It's no secret the Old Media model broke some time ago (it's why you're reading this now). But New Media still isn't fully fixed, and the field is wide open to more bright ideas. Case in point: ArtSpotMiami, which aims to do for our town's arts what Spot.us does for the nation. Niteside caught ASM's Nicole Martinez in advance of Saturday's Awarehouse launch party and asked her to explain.
What, in a nutshell, is ArtSpotMiami? ArtSpotMiami is hyper-local, hyper focused, community funded arts journalism in Miami. We seek to unite our community, support the arts and arts journalism, and give the community the power to choose what is newsworthy.
Who is working with you on the startup? I'm joined by George Fishman, host of the Mosaic of Art interview program, as project partner. The University of Miami Motion Picture Program has also enthusiastically agreed to partner with ArtSpot, with help from Associate Professor and award winning cinematographer Ed Talavera. My company, Creative Catalyst, is also a partner.
What made you all decide to launch such a enterprise? ArtSpotMiami is actually the product of a brainstorming session at WLRN. We were tackling the problem of lack of resources and content. We looked to Spot.us as a successful Knight Foundation-backed open source model for community-funded journalism and thought we might re-package that for Miami in a hyper-local form.
How does the Knight Foundation fit in? Knight/NEA has partnered for the first time for the Community Arts Journalism Challenge. They've chosen finalists from five cities around the country; three will go on to phase two. Phase one grants a small award to develop a business plan. Phase two grants a larger award to realize the project over as many years. We've gone well beyond the requirements for phase one and have actually created a prototype website; still under under construction to be officially launched this Saturday. We've also commissioned artist 131 to paint an ArtSpot mural at Awarehouse. We sincerely hope that our efforts will win us our place among the three winners.
Care to fill us in on Saturday's launch party? This Saturday we will launch the website and unveil the mural at Awarehouse in a public press event. Y Diz will be performing and spinning. We hoped to be joined by all of Miami's publishers, journalists, artists, gallerists, and enthusiasts as we join together to produce more arts content; a feat that would benefit us all.
ArtSpotMiami launches Saturday November 26 4 to 8pm at Awarehouse 550 NW 29th St Wynwood.
