TOOLS TO HELP SPREAD Arts and CULTURE

Arts and Culture during a pandemic and beyond

ABSTRACT

This document is an open source collection of inspirational tools and platforms to help organizations spread their arts and culture digitally.

European Festivals Association, started up by Claudia Druwé, EFA intern, 17 March 2020

Contents

Introduction        1

Tools to help organizers communicate with their audiences        1

Streaming        1

Best practices        3

Financial support for organizations from local governments        5

Tools for teams        6

Meetings and webinars        6

Tools to help your team work from home        7

Introduction

This document is meant to be a source of inspiration for festival organizers and other people who work in the cultural sector to help spread our precious arts and culture during this difficult time. We would like to make this document an open source list of tools that can be useful during the current pandemic and beyond, so please feel free to add to this document and to contribute to the digital spread of culture.

We have divided this document into two parts:

  • a first part to help organizers communicate with their audiences, with tools for live streaming and inspirational stories from other organizers and artists
  • a second part to help organizations communicate with each other and their teams, with tools for webinars and online meetings and a list with information on financial support from different countries’ governments.

We hope this document can become a tool to inspire you to find creative solutions for the unique problems we are now facing and we are eagerly looking forward to seeing your contributions to this tool.

Tools to help organizers communicate with their audiences

Streaming

These tools can be used to stream events like concerts, videos or meetings when you don’t necessarily need or want watcher participation. Feel free to add more tools or to add reviews to your favorite tools!

Facebook Live

https://www.facebook.com/facebookmedia/solutions/facebook-live

Facebook Live is a feature of the Facebook social network that uses the camera on a computer or mobile device to broadcast real-time video to Facebook. Live broadcasters can decide who on Facebook can see their video and use this content to engage their audience during the moments and events that are important to them.

Why are marketers getting so excited about Facebook Live? Because it's a fun and fairly simple way for them to use the power of video to communicate their brand stories, and build authentic relationships with fans and followers -- in real time.

However, for such a simple concept, Facebook Live has a lot of little nuances that marketers will need to learn if they want to get the most out of the platform. This guide will help you learn the best tricks that can make a big difference in how many people see your live broadcast, how they engage with it, and how it performs. (Bernazzani, 2020)

Youtube Live

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4R8DWoMoI7CAwX8_LjQHig

YouTube Live is an easy way to reach your audience in real time. Whether you're streaming a video game, hosting a live Q&A or teaching a class, our tools will help you manage your stream and interact with viewers in real time.

There are a few ways you can live stream on YouTube. Here's a quick overview:

Webcam: Live streaming via webcam is an easy way to go live without the need for an encoder. Start streaming from your laptop/desktop computer using your webcam.

Mobile: Streaming on mobile lets you stream from the YouTube app. Note: to be able to live stream on mobile, you need to have at least 1,000 subscribers.

Encoder streaming: Encoders allow you to capture content, including your desktop, camera, microphone and more, and send it to YouTube Live to be streamed to all your fans. Encoder streaming is best for live streams that broadcast your gameplay, use external audio/video hardware, involve multiple cameras, etc.

Simple: These options are great for beginners, or if you want to quickly go live. (Youtube, 2020)

Here’s a handy guide for the different possibilities.

A big advantage of Youtube live is that it has a more professional feel and that you can keep the video on your channel after your livestream has ended. That way you can still share it on other platforms.

Instagram Live

https://help.instagram.com/292478487812558

Instagram Live is the ultimate tool you can use to engage with your audience in real-time using live videos. It’s perfect for sharing personal experiences and creating “exclusivity” with your followers.

Every time you go on Live, there’s a notification that’s sent to your followers that you’re broadcasting live.

At the end of your Instagram Live, you can save it to your story and by adding hashtags, and location stickers, you’ll make the post discoverable to new people who don’t follow you! (Laurence, 2020)

Instagram Live is a great tool to use if you want to reach a younger audience.

Vimeo Livestream

https://livestream.com/

Vimeo Livestream is another streaming tool that lets you simultaneously stream your live events via social media, embedded on your site, and anywhere else your audience is tuned in – all from Vimeo.

This means that you can livestream via the Vimeo website and have your video play on your website, Facebook page, Instagram page, Twitter, etc. all at the same time, which allows you to reach many more people at the same time and target a lot of different audiences.

The interface looks professional, but is very easy to use and to customize.

This streaming platform also allows you to create more participant interaction via live Q&A, live polls, audience chat, email capture, and custom calls-to-action. You can also keep an eye on everything in real-time with advanced analytics. (Vimeo, 2020)


Some best practices

Here are some creative ideas for communication with your audiences. Again, feel free to add more tools or to add reviews to your favorite tools!

Virtual tours and concerts

Stuck at Home? These 12 Famous Museums Offer Virtual Tours You Can Take on Your Couch (Video)

Metropolitan Opera, After Shutting Its Doors, Will Offer Free Streams From Live in HD Catalog

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER OPEN DIGITAL CONCERT HALL

The Digital Concert Hall now free for everyone

South Korea is offering free concerts online to help people get through coronavirus

St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion tour

The pianist Igor Levit films himself making music - and meets an enthusiastic online audience. Impressions from yesterday's Twitter concert.

Vienna State Opera to Offer Daily Live Streams From its Opera Archives

From us to you, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

Paris Opera broadcasting screening performances online for free

London Symphony Orchestra #AlwaysPlaying

London’s home of dance, Sadler’s Wells, is streaming shows and workshops for free 

The National Theatre is going to stream a free play every Thursday night

Geniet van onze opera’s en balletten vanuit je woonkamer

Lucerne Festival Orchestra streamt nun Konzerte ins Wohnzimmer

Coronavirus : le Bolchoï diffuse ses meilleurs spectacles sur YouTube à partir de vendredi

When festivals go online 

Opera online - De Munt

Lauren Zhang performs Liszt’s Réminiscences de Norma   

The Globe is streaming a Shakespeare play for free every fortnight (and 34 foreign-language productions)

Schedule. 

LUCERNE FESTIVAL on medici.tv 

 

Communities and virtual festivals

The Social Distancing Festival

GIFT Festival

Reconnect Performance Festival 

Festspillene Bergen: Festspillkatalogen 2020

OPEN Rotterdam Festival TV

Shibiu Performing Arts Market #online

2020 National Arts Festival

Brunnenpassage 

Virtual Fusebox Festival 

 

Articles and lists

1,150 Free Movies Online: Great Classics, Indies, Noir, Westerns, etc.

9 Podcasts That Inspire Cultural Awareness

Cultural survival kit: home entertainment to while away the hours

5 Must-Read Culture Books

30 Books Everyone Should Read At Least Once In Their Lives

21 Books You've Been Meaning To Read

The 40 best albums to listen to before you die

Movies everyone should see

11 Globally-Focused Documentaries That Expand Our Horizons & Educate Us About The World

10 Must-Watch Art Documentaries

6 Inspiring Art Documentaries to Spark Your Creativity
Festivals On Demand – High culture in High Definition

Covid-19’s impact on the European museum sector

Coronavirus Pandemic: Theatres in Europe Urge Support from EU and Member States

Er moet een noodfonds komen voor de culturele sector

KEAEuropeanAffairs working from home

A Bozar, nous voulons soutenir les artistes mis en quarantaine

Theatres create first online programmes of new work in response to Covid-19

Gents initiatief: elke dag om 11.55 uur een portie cultuur op Facebook

Effect of COVID-19 on Creative Europe and the European CCS

Open call to a home residency for artists

Gulbenkian launches 5 million euros Emergency Fund

Artists fight together against the pandemia

Performing arts in times of the pandemic: status quo and the way forward

Sziget Festival > Open Call for Living Statue Artists (Hungary)

Gamma Festival > Open Call for Gamma_LAB XR (Russia) 

2020 Fringe announcement from Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive

The Coronavirus Hasn't Slowed Classical Music

Open Call for Creative Digital Arts Festival 2020 (South Africa) 

Rescue the arts: plea to national governments

Culture is, undoubtedly, part of the solution

Festival of Nothing 2020: the non-existent art shows helping the Czech culture scene in quarantine   

Ramp voltrekt zich in culturele wereld: verlies van 969 miljoen euro aan omzet

On Coronavirus Lockdown? Look for Meaning, Not Happiness

Impact of COVID-19 on the Street Arts, Circus and Spectacle sector

International Festival chief says it's time to end 'never-ending growth' and reconnect with people of Edinburgh

Mediales Ereignis und emotionale Größe: Bachs „Johannes-Passion“ aus der Thomaskirche Leipzig     

ResiliArt: Artists and Creativity beyond Crisis

Should I stay or should I go: how coronavirus is jeopardising music festivals

Das wäre das Ende der Kulturnation Deutschland, wie wir sie kennen

Coronavirus (COVID-19) and cultural and creative sectors: impact, innovations and planning for post-crisis 

Artists and culture to imagine the way out of the crisis

#COVID-19 #ExitStrategy for #Orchestras

Online Tools for Working Remotely

Der Mensch ist mehr als eine abwaschbare Oberfläche

Als kunst ooit de wereld kan genezen, is het vandaag

Verspielt nicht die Musik: 40 Musikfestivals melden sich zu Wort.

 

 



Financial support for organizations from local governments

Some countries are offering support to the cultural sector. Feel free to add your country + a link to a webpage to this list.

You can also add to or check out this collaborative map by KEA to help track measures for artists taken by governments all over the world.

Country

Info link

Belgium

Coronavirus: antwoord op jouw meest gestelde vragen | Agentschap Innoveren en Ondernemen

Germany

Economic battle plan in Germany

Netherlands

Veelgestelde vragen over coronavirus voor werkgevers en ondernemers

Canada

https://nowtoronto.com/music/national-arts-centre-facebook-livestream-grant/?fbclid=IwAR0nU_FitHV-xeoVrOv2NdIBGfc_SdxsQr287nlhF5mWACKGIgEH4U51AUU

Malta

COVID-19

Add your country...

Add a link...


Tools for teams

These tools are meant to make working from home and communicating with a team from a distance as easy as being in the office together. Stay safe and stay at home! Again, feel free to add more tools or to add reviews to your favorite tools!

Meetings and webinars

EverWebinar

https://home.everwebinar.com/index

EverWebinar is a powerful webinar automation tool that aims to help you build email marketing lists with a purpose. With EverWebinar, you can schedule and automate your webinar footage to play at set intervals and the software aims to recreate the live experience for users.

The goal is to increase engagement and attendance by telling users the next webinar is about to begin, even if you choose to replay it a dozen times per day.

Features:

  • Automate webinars: Schedule webinar to replay at set times throughout the day – eg: every hour.
  • Just-In-Time Webinars: Tells users there’s a webinar just about to start, encouraging them to sign up on the spot.
  • Block night-time viewing: Stops playing your webinar through the night to keep the illusion of live webinars realistic.
  • Block dates: Stop your webinar from playing on any desired date or holiday.
  • Time zone auto-detection: Automatically sets your webinar plays to different time zones so you only have to schedule things once.
  • Free training: In-depth resources on creating webinars and using EverWebinar.
  • Integration: EverWebinar is designed to build email leads and integrates with email ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, MailChimp and other email marketing platforms.
  • Analytics: Insights on the performance of your webinar strategy. (Brooks, 2020)

Zoom

https://www.zoom.us/home?zcid=2478

Zoom is a general purpose video conferencing tool that caters to business meetings, collaboration and dedicated webinar solutions. There’s no webinar automation available with Zoom, but you get a reliable system for an incredibly modest price tag if all you need is live webinar hosting. Low prices come at a cost, though, and there’s very little in the way of webinar marketing features with Zoom.

Features:

  • Interactive: Up to 100 interactive video participants for webinars with large panels of speakers.
  • Integration: Broadcast your webinars to Facebook Live and YouTube.
  • Controls: Mute/unmute speakers for full control over participants.
  • Interactive: Polls, Q&As and live chat for engaging viewers.
  • Closed captioning: Provide text captions for hard-of-hearing audiences or people using devices on mute.

As a video conferencing platform, Zoom is a feature-rich platform that’ll meet the needs of most corporate businesses. As a webinar tool it caters well to live broadcasts, especially if you have a large panel of speakers waiting for their turn to speak. (Brooks, 2020)

ClickMeeting

ClickMeeting is another dedicated webinar tool and it pretty much offers all the features you would expect at this stage. The only major thing lacking is the automated relay feature, once again – but you can record webinars and download them for sharing.

Features:

  • Subaccounts: Assign webinar duties to different individuals in your team.
  • Customisation: Customised invitations, branded webinars and “waiting rooms”.
  • Recordings: Record your webinars, download and share with whoever you want.
  • Engagement: Engage viewers with dynamic presentations, interactive whiteboard, videos and live chat.
  • Analytics: Reports and analytics on your webinar attendance rates and other metrics. (Brooks, 2020)

Skype for Business

https://www.capterra.com/p/168391/Skype-for-Business/#features

For meetings where you don’t need audience participation in the form of Q&A’s or live polls, skype is a solid option.

It is a trusted video conference tool that is easy to use and that can be installed on any computer, but it lacks a lot of call functions. You can only use audio, video and chat.

Skype

Of course there is also the normal Skype, which most people are familiar with and which is free to use.

Tools to help your team work from home

G Suite

https://www.google.com/nonprofits/offerings/apps-for-nonprofits/

G Suite is a set of integrated apps that let organizations use their own domain and be more productive, collaborative, and secure. With popular tools like Gmail, Calendar, and Docs, employees can work from anywhere, on any device, and focus their time on making an impact. (Google, 2020)

Google is making the premium features in Google Hangouts free until 1 July because of the Corona virus! More info here:

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-hangouts-video-conferencing-free-coronavirus-zoom-2020-3?fbclid=IwAR26IunWGs2yJ2HeTu-v_pw_vU_ESbAIdLN1ZAua3qBCaG3MMMz2vjfJKYU&r=US&IR=T

Slack

https://slack.com/intl/en-be/

Slack is a meeting space, water-cooler, bulletin board, and phone-tree for your whole organizing team. It’s a great place to coordinate and collaborate, and a fun place to get to know your fellow organizers and activists, even when you can’t all be in the same room at the same time. It’s a tool that you can use on your computer and your phone to stay in touch with your team, and keep everyone up to date with the important news and goings-on.

No app is going to be totally magic. Slack might work for your team’s work style, and it might not. But it’s definitely worth checking out.

Slack is like a chatroom for your whole team. It is a computer application that was created as a way for organizations to communicate both as a group and in personal one-on-one discussions. You can communicate as a group through channels or privately via “direct messaging.” It is an awesome tool to help you organize! Slack makes communicating easy and fun. (Ragtag, 2020)

Microsoft Teams

https://teams.microsoft.com/start

Microsoft Teams is a hub for teamwork in Office 365. Keep all your team's chats, meetings, files, and apps together in one place. (Microsoft, 2020)