Some visual memories stay with you from childhood. For me, one such vivid memory is of a large tapestry at Oxburgh Hall, a National Trust property in Norfolk. This, part of a series of hangings worked by Mary, Queen of Scots, features animals from all around the world – including one hilarious monkfish, memorably represented as a fish’s tail topped with the head of a monk. Thanks to the British Library, I now know that this image is drawn directly from the book De aquatilibus (1553) by the naturalist Pierre Belon, where it appears with a blue-scaled body morphing into a monk’s habit and tonsured head.

This illustration is made much of in the marketing for the exhibition ‘Animals: Art, Science and Sound’ at the British Library, which offers an amusing view into the history of humanity’s understanding of nature while sending a serious message about the relationship between image, description, observation and knowledge in natural history. As the exhibition makes clear, this kind of knowledge has never been more important than at the present time, when so many species are at risk.

‘Animals’ is a rich and rewarding tour through both the animal kingdom and the British Library’s extraordinary collections. The exhibition presents a 2,000-year story of discovery, destruction and endless wonder. It is divided into four sections focused on particular environments – darkness, water, land and air – each looking at extraordinary or well-known species, the ways they have adapted to their surroundings or the threats they face. The catalogue offers the opportunity to delve more deeply into a selection of the works on display.

The Hip-po-pot-a-mus (1918–20), a record published by the Talking Book Corporation. British Library, London

Large and lusciously illustrated books such as The Birds of America (1827–38) by John James Audubon demonstrate how humans have sought to represent the natural world by recording animals in their habitat. Belon’s monkfish is one cautionary tale about the importance of direct observation, as are some beautiful but implausibly coloured illustrations by Samuel Fallours from 1718, featuring Indonesian fish and crustaceans; these required extensive artistic licence, as the artist had to imagine the colouring lost so quickly in dead fish specimens. Then there is the tale of the bird of paradise: long thought to be constantly in flight and surviving on dew-laden sunlight, thanks to the lack of feet on any specimens sent back to Europe.

Fast forward through time, and the library’s sound archives allow us to hear animals in the wild. Field recordings include early sonograms by the amateur naturalist John Hooper, used to study the behaviour of the nocturnal and largely silent bat. Songs of the Humpback Whale (1970), an album recorded by bio-acoustician Roger Payne, played a crucial role in the international conservation movement to save whales from extinction. The album sold more than 125,000 copies; it remains the most popular nature recording in history. By combining immersive lighting with soundscapes – alongside the richly varied imagery, sounds and texts that make up the show – the exhibition is effective in engaging our senses.

Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (detail; 1705), Maria Sibylla Merian. British Library, London

One underlying theme to emerge from the show is the crucial yet often overlooked contributions made by women. We meet Sarah Bowditch, who illustrated and wrote The Fresh-Water Fishes of Great Britain in instalments from 1828 to 1838; Maria Sibylla Merian, who travelled from Amsterdam to Suriname in 1699 to record the metamorphosis of insects; and Indian artist Sita Ram, who drew South Asian animals for albums collated by Lady Flora Hastings in 1818–20. Recent acquisitions by the library include Evanesco: A Selection of Beleaguered Frogs (2020) by Alicia Bailey, a diamond-shaped artist’s book inspired by the biology notebooks of her great aunt.

This thread continues into the finale of the exhibition, ‘Going Forward’, in which three contemporary women are filmed talking about their work. Researcher Kate Scott-Gatty speaks about her surveys of hedgehog populations for the Zoological Society of London; Miranda Lowe discusses her role as the principal curator of crustacea at the Natural History Museum; the composer Roma Yagnik shares how she drew on the British Library’s sound archives to make a new audio work.

On my visit, the exhibition was buzzing with groups marvelling at the beauty or strangeness of the animals represented within. The British Library has produced a timely reminder of the fragile world in which we live, and the very great risk that we pose to its fauna.

Illustration of a Monkfish from De aquatilibus (Of Aquatic Species; 1553), Pierre Belon. British Library, London

‘Animals: Art, Science and Sound’ is at the British Library, London, until 28 August.

Representative image”>

In the ever-evolving realm of marketing, it seems that empty buzzwords have become a language of their own. From boardrooms to email signatures, these catchy phrases permeate every corner of the business world, leaving many feeling adrift in a sea of jargon. But hey, don’t worry! Navigating this linguistic maze is an art, and it comes with a wry smile

Welcome to the world of Buzzword Bingo, where the goal is not only to survive but to find humor in the perplexing and often absurd language of marketing. It’s a game played by professionals who have become adept at deciphering these empty phrases and finding ways to connect with their audiences on a more genuine level.

Imagine you’re sitting in a meeting, and the room is abuzz with corporate speak. Phrases like “synergy,” “disruptive innovation,” and “growth hacking” are being flung around like confetti. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, savvy marketers have learned to embrace the absurdity and create their own game of Buzzword Bingo. With a wry smile and a mental scorecard, these individuals listen intently, checking off the empty phrases as they are spouted by their colleagues. It’s a silent competition, a battle of wits against the empty rhetoric that threatens to drown out meaningful communication. The winner isn’t determined by who shouts “Bingo” first, but rather who can maintain their composure without bursting into laughter.But Buzzword Bingo isn’t just about poking fun at the overused phrases that populate the marketing landscape. It’s about recognizing the need for authenticity and forging genuine connections with customers. In a world saturated with empty promises and exaggerated claims, finding a way to stand out is essential. The true masters of Buzzword Bingo understand that while these phrases may be empty, they still hold power. They can be used strategically to grab attention, create curiosity, and build momentum. The key is to infuse them with substance and purpose, to go beyond the buzz, and deliver on the promises made. Take, for example, the phrase “thought leadership.” It’s a term that has been thrown around so often that it’s lost much of its meaning. But by pairing it with genuine expertise and valuable insights, marketers can transform it from a hollow buzzword into a catalyst for change and innovation.

So, the next time you find yourself drowning in a sea of marketing jargon, take a step back and embrace the art of Buzzword Bingo. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, approach it with a wry smile and a sense of humor. Use it as an opportunity to connect with others who are equally exasperated and find common ground in the absurdity of it all.

Remember, marketing doesn’t have to be a game of smoke and mirrors. By infusing your efforts with authenticity, substance, and a touch of humor, you can rise above the empty phrases and create meaningful connections that resonate with your audience. And perhaps, along the way, you’ll become a master of Buzzword Bingo, navigating the treacherous seas of marketing with a wry smile.

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How Chris Capossela and His Marketing Team Are Harnessing a Wave of AI Infused Offerings to Drive Growth

Chris Capossela has been leading worldwide marketing for Microsoft across both the consumer and commercial businesses since 2014. In that time, Capossela has been quietly transforming the Microsoft brand. Over the last nine years, coincident with Satya Nadella’s tenure as CEO, the financial value of the Microsoft brand has grown fourfold (to $278 B). The stronger brand gives the company expanded permission to move into the large and growing markets for cybersecurity, cloud software, and AI.

While Capossela and his team had a lot to do with that outcome, he gives most of the credit to the vision, processes, and team Nadella put in place when he took over as CEO. “Marketing has been part of building the brand, but this is a team sport,” says Capossela. “That’s the way we’re structured. So the growth in brand value is always a reflection also on the performance of the overall leadership team – engineering, sales, finance, legal – and the financial performance that team has achieved since Satya became the CEO.”

The growing power of the brand affords Microsoft the credibility to expand into a much wider range of markets that extend well beyond their legacy in PC operating systems like cloud computing and cyber security. ”Our security business has become a real juggernaut for us,” says Capossela. “The same goes for the development community which has come to rely on our tool set. A decade ago, the notion that GitHub would be part of a thriving ecosystem of open source development within Microsoft might seem foreign.” Today over 100 million developers worldwide use the Microsoft owned open source platform to build, ship and maintain software

“I think one of the things we’ve really learned is the power of the Microsoft brand is stronger than the power of any individual product name – even with something as big or as important as Windows or Xbox,” says Capossela. That ability to expand and extend the brand into new product areas is important given the size, breadth, and variety of growth markets the company has before it. In the last decade, a confluence of secular trends has dramatically expanded the market for Microsoft’s evolving portfolio of productivity, intelligent cloud and personal computing products. For example:

· The mainstream shift to cloud computing and “as a service” models across industries has created a fast growing market for enterprise cloud infrastructure that will exceed $250 Billion this year, according to Synergy Research Group forecasts;

· Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers the potential to eliminate and automate drudgery and unlock the creative and innovative potential of humans. A Microsoft external analysis of 31,000 global workers and trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals found that nearly 2 in 3 workers struggle to free up time for innovation and strategic thinking because they are swamped with mundane tasks that should be rationalized or automated;

· The recent pandemic redefined the nature of work by creating diverse, digital, dynamic and distributed workforces that rely on the type of collaboration, communications, and productivity tools Microsoft creates in their day-to-day work;

· The untapped market for cybersecurity is measured in the Trillions of dollars and experiencing 35% job growth in an uncertain economy where many technology functions are experiencing layoffs;

· The gaming industry – which is eclipsing movies and television as the primary source of entertainment – is expanding even faster as it moves to the cloud;

· Low-code development tools like Microsoft Power Apps and Azure will account for 75% of new application development by 2026, according to Gartner.

Microsoft is well positioned to become the dominant player in these markets. For example, the mainstream shift to cloud computing has fueled the growth of Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud Solutions – centered around the ascendence of the Azure Cloud Computing platform – to comprise over 40% of the company’s revenues and command a quarter of the global cloud infrastructure market.

AI is opening up an equally large market for the company. The recent excitement over OpenAI’s ChatGPT’s generative AI tool has demonstrated the art of the possible in a wide range of consumer, workplace and commercial applications. The ChatGPT’s generative AI tool has reached 1 million users 12 times faster than the iPhone, 60 times faster than Facebook, and 200 times faster than Netflix streaming video. Microsoft has invested heavily in OpenAI and is now investing to lead in the new AI wave across all of their solution areas to exploit the unprecedented speed at which generative AI applications are being adopted by businesses and consumers according to the CEO in their most recent earnings call. The company is expanding applications of generative AI across modalities – from audio (VALL-E) to video (GODIVA) and 3D (RODIN-Diffusion) – and use cases like DNA sequencing (MoLeR), code generation (GitHub Copilot) and data engineering (Copilot in Microsoft Fabric).

“AI is being infused to drive innovation across our entire infrastructure product portfolio,” says Capossela. For example, the company is committed to turning Azure into an AI supercomputer for the entire world. Azure is the exclusive cloud provider for every tool OpenAI (the maker of the revolutionary ChatGPT tool) has in the works. “Our Build conference for the developer community is focused on AI from start to finish,” he continues. At the conference, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced 50 AI Copilots available to developers with thousands more on the way.

From a productivity perspective, Microsoft has introduced a wave of solutions and partnerships that are leveraging AI to make work more productive and creative. These range from the core Microsoft 365 application suite, to the Power Platform BI tool, to using AI in Teams to make it faster to prepare for, execute, and follow up on meetings. According to Capossela, all of these solutions support the core mission of Microsoft because they aim to solve the twin challenges of the modern workforce – eliminating drudgery and unlocking creative and innovative potential. “When we saw the potential upsides and downsides of AI and we saw what we thought we could do with Word, with Teams, with Visual Studio, GitHub, and Azure, this notion of Copilot emerged,” he continued. “We’re not going to automate people away from their work. We are going to be their Copilot. We’re going to take the drudgery away from them, but they’re still completely in control.” For example, the Dynamics 365 Copilot works across CRM and ERP systems to bring the next generation of AI to employees in sales and finance to automate burdensome tasks like manual data entry, content generation and notetaking.

“Great companies position themselves for secular trend changes,” he continues. “We’ve been quite fortunate that Satya has been able to do that first with the cloud. Now I would say AI infused technology will be the second most important shift that hopefully will power the next 10 years for the global economy. And that’s what we’re busy doing.” Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates believes the impact of a future AI -enabled personal assistant – or “copilot” – will be so profound that the first company to develop it will transform the way work gets done and the future of the search, commerce, and internet industries as we know them today.

“As a marketing team, we still have to position ourselves with the right products in those segments to capitalize on those secular shifts,” warns Capossela. That is no small task given the breadth of market opportunity AI opens up for Microsoft. Microsoft operates in a marketplace cluttered with hundreds of rapidly converging software categories, over 30,000 SaaS software companies, and hundreds of thousands of apps, products, and solutions for sale. More are on the way. So Capossela and his team have had to find smart ways to simplify and focus their messaging and positioning despite the wide array of AI infused innovation Microsoft’s product teams are introducing into this crowded marketplace in 2023.

One way has been to lean more on the company brand rather than proliferate product brands. “More and more of our teams have learned and want to lean into more of a companywide approach on something like naming or branding,” he continues. “That’s been a huge change that I’ve gotten to witness. It used to be everyone wanted their own thing with their own everything, your own icon, their own message.”

Another way to communicate the wide range of innovation that AI has spawned across its product line (from productivity solutions to search and cloud computing) is by focusing on a handful of solution areas rather than hundreds of new product launches. Each of these individual solution areas represents an enormous expansion market for Microsoft – propelled by secular trends and market tailwinds. “We focus on what we call ten customer solution areas,” says Capossela. “These are the ten core businesses we’re in. Gaming is one of them. Security is another. The others include cloud infrastructure, data and AI, modern work and digital and app innovation. We have a different way to go to market in each of these ten solution areas.”

“One of the gifts Satya gives me as the CMO is an organization structure that allows us to look left to right so we can manage packaging and pricing across all of our products as it relates to AI and move with more speed,” says Capossela. His span of control as CMO includes: product marketing, business planning, brand, advertising, events, media buying, communications and market research as well as all digital direct and retail sales for all Microsoft products and services. “By having a centralized marketing organization, you can do those naming decisions and business model design in a far more comprehensive end to end way than if you have seven or ten different presidents of ten different businesses, all who have their own marketing, pricing, licensing and finance teams,” he continues. “That allows us to say, this huge wave is coming – how do we think about naming this stuff? How do we think about packaging and pricing this stuff?”

For example, in terms of naming, rather than introduce dedicated AI products, or product variants, the company has introduced the notion of an AI Copilot that can be applied to many of the solutions in the portfolio to improve individual productivity and unlock human creativity. “We decided that the word Copilot was an important word for us to latch on to, because despite all of our products, almost everything we do is to empower somebody else to do what they want to do,” says Capossela. AI “copilots” are being infused into a wide range of solutions and tools in the Microsoft portfolio – Microsoft 365, Dynamics CRM, Bing search, Edge browser, the Power Platform BI tool, and the biggest canvas of all – the flagship Windows product.

Another way that Chris’s marketing team has become more effective is by actually using Microsoft tools and analytics to leverage the mountains of customer engagement data generated by the modern commercial model. Capossela views the ability to harness the first party customer interaction data their organizations generate as a key to succeeding in their jobs going forward. “Great data with great analytics with machine learning is a really, really transformative recipe for marketers,” he emphasizes. “Most marketers I know have access to lots and lots of data. We’re lucky that we do too. And a lot of it is first party customer data. But it’s the tools and the analytics that have gotten much, much better. In our case, we’ve been able to make very fast project progress in just a handful of years because of the power of the technology we have at our disposal across our product and partner ecosystem. Whether that’s things like Azure Machine Learning which we now use extensively, or the power of these Copilots that we’re building into our products, or social listening that we can do with our own technology and also partners. As marketers, we are using these tools to become very smart about the audiences we focus on. who those people are, the language that they use on social, what their perceptions are towards Microsoft, the stories that resonate with them, the ways we can target them – all of which we can do analytically without even having to do research necessarily.”

In recognition of his contributions to the marketing craft, Chris is being inducted into the AMA Marketing Hall of Fame this June 7^th in New York City. The Hall Of Fame award celebrates the world’s best marketers, recognizing brilliance in marketing and innovation across the marketing profession.

Nicholas Schleif created this portrait of Harvey Milk using gunpowder. The red lips are a staple of his artwork.

NEW ULM– The Grand is hosting the Queer Experience Regional Exhibition starting Friday.

The opening reception will be from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Cheese and wine will be served, and several artists will be there to meet and greet.

Artist Megan Rolloff came up with the idea for a collaborative queer exhibition. Executive Director Lauren Stinson said that Rolloff has been working with different art centers for the past 9 months to get an exhibition put together.

The timing of this exhibit coincides with Pride Month. Stinson said this was planned and several other art centers in Minnesota are doing similar shows. She wants the show to send the message that everyone is welcome in New Ulm.

“Part of what this exhibition was designed to do was to show support for the LGBTQ+ people in our town and the surrounding area.” Stinson said. “We want to show not just New Ulm but the entire surrounding community that as an art center, we are welcoming to and open to all creators and all voices.”

This piece, created with pencil and acrylic paint on a small canvas, was created by Jenny Christensen. The art is entitled “My Love for Charlie”.

This exhibition is a collaboration with the Carnegie Art Center, Arts Center of St. Peter, and The 410 Project. It is a multi-artist show. The Grand asked for queer and ally artists to submit pieces for the show and were very pleased with the turnout.

“We are excited to have the artists that submitted artwork. [There is] a wide range of ages and experience levels, from very professional to really beginner.” Stinson said.

“This is the first year that any of these art centers are doing this.” Marketing Director Tamara Furth said. “So anytime we do something for the first time, it’s really [hard] even just getting the word out.”

There are several types of artwork on display. One that Furth noted to be unique is a painting of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be a public official in California. The painting is made using gunpowder.

The show will be open until the end of June from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m Tuesday through Saturday. A donation box is set up for those who want to show support.

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On May 15^th, Alyona Ushe took the reins as the Executive Director of the Centers for the Arts in Bonita Springs. Her prior experience uniquely qualifies her to help the Centers better achieve its mission of enriching lives through artistic expression, education and arts appreciation.

Going forward, the Centers will place greater emphasis on musical programming. This plays directly into Ushe’s forte. After running the New Orleans Opera Association for a number of years, Ushe founded the critically-acclaimed Arts Garage in Delray Beach. During her tenure, the Arts Garage presented more than 500 performances by both regional and international recording artists.

“The idea was that I was going to open a warehouse that we were going to transform into an art gallery, but the journey turned a little bit and I started Arts Garage, which was a mini-cultural center,” Ushe said. “It was very intimate and we did a lot of various programming from music, jazz, blues, country, to a theater company, gallery exhibitions, various intense educational programs.”

Ushe’s selection was not coincidental. A survey that CFABS conducted a year ago revealed that members wanted more musical performances. At its Bonita Beach Road campus, CFABS has two venues that are especially well-suited to musical performances, the 400-seat Hinman Auditorium and the smaller Moe Auditorium and Film Center. Ushe is particularly enamored of the Moe’s more intimate feel.

“That’s something that jazz and blues really offer themselves up to. So you can see the sweat coming down the musicians’ faces and you can feel that you’re part of the music,” said Ushe.

Besides jazz and blues, the Centers plans to offer everything from country and bluegrass to classic rock and cabaret.

“We’re going to have an eclectic series. And we’re going to be offering for the first time in a while, I believe, a subscription series to engage our audience,” she said. “But I would love to hear from our patrons. I want to know what they would like to see on stage.”

Ushe is also planning some outdoor performances, not only in Riverside Park but on the outdoor stage at the Visual Arts Center.

“We’ve been talking about doing some of the performances here and test the waters a little bit or maybe do something a little more eclectic and crazy. I’m all for crazy, so I love to experiment and take creative risks and I think this spark will give us an opportunity to start, and then we can grow into something bigger.”

Ushe also plans to build upon the success of the Centers’ every-other-Monday-night film series by screening more independent films and documentaries. This will create opportunities for local filmmakers, but it’s local visual artists who will benefit most under Ushe’s direction.

“I strongly believe that the only way we can build a cultural community is by supporting our local artists.”

Support will not only come in the form of monthly on-site exhibitions, but special shows at off-site venues and even the opportunity for local artists to create their own webpage on the Centers’ website.

For Ushe, collaborations without borders are critically important.

“I don’t believe in cultural competitions, so to me the more partnerships we have with other organizations, artists, businesses, universities, schools, you name it, it’s all about working together to achieve one goal — putting more arts and culture into our community.”

This collaborative philosophy begins at home, so she’s tasked her team with coming up with as many creative ideas as possible. But she wants to hear from the public as well.

“I’d love to hear what people feel that we’re missing, what challenges we’re facing, what the solutions are, and how we can come up with some creative things that haven’t been done before …. I don’t know yet what’s out there, and everyday something new is going to pop up, and I want to know what that new thing is and then we can connect dots together because by connecting those dots, we can create something magnificent.”

Big dreams and great ideas need financial backing. Ticket and art sales alone are just not enough. So Ushe makes this plea:

“I call to your viewers not only to support us, but to support the arts in general because together again we can make things that are beyond our imagination.”

The return on investment is huge because the arts transform lives.

“If there is a problem, arts can solve it in one way or another. When it comes to building imagination, when it comes to building relationships, when it comes to dealing with depression, when it comes to dealing with PTSD, arts can solve just about anything. Going to listen to music helps your mood. When you see a beautiful piece of artwork on the walls, it can transform your observation of the world, and it’s fun. [laughing] Arts are fun, and without arts, it’s just survival. With arts, we’re living.”

MORE INFORMATION:

• Alyona began her career by founding Classika-Synetic Theater in the Washington DC Metro area. “Right after college, my mother, who was an established actress in the former Soviet Union, decided that she wanted to start a theater company based in the Russian theatrical tradition and she looked at her only offspring and said, ‘Hey, honey, why don’t you help me out.’ So I thought I was humoring my mother, but the joke was on me [laughing] because many decades later, I’m still doing this.”
• As President and CEO of South Florida’s Creative City Collaborative, Ushe grew the organizational budget to over $4 million.
• More recently, Ushe won a highly competitive bid in Pompano Beach to revitalize, program, and operate a 3,000-seat dormant amphitheater and to open a new $20 million Cultural Center.
• “I strongly believe that all of my previous positions kind of prepared me for this one, with the two centers and the [Bonita Springs International Art] festival,” comments Ushe. “All the activities that we are doing here are so rich in programming, and are so important to the community that my previous experience hopefully will enable me to build on its success.”
• Founded in 1959, the Centers for the Arts Bonita Springs (CFABS) is committed to enriching the lives of the community by providing opportunities for artistic expression, education, and appreciation. CFABS has two campus locations dedicated to the visual or performing arts, the 10-acre four-building Visual Arts Center at 26100 Old 41 Road and the four-acre two-building Performing Arts Center, 10150 Bonita Beach Road.
• Ushe suspects that marketing the Centers’ expanded programming will be more challenging than the programming itself. “I think our biggest challenge is that we do so much, and when it comes to our marketing department, how do we make sure that we reach the right audiences for all of the things that we’re doing,” Ushe observes. “I’m really hoping that the word of mouth is going to continue to spread as it has been, but that the people who are most passionate about a particular musical genre will bring their friends, and have their friends bring their friends because we do need help from the community to let everyone else know how much is being offered this year.”
• Ushe is a pragmatist. “I think it’s important to understand what works and what doesn’t,” Alyona remarks. “Ideas are easy, but for us creative people, it’s the implementation that takes a little more time.”
• Although she’s only been on the job for two weeks, Alyona thinks the Centers’ prospects and opportunities are infinite. “But I also want to be really smart about it and develop programs that are appropriate for this particular community but also develop programs that will appeal to the world outside so we can bring more folks to us. So that’s the juggling game that we’re playing and we have enough talent, we have more than enough talent on staff here to make sure we will surprise everybody who’s been here before, and make sure that they want to come back, over and over again.”
• Echoing Woody Allen (who once said “80% of success is showing up”), Alyona points out that “most of the partnerships in my previous life have come unexpectedly, mostly by me showing up to different things.”
• Ushe has experienced first hand how the arts can drive economic development. “Arlington, Virginia, where I started my career was a sleepy, forgotten neighborhood in Washington D.C. and then the Cultural Affairs of Arlington County came in and said enough is enough, and they created an incubation program where they helped local performing arts organizations get free space. And that transformed the county completely. All of a sudden, theater and dance companies were coming to Arlington County. All of a sudden, the galleries started to pop up. All of a sudden, there was a need for festivals. And all of a sudden, Arlington County’s tagline became ‘Arlington County, where arts come out to play.’ And that was because the county realized the significance and economic development contribution the arts made to the community and you cannot recognize the county that I was in then and what it is today.

To read more stories about the arts in Southwest Florida visit Tom Hall’s website: SWFL Art in the News.

Spotlight on the Arts for WGCU is funded in part by Naomi Bloom, Jay & Toshiko Tompkins, and Julie & Phil Wade.

Published: 01 Jun 2023

Veronika Skliarova, image courtesy of the British Council.

A new residency programme for Ukrainian arts professionals has been announced, delivered in partnership between British Council Scotland, Creative Scotland and the Ukrainian Institute.

Taking place over the next seven months, the pilot project will see six leaders and decision makers from the Ukrainian arts sector visit and stay at arts organisations across Scotland.  A bespoke programme will be created for each participant, offering them time away from turmoil and a chance to reflect and think to the future for their own artistic practices, their organisations, and the wider art sector in Ukraine.

The residencies will be based in creative organisations across the country, leading in arts, literature, sculpture, and music. The organisations hosting participants for the project are: Cove Park, Moniack Mhor, Hospitalfield, North Lands Creative, and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.

Each residency has been designed to provide valuable time and thinking-space allowing participants to develop their work, take advantage of facilities, workshops, events, and to link-up with Scottish-based creatives to build lasting connections across the creative sector in the UK.

Coming from a range of artistic disciplines, participants are leaders in the arts sector in Ukraine having worked in fields including festival creation, visual arts, design, literature, and music.

The project has been born of out of a Creative Scotland and British Council partnership and as a key legacy project for the UK/Ukraine Season of Culture’s Future Reimaged programme.

The UK/Ukraine Season of Culture was launched by the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute in 2022 to mark 30 years of UK/Ukraine diplomatic relations. Through a year-long programme of activity, the season has served as a platform for cultural exchange, artistic expression, and cooperation, bringing together a community of artists from Ukraine and the UK.

Veronika Skliarova, a cultural manager, theatre producer and art curator, will be the first participant to travel to Scotland for a residency in July, she speaks to us about her experience over the last year and what she hopes for her time at Cove Park, an international artists residency centre on Scotland’s west coast.

She said: “Art and the creative process has played an incredibly important role in Ukraine, especially after 24 Feb 2022, for therapy, trauma response, and helping give artists and communities a voice. Over the last year I have worked on projects including helping evacuate Ukrainian art and developing Anthology24, a set of theatre texts that will help provide a space for witness and expression.

“I hope to find quiet and safe space at Cove Park. My focus for the moment is to study the issue of the “migration” of contemporary Ukrainian art life, which now seems like a divided archipelago, spread around the world. In Scotland, I hope to meet new people, new artists, and to find out more about the inner motivation of people in becoming creators”.

Introducing the residency programme, Anastasiia Manuliak Head of Visual Arts, Ukrainian Institute says: “A key goal of the UK/Ukraine season of culture has been to enhance cultural exchange between UK and Ukraine and It is wonderful to see that the season has sparked this idea for future collaboration in Scotland.  I’m delighted we could offer this opportunity and space for leaders in the Ukrainian arts sector and I’ve no doubt the Scotland residencies project will be a great legacy for the Future Reimaged project.”

Speaking about how the residency project was developed, Norah Campbell, Head of Arts at British Council Scotland adds: “Over the last 18 months, we’ve heard about the experiences of our counterparts and colleagues in Ukraine and we’ve responded in the best way we know how, by utilising our networks and building connections to support Ukrainian creatives. These residencies will offer a much-needed space for calm and reflection and will be an extremely important and fruitful time for all those taking part.”

Alexia Holt, Director of Cove Park will welcome the first residency participant in July: “We look forward to welcoming the Ukrainian producer, curator, and cultural manager Veronica Skliarova to Cove Park in July as part of the UK-Ukraine season Future Reimagined. This residency perfectly expresses our core determination to support and work with those most in need of the space we offer, to build and sustain cross cultural connections, and to imagine a peaceful, fairer and more socially just world.”

Find out more about the residencies.

Background

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. We do this through our work in arts and culture, education and the English language. We work with people in over 200 countries and territories and are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021-22 we reached 650 million people.

Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland distributing funding provided by the Scottish Government and The National Lottery. Further information at creativescotland.com. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Learn more about the value of art and creativity in Scotland and join in at www.ourcreativevoice.scot

The UK/Ukraine Season of Culture (www.ukuaseason.org) is a collaboration between The British Council and the Ukrainian Institute, the UK/Ukraine Season is being presented in the UK, online and across some satellite locations until June 2023, featuring artist residencies, talks, film, music, literature, drama and dance. The Season, which has been planned since 2019 to mark 30 years of diplomatic relations between the UK and Ukraine, aims to strengthen and build cultural connections between both countries, while providing new platforms and opportunities for Ukrainian artists to connect with the UK. With the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Season’s theme is ‘Future Reimagined’, focusing on the changed needs and priorities of the Ukrainian sector, giving a voice to Ukrainian creatives, both in the UK and online.

The Ukrainian Institute (www.ui.org.ua) is a public institution affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Its mission is to strengthen Ukraine’s international standing through the means of cultural diplomacy. The Institute facilitates international connections between people and institutions and creates opportunities for Ukraine to interact and cooperate with the world.

Media contacts

Rosalind Gould, British Council: +44 (7770 934953 E: rosalind.gould@britishcouncil.org

The home of Ellsworth Kelly’s iconic modernist chapel titled “Austin,” the Blanton Museum of Art has expanded its outdoor art environment with a sculptural installation by Snøhetta. The architecture and design firm (previously) began the project in 2018 with the ambitious task of reinterpreting an area of 200,000 square feet, containing two large buildings that are part of The University of Texas at Austin’s campus. Its downtown location provided an incredible opportunity to revitalize the space for public gatherings, civic events, and art installations, linking the university campus and city center and creating an architectural dialogue between interior and exterior.

A copse of Snøhetta’s “Petals” rise from the Blanton’s Moody Patio, which forms a gateway connecting Congress Avenue to the pedestrian spine of the university campus. The sculptures create an elegant arch, providing shade and dappling the pavement and surrounding buildings with specks of light that filter through perforated patterns. On not-so-sunny days, rain that falls into the petals is funneled into an underground collection system. The firm sought a design that “unifies the museum campus with the city’s prominent avenue through a choreography of planting, geometry, and art.”

The museum hosts an outdoor party in the courtyard patio every second Saturday of the month. Find more on Snøhetta’s website.

Photo by Tim Ogunlowo

Photo by Sloan Breeden Photography

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article A Grove of Petal-Like Sculptures by Snøhetta Shade the New Grounds of Blanton Art Museum appeared first on Colossal.

Inside a black tent at the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, you can hear jabbering.

The sound is somewhat muffled, but the talking heads seem to be screaming, talking over one another.

They are representative of how we think we are really listening to someone, but we have no idea what they are saying because we are trying to get our message across.

And, in turn, no one gets heard.

“We need to communicate better,” said Jimmy West, the artist who created the installation.

It’s called “Utterance.”

West, a sculptor, created 11 life-size heads, two made of resin and nine in bronze. Through the use of computer software in a studio, he recorded his voice screaming with the sound coming from the heads perched on a pole.

West describes it as a symbolic sculpture, which uses “illumination and volume control, about how we, as humans, need to quiet the noise around us and listen, really listen, to the messages that are being broadcast, and how we use our own voices to communicate.”

The piece is located in The Backyard, an outdoor area at Eighth and Penn avenues, Downtown.

It will be on display until June 11.

People can download a QRcode and record their answer to the question and upload it on an app: How can we communicate better?

Posts will be viewed to make sure people don’t use profanity or hate. The posts will be shown on a loop on a screen next to the installation throughout the 10-day festival.

JoAnne Klimovich Harrop | Tribune-Review

Artist Jimmy West of Blawnox pretends he is screaming at one of the talking heads in his sculpture, “Utterance,” on June 1 at The Backyard in Downtown Pittsburgh for the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival.

West was making final adjustments to the piece on June 1. He said tone is very important when trying to get a message across.

“It is how I deliver a word, how we perceive each other and how we receive each other,” he said. “Too many times there is all this noise and no one is really listening.”

“Think about what you experience every day; there is simply too much noise and not enough listening,” he said. “‘Utterance’ reminds us that in order to listen to one another, really listen, we must first quiet the noise that surrounds us. Only then can we truly hear and be heard.”

West’s piece represents why art matters, said Sarah Aziz, Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival director.

“It will be a safe place for discussion, and the piece is really about getting people talking,” Aziz said. “I hope it sparks some thoughtful conversation and active listening.”

Marc Fleming chief marketing officer and curator of Broadway productions for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, said West’s piece looks at communication through a common experience.

“Art pieces like this one that are interactive draw people in, and they see different angles of a topic,” Fleming said. “This piece will create open conversation.”

An inspiration for the piece came from a conversation West had with his 5-year-old granddaughter, Lola. She was listening to the talking heads and said, “Pops, why can’t they just talk?”

“We need to be better listeners,” West said. “Art has done what it was intended to do when art makes people think and remember.”

West, who grew up in Fox Chapel, has a studio in Blawnox, which he calls Studio Wild West. He created it from a 50-foot-wide by 30-foot-wide barn, which he had dismantled in Washington, Washington County and reassembled. He has been creating art for more than three decades. One of his most recognizable local pieces sits atop Mt. Washington — the larger-than-life bronze sculptures called “Point of View” depicts the monumental meeting of George Washington and Seneca leader Guyasuta in 1770. He installed that in 2006.

West is self-taught but credits his late uncle, Frank West, who was a developer, as one of his mentors.

He made the heads in “Utterance” abstract so that the focus is on the sound and not the faces. He talks about the piece on his website.

“The voices overlap like they are talking over one other,” West said. “This is exciting to me because I am always learning technology is becoming such a big part of art. We want people to be able to touch this and feel it and listen to it. The more you are tied to it, the more it will affect you. I want people to think and to pause and for them to not be a prisoner of their thoughts.”

“I am right, and you are wrong,” West said. “And I am not listening to what you have to say. Why can’t we just talk to each other and learn how can we communicate better? I hope this piece starts a dialog.”

So do the talking heads.

JoAnne Klimovich Harrop is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact JoAnne by email at jharrop@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Categories:
Downtown Pittsburgh | Fox Chapel Herald | Local | Art & Museums | Valley News Dispatch

The art collective KIRAC was embroiled in court battles over a film about the author’s sex life. Is the dispute a performance? A marketing stunt? Or a genuine cultural feud?

The music streaming world remains an insanely competitive place, one where it is constantly necessary to stand out. But how do companies do that? TIDAL is hoping to do so with their new Artists Home program, launched yesterday (May 31).

The idea behind the program, I found talking to Jesse Dorogusker, TIDAL CEO, and Agustina Sacerdote, TIDAL’s Head of Product, is to make it easier for artists to manage their online presence on TIDAL in one place.

As Dorogusker and Sacerdote explained, they understand an artists’ time is very previous. “To do so in a way that actually saves the artist’s time, saves the artist’s energy, because those are the two things that they need to create music. So again we just always want to default and gravitate towards helping the artist afford to make music and afford to live off of their art,” Sacerdote says of the program.

We spoke to them about TIDAL’s commitment to new artists, their excitement behind the Artists Home program and much more.

Steve Baltin: For me, I still get off more than anything on the sense of music discovery. It’s finding those new artists that you get excited about the same way you did when you were 15 years old. So Danielle Ponder had that.

Agustina Sacerdote: It’s funny that you mentioned this because this is something that I talk to my team a lot all the time. We spend so much time figuring out how to encourage and enable really exciting discovery like that, like you just talked about, within the app. I still think that live festivals are probably the most exciting way and the most effective way to get to that feeling. And so we’re thinking a lot about like how do we get you 24 hours after you went to a festival or went to a show, to have a similar experience or like leverage that experience in the app. And so obviously we have to know that you went to a show and stuff like that. But like that feeling, it happened to me with Tank And The Bangas recently. I went to a show and 24 hours later I had to spent $200 on records and stuff. Short answer is yes, we’re thinking about that for long.

Baltin: Let’s talk about Artists Home and obviously that ties in with the music discovery. What it is that you want people to be able to do with that?

Sacerdote: Artists Home, for us, is very important and very symbolic, obviously, of the direction that we want to go. It is effectively the first important and visible milestone towards this journey of, working directly with the artists in the spirit of helping them to make music. And if you look at it today, and if you look at Artists Home, in its initial stages , it’ll enable artists to manage their presence on TIDAL. And instead of getting lost in the shuffle between the distributors or their managers and us we try to make sure that their content is accurate and that their profile image supports their latest release, we’re now automating a lot of that. But most importantly, I think this provides a home. We were very intentional with the name where an artist can effectively manage and explore and learn about different ways to grow their business. And so we’re very really focused on the economic empowerment side of that, on the income side of that. And this is why also we’re focused a lot on the fan side. Because we know, and you probably know better than I do, that, streaming isn’t necessarily the best way for the vast majority of artists to make money. But having an active engaged fan base is. So, for us, it’s almost like we’re looking at the artists and we’re building tools and experiences directly, to solve their needs. But the fan side is the huge side of the equation as well. And, I think playing on both sides of the same coin is why we’re all here and why we think we can do something really meaningful in that regard.

Sage Bava: I’m an emerging artist. I’m releasing some music soon, and I am really intrigued to hear more about title and your recommendations for artists that are just putting music out now and how it differentiates from other streaming platforms.

Jesse Dorogusker: I can take that. Thrilled to have you on the call and congratulations. TIDAL has always been artist focused, artists first. It’s probably our biggest differentiator among the other streaming services. And the way Jay-Z and his co-founders started it in 2015 was very focused on artists. And the tools they had to do that was in their language, focusing on audio quality, really trying to present music in the way that artists intended it, and not diminishing it with compression and dismissing that as something that was unimportant or that not everyone could hear. And amazing editorial work focusing on artist, artist journeys, artist stories, celebrating the history and the present and the future of musicianship and contribution to a dialogue in a catalog of music. So we carry all that forward and now are turning that into tech enabled direct relationships with artists with Artist Home. So in releasing new music, first presenting it in the best audio quality possible is a great idea. I know it’s not what all people need in all circumstances. If you’re on a mobile phone and a tight data plan, listening to an MP3 is okay. But not giving artists and fans and opportunity to listen to CD quality or better, I think that’s a mistake. And I’m really proud that we’ve always supported that. So that’s number one. We’ve refocused our, marketing and artist marketing efforts in a new program called Rising, which has had many journeys through TIDAL’s history, but we re-launched it as a way to just directly support rising artists. So we launched with a showcase of 20 artists who are focusing on, we’ll extend that to a couple hundred throughout the year where we’re providing education and spotlighting artists. We just did a showcase in Nashville around the Music Biz Conference with some rising artists. And, we did similar in Atlanta last fall. And we’re able to do simple things like put together a concert, buy a few billboards, spotlight the material on TIDAL, and help artists tell their own stories in their own way, and just get access to audiences and some tools that they’ve never had before. So Rising is a really great way for us to focus, not just supporting artists directly, but really our marketing efforts. TIDAL’s marketing has been an array of brand and superstars and concert tour launches and live streams. And now we’re focusing it a lot more on the artist’s journey and making sure that our dollars and our voice and our editorializing and our play listing is focusing on rising artists especially.

Baltin: What are the criteria you’re using in selecting TIDAL Rising artists?

Dorogusker: We’ve made sure that all of our showcases have been a diversity of music styles and genres, a diversity of ages. Geographically we’re trying to get all over the U.S. and do some of these spotlights globally as well. Rising artistry isn’t one thing. We do have strong credibility, history, and amazing editorial team in hip hop. I don’t think we’ll ever stray too far from that expertise and strength. But the Rising artist journey has a lot of common threads of discovery and struggle, and lack of access to data and anonymous fans and gate kept services and exclusion from the industry. And no access to capital, bad financial services, All of these things are consistent and bust through all of the genres and the choices. We can send you a list of the people that were in our Nashville Showcase and then our Atlanta Georgia Showcase, just to give you a flavor of how we’ve brought these stories to life. But really they’re just in the artist’s voices themselves, and we’re not trying to chart a narrow path through what a TIDAL artist is. Just what a Rising artist is.

Baltin: The one thing that we have found in interviews we’ve been doing this year, with everyone from Herbie Hancock to Samara Joy, is the return to organics and the fact that people really want a human connection. And that’s one of the things that really interests me because I think that’s where streaming for a long time failed is not being able to do that. How can you bring that human component in?

Dorogusker: It’s such a good observation. And we do see the same diversity and a lot of people with conflicting feelings about social media. I think the only focus for us that’s going to work and scale is giving artists agency and access to engage with what’s around them, however makes sense to them and let them tell stories. So that means de-anonymizing their fan base, that means revealing data to them in a way that they can take action on it. That means giving them tools to engage with social media however they want. A lot of fans would say they just want to be behind to velvet rope and meet their favorite artist. That might not be what the artist wants. We’re not just going to turn over the database and let people email, text message and DM their favorite artist. That’s not safe or a smart way to do it. But all of these tools, analysis, databases, loans, publishing rights, these are all just so elusive and we need to put it back in the hands of artists so they can decide what their journey is going to be like. And right now they have a lot of people deciding on their behalf and it’s a big mess.

Sacerdote: I also think, just to add to Jesse’s point and a little bit more on the ground, the decisions that we make from a product perspective is, there’s obviously all the tools to better manage social media, to put more content on all the platforms. Every single day we talk to companies that are creating a better way to email fans and things like that. It is very important to us that we improve, not just to Jesse’s point, visibility and ownership and control and agency and access to all of these things. But to do so in a way that actually saves the artist’s time, saves the artist’s energy, because those are the two things that they need to create music. So again we just always want to default and gravitate towards helping the artist afford to make music and afford to live off of their art. And us putting more tools in front of them isn’t necessarily the solution. And so we’re spending a lot of time talking and directly building with artists. We have already artists that are enrolled in Artist Home and using it today because we just want to make sure that it’s not another platform that they need to log onto and manage in the 15 minutes of admin time that they have during the day because they’re busy working at a coffee shop and then trying to book some gigs at night.