“In a dramatic shift in the way cultural institutions communicate with their audiences, arts groups across the country are increasingly cutting out the middleman and publishing news stories written by in-house journalists,” writes Peggy McGlone in Friday’s (10/31) Washington Post. “The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra published a story on its Web site about young composers using crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, while the Web sites of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center featured profiles of pianist Yuja Wang and actress Tovah Feldshuh.… Deborah Rutter, who became head of the Kennedy Center in September, was at the helm in Chicago when the orchestra launched ‘Sounds & Stories’ in December.… ‘The ability to tell one’s own story is really important,’ Rutter says. ‘It’s about deepening relationships between audiences and performing arts organizations.’ … With cuts in coverage at newspapers … and an explosion of arts blogs and Web sites … having a professional writer on staff ensures both quality and effective targeting of the message.” At the Baltimore Symphony’s “BSO Stories,” recent pieces included “a musician’s first-person account of getting her child to practice.… In the spring, a quiz titled ‘What musical instrument are you?’ went viral.”
Posted November 4, 2014
