engaging youth audiences with web 2.0 - francis nielsen - wolverhampton arts & museum service

Engaging Youth Audiences With Web 2.0

Wolverhampton Arts and Museum ServiceFrancis Nielsen – Outreach and Social

Inclusion Officer


• artforum - Gallery’s youth art group, running since 2005.

• artforum was initially set up to involve young people in regular consultations around the development of the Pop Art Gallery - target youth audience of 14 – 25 year olds.


• artforum decided to set up a Myspace web profile to coincide with the opening of the new Pop Art Gallery in March 2007.

• They started by creating a gallery

of work they had produced in

response to the new Pop Art

Gallery.


• Many of the artforum group have their own personal Myspace profiles and were keen to develop one for their group.

• artforum wanted to showcase their creative work on their Myspace as part of the launch for the Pop Art Gallery.

• They wanted to develop a dialogue between other young people and themselves.

• They wanted to get others involved with their group.


• The Gallery was responsible for the logistics of setting the account up, whereas the group were responsible for designing their profile style / layout and content.

www.myspace.com/wagartforum

http://www.myspace.com/wagartforum

ArtForum’s Myspace Profile (Home page: top)


Benefits of using Myspace?

Here artforum members tell you!


Chelsea Age 17

• "One advantage of having a Myspace for the group (artforum) is that it is easier to keep in touch with everyone, and up to date with the latest happenings at the gallery. We set up the Myspace page together, designing a layout and look for the artforum profile."


Ursula Age 16

• "Myspace is great for advertising galleries towards a younger audience as most people who use it are young! Myspace is good because you can really personalise your space and its a great way to communicate with current and potential members (for artforum)"


Chloe age 16

• "By creating a Myspace for artforum we can inform many young people on what a artforum includes. Myspace is quite a modern website, it is used to create a profile about yourself and inform others about you."


Freya Age 16• “…now that artforum has a Myspace we can get lots more

people interested in the gallery and interested in artforum because we can post pictures and write blogs about events that have taken place in artforum and in the Gallery. Also it is easier to contact the members of artforum and tell each other of upcoming events. I would recommend a Myspace to any group within a gallery.. if all the galleries in the world had one then we could easily search for galleries and find out what other young groups are doing for galleries across the world. It just opens up communication in such a wide network."

ArtForum’s Myspace Profile (Home page: middle)

ArtForum’s Myspace Profile (Home page: bottom)

ArtForum’s Myspace Profile (Home page: bottom - friend’s comments)

ArtForum’s Myspace Profile (Home page: bottom – friend’s comments)

ArtForum’s Myspace Profile (Home page: Blog Entry) :

You click on ‘view more’ to see Blog Entries

ArtForum’s Myspace Profile (blog entry 12.06.07)

ArtForum’s Myspace Profile (blog entry 23.06.07))

ArtForum’s Myspace Profile (blog entry 26.03.07))

ArtForum’s Myspace Profile (View My: Pics)

Click on View My: Pics to see your photos

ArtForum’s Myspace Profile (View My: Pics)


Benefits for Gallery staff of having a Myspace?• The Myspace initiated ongoing communication between

the Arts and Museum Service and artforum members outside of the artforum sessions – messages, queries / questions and comments through the profile.

• Young people get in touch to ask what artforum is all about – through a medium they feel confident using – never get phone calls from young people with new enquires about artforum – its either through Myspace or emails.


Benefits for Gallery staff of having a Myspace?• The immediacy of the ‘blogs’ and the personal

comments space has proved a valuable feature.

• Having the Myspace has developed as sense of a ‘community’ online for the group.

• Young people can take control of marketing their own events through the use of bulletins and posting messages through Myspace.


Barriers and issues • The Gallery has login control of the artforum Myspace

due to the need to retain editorial control.

MOVING FORWARDWe found that we need to refresh our methods ofcommunication to engage with the age group 14 – 25

Branding refresh:• We are researching into latest design trends, looking at

high street fashion graphics and magazine styles.• We aim to refresh the images that are used within social

network sites, as many are out of date.

Conducting research:• We have conducted a MySpace survey – via a bulletin • We hosted an artforum focus group (with incentives).• We looked at how do other galleries and museums do

it?

RESEARCH FINDINGS• We found that most young people who took part in the

survey find out about events through peer to peer recommendations.

• The most successful communication tool used at the test event was SMS text messages sent to current ArtForum members (using a standard mobile phone).

• MySpace is still the most popular social networking platform for young people in the group, closely followed by Facebook. Other notable sites used are Netlog and Bebo.

• A very small percentage of young people (14 -25) surveyed were signed up to Twitter.

• A very small percentage of the group surveyed read or comment on blogs, but a high percentage had an interest in taking part in a blogging activity.

HOW DO OTHER GALLERIES DO IT?

MOMA – New York• “MoMA voices”– blog posts by gallery staff.• Flickr - MoMA– syndicated images of the gallery. • Flickr members events.

Brooklyn Museum• “Target first Saturdays” – online members in-gallery

events.• “Tag! You’re It!” Online tagging game using collections.• Brooklyn ‘posse’ online membership.

http://www.moma.org/

http://www.moma.org/explore/moma_voices/index

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=MoMA

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/visit/first_saturdays.php

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/tag_game/start.php

USING SOCIAL MEDIAFor the future of ArtForum we want: to enable the participants to use online and mobile tools that create and encourage:

• CONNECTIONS • CONVERSATIONS • COLLABORATIONS • COMMUNITIESOnline and within the real world

We would like the ArtForum group to promote their good work to peers and parents, start conversations about art whilst documenting the artwork and relationships created.

We want to create a collaborative space such as an ArtForum blog which will bring together the group.

WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA?• It has proved to bring together gallery staff and online and

offline participants in a way that has never before.

• It encourages young people to look beyond the walls of the gallery where anyone can view and comment on the work they produce, opinions they hold and ideas they have.

• The group can promote future events online, giving ownership to the members.

• It gives these 'digital natives' added, applicable computer skills.

• It allows young people to collaborate with gallery staff and even lead on projects.

• Social media is about task, not technology which means that any activity can include a social media element.

SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITIES• Setting up and designing graphics for an ArtForum blog, inspired by the

gallery.

• Filming participation such as dance and uploading the video to video sharing site (youtube / Vimeo)

• Writing a review of an exhibition or an object in the permanent collection and posting it onto the blog.

• Collaborating on a task with another gallery group in the UK or abroad.

• Photographing the gallery or specific subject and uploading the images to Flickr, and using them within the blog.

• Find and embed research material about a particular movement or artist such as audio or video from YouTube into the blog.

• Create podcast interviews with gallery staff or artists.

• Create a calendar of events which the group would like to happen.

ONLINE SECURITY

• The group and staff need to write and adhere to a code of conduct.

• Everything posted online should be approved by an administrator beforehand, the same goes for comments.

• Parents of young people aged 18 or under need to be notified when children will be posting online and using photographs or videos of themselves.

• All login details for online accounts should be kept private.

engaging youth audiences with web 2.0 - francis nielsen - wolverhampton arts & museum service

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