua's Liz Racioppi, and writer Kathy Bailey. Michelle Collins wrote a nice article about the project, which was featured in an April edition of the Nashua Telegraph.
In June, we held our first-ever arts event, where works were shared by Sean; Cheryl's husband, painter Kim Roth; photographer Scott Bulger; mosaic artist LeeAnn Petropoulos; musician Sam Rheaume; and sculptor James Rappa. We also had a reading by author Cathy Vincevic and poetry recitation by Lindsay Coombs.
Our second event was in July at the MCAM studios in Manchester. Cheryl arranged it for us, and did a remarkable job. It featured numerous artists, including musician/publisher Dave Stevenson; musician/artist Oria Blue; sculptor Nat Witschonke; photographers Kathy Marotta, Tracy Lee Carroll and Sue Duggin; and poet Jasmine Roth.
July also found Justine and me on the airwaves for the first time. Robin Ann Peters, herself an talented photographer, invited us onto her WSMN radio program, "Art in Action." A kind and eloquent host, Ms Peters made us feel at home and helped spread the word further.
In October, Ms Peters and City Arts Nashua asked us back to their fair city for their annual ArtWalk. We used this opportunity to assemble our third arts event...and the first outdoor one. Although the weather was not the best on the first day, the second was mostly clear and made for a fun experience. Those days we featured an assortment of art by Bev Norton, striking images by members of the NH Photo Tour, and music by Audrey Danielson's group Emerald Strings. Nat Witschonke and LeeAnn Petropoulos joined us again, to our delight--we love their work!
I've little doubt that I've forgotten countless people -- folks who have helped us along the way toward creating ArtSpider.net, folks who have shared their talents with us, folks who have encouraged and inspired us. But for the record, to each and all, we are deeply grateful.
A final, special thanks to our collaborators on the ArtSpider site itself, Sullivan Creative. Pam, Carol, Tim, Dan, and the others involved all worked tremendously hard to create a site worthy of the vision Justine had and we all refined.
We look forward to year two!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Ads
Early on, we pondered: Can ads on a website ever be a good thing? After all, we are all bombarded with ads constantly: on most internet sites, on billboards along the sides of many roads, on TV and radio, in magazines and newspapers....
Justine and I are not materialists, and we are sensitive to the advertising overload in our society. So we most decidedly felt mixed feelings when we realized ads might be necessary to make ArtSpider self-sustainable. But then we realized that there is some information people WANT to know about. What if we were to restrict the ads on any given page to businesses and organizations and people who have direct relevance to the page you are looking at?
Today we have launched the ad components of ArtSpider. But I really don't think you'll mind. On the Crafts page, you'll see ads about and for crafters. The Music page will share ads for bands, suppliers, and resources. And so on. Some of the ads on ArtSpider are PSAs, letting you know about useful resources (The NH State Council on the Arts, for example) or interesting events (eg, the image shared here, in this blog--an ad for a gallery show in Portsmouth). There are ads for guilds and other professional organizations you might want to learn about, some being run free of charge, as a public service.
Our objective is not to make a bundle of money running ads. We want to make the site self-sustaining, as I said...but, actually, we'd really like to see the site to pay for its own continual development: We have ambitions to make it even more useful, even more interesting....
Stay tuned....
Justine and I are not materialists, and we are sensitive to the advertising overload in our society. So we most decidedly felt mixed feelings when we realized ads might be necessary to make ArtSpider self-sustainable. But then we realized that there is some information people WANT to know about. What if we were to restrict the ads on any given page to businesses and organizations and people who have direct relevance to the page you are looking at?Today we have launched the ad components of ArtSpider. But I really don't think you'll mind. On the Crafts page, you'll see ads about and for crafters. The Music page will share ads for bands, suppliers, and resources. And so on. Some of the ads on ArtSpider are PSAs, letting you know about useful resources (The NH State Council on the Arts, for example) or interesting events (eg, the image shared here, in this blog--an ad for a gallery show in Portsmouth). There are ads for guilds and other professional organizations you might want to learn about, some being run free of charge, as a public service.
Our objective is not to make a bundle of money running ads. We want to make the site self-sustaining, as I said...but, actually, we'd really like to see the site to pay for its own continual development: We have ambitions to make it even more useful, even more interesting....
Stay tuned....
Sunday, November 8, 2009
The evolution continues...
Now that the ArtSpider site is up and running, we are beginning to set ourselves to the task of smoothing and polishing. We just started a new "ArtSpider News" blog site where we will share
press releases, links to great online articles about NH arts, blogs about events we attend, reviews, and detailed information about an upcoming show. This blog has become a place for us to share behind-the-scenes updates on the ArtSpider project--we'll tell you what we're up to (as I'm doing now), and what we're working on.
There's also an articles page on the main ArtSpider site. On that page, we will share information that is "timeless," such as profiles, articles about improving your artistic skills, and articles that spotlight local businesses, venues, and organizations. Those articles will be searchable on the ArtSpider site; we'll reserve that page for information worthy of long-term archiving.
Do you have NH arts news you'd like us to share? Email us! And if you are a NH artist, venue owner, or representative of a business/organization that supports NH artists, feel free to add info@artspider.net to your email newsletter list. We'll share useful information in the relevant space!
Note: We're also changing the way we're using Facebook. If you are a "friend" of the Facebook entity Deerfield ArtSpider, please consider shifting your attention to our Facebook fan page. We have linked our news blog to the fan account, and will be updating the entity account less and less often.
Stay tuned! More news soon!
press releases, links to great online articles about NH arts, blogs about events we attend, reviews, and detailed information about an upcoming show. This blog has become a place for us to share behind-the-scenes updates on the ArtSpider project--we'll tell you what we're up to (as I'm doing now), and what we're working on.There's also an articles page on the main ArtSpider site. On that page, we will share information that is "timeless," such as profiles, articles about improving your artistic skills, and articles that spotlight local businesses, venues, and organizations. Those articles will be searchable on the ArtSpider site; we'll reserve that page for information worthy of long-term archiving.
Do you have NH arts news you'd like us to share? Email us! And if you are a NH artist, venue owner, or representative of a business/organization that supports NH artists, feel free to add info@artspider.net to your email newsletter list. We'll share useful information in the relevant space!
Note: We're also changing the way we're using Facebook. If you are a "friend" of the Facebook entity Deerfield ArtSpider, please consider shifting your attention to our Facebook fan page. We have linked our news blog to the fan account, and will be updating the entity account less and less often.
Stay tuned! More news soon!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
ArtSpider.net is ready for you!
Since our beta launch at the beginning of this month, our developers have been hard at work adding to the functionality of the ArtSpider.net site. We are please to report that the site is working increasingly well, and is ready for you to log in and customize your information!
We just sent out an email to members with log-in info. If the user name and passwords are different than what you remember setting up, it may be that we had to change your choices to accommodate length minimums. You can change your password once you log in, if you'd like; email us if you'd like your user name changed.
At this point, you can add picture(s), sample(s) of your work, contact info, and a bio. There are also "keywords." When a visitor does a search, all the words in your bio are scanned, so you will probably want to use the keywords for terms you want included in your description, but that didn't get included in the bio write-up.
If you are active creator in more than one art category, you can set up more than one account using the same email address. Just create a unique user name for each.
Please feel free to email us with any questions, or if you run into any problems.
We look forward to learning more about you - and the creative work you do - on ArtSpider!
We just sent out an email to members with log-in info. If the user name and passwords are different than what you remember setting up, it may be that we had to change your choices to accommodate length minimums. You can change your password once you log in, if you'd like; email us if you'd like your user name changed.
At this point, you can add picture(s), sample(s) of your work, contact info, and a bio. There are also "keywords." When a visitor does a search, all the words in your bio are scanned, so you will probably want to use the keywords for terms you want included in your description, but that didn't get included in the bio write-up.
If you are active creator in more than one art category, you can set up more than one account using the same email address. Just create a unique user name for each.
Please feel free to email us with any questions, or if you run into any problems.
We look forward to learning more about you - and the creative work you do - on ArtSpider!
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